The stars aligned for the 500 Festival parade, which promised a fairly high celebrity quotient and did not disappoint. Floats and cars, bands and marchers—they all moved swimmingly along the route that started on Pennsylvania Street downtown, wounded around Washington Street and Monument Circle, and then proceeded up Meridian Street.
Dan Wheldon was going to save IndyCar. That was the premise with which I set out to write an early-season profile of the Brit in the spring of 2005. He was 26, dapper, handsome, and quotable in a sneering, “like-it-or-lump-it” attitude that seemed about as sincere as his insistence that he only drank Red Bull and Jim Beam, his sponsor. He was coming off his first full season, having won three races and finished second in points, and sitting at a table in the back of his trailer for an interview the night before the first race in Homestead, hair spiked stiff, slacks immaculately pressed. He flashed a snaggle-toothed grin and agreed that, “Yeah, a good piece is exactly what the sport needs,” to get fans on board.
This past winter was a tragic one for IndyCar. The loss of my friend Dan Wheldon pushed race officials to place a renewed emphasis on improving safety in IndyCar, and as we approach the high-speed Indianapolis 500 with an all-new Dallara chassis, the need for those improvements to be effective becomes more urgent than ever.
Wow, the last three weeks have been a whirlwind. I’ve put so many hours into practicing, qualifying, and traveling for media obligations, I’ve barely had time to do my laundry! I had no idea what I was in for with time commitments out of the car, and I have a new level of appreciation for the other guys who have competed in the Indianapolis 500 for multiple years.
Fresh-faced IndyCar star JR Hildebrand—a rookie no more, and not yet a veteran—takes the wheel in Indy Monthly’s May issue. The 24-year-old suffered a series of maladies, both physical and personal, in 2011. “These things happen in auto racing,” says a member of Hildebrand’s team. “But everything happened to JR, and I mean everything, in one year.”
Speedway big-timers Johnny Rutherford, Helio Castrovenes, and Arie Luyendyk, Sr. came out last night for the 13th-annual Racing to Recovery Gala at the Dallara IndyCar Factory in Speedway, to help raise money for the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. If we’re honest, the term “gala” seems a little too fancy—it felt more like a friendly family reunion, as smiling Indy drivers (including Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, and Davey Hamilton) mingled easily with the avid racing fans and foundation supporters in attendance.
JR Hildebrand spotted the starter’s white flag. “Bring it home, baby, bring it home,” chirped the rookie’s support staff over the radio from their perch in the pits. Four left turns away from winning the 2011 Indianapolis 500, Hildebrand buried the rush of excitement. No one, he told himself, cares who leads lap No. 199 at Indy. In the ether, though, the announcer’s voice on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network was already rising. Here he goes, the final lap! Across the line, JR Hildebrand will see the white flag.
