It's that time of year again!  Memorial Day Weekend!

Fire up your grills and grab a favorite beverage and sit back and watch (first the F1 Monaco Grand Prix), the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (and finally the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte that evening!)!

I'm sad to say I'll not be attending the 500 this year.  Just doesn't work out!  BUT it is completely sold out!  There will be over 300,000 stuffed into the grand ole track this Sunday!  One of the greatest races on the planet because of its history alone!  I will also admit, I haven't watched much Indy Car this season, so this is a rough entry this year!

The field of 33 cars was set this past weekend with a shocking result at the top as Israeli born, 25-year-old rookie Robert Shwartzman shocked the paddock as he outpaced the field with a four-lap average of 232.790 mph in his upstart Perma Racing Chevrolet!  Incredible really!  He is the first rookie to start on pole since Teo Fabi did so 43 years ago in 1983!  He is only the 4th rookie to ever start on pole in this the 109th running of the race!  Wow!

Shwartzman will be joined on the front row by 2-time winner Takuma Sato (RLL Racing) and Pato O'Ward (Arrow McLaren).

Scott Dixon (1-time winner) and his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou sit in Row 2 with Felix Rosenqvist.

Other notable names include:  Helio Castroneves the 4-time winner starting 22nd; and Marco Andretti starting 29th.

But the second-best story after Shwartzman has to be Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, attempting to be the 5th driver to run both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day!  Only 4 drivers have successfully completed both races with Tony Stewart being the only one to complete all 600 laps and 1,100 miles!  INCREDIBLE!  Count me in on pulling for Kyle Larson at both venues on Sunday!  To attempt "The Double" as it's called, is what this level of competition is all about!

I'll pick my winner a little later in the week!  For those who would like to see the grid for the 500, you can find that here:

 The complete starting grid for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500

 

I give Fox a lot of credit.  Since they have Indycar this year they are really, really pushing it.  They are broadcasting First Things First live from Indy and all the practice has been on FS1 and FS2 in addition to some on Fox.

Like you 88, I am pulling for Larson.  

And this, Sunday is going to be a great day for racing:

Fire up your grills and grab a favorite beverage and sit back and watch (first the F1 Monaco Grand Prix), the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (and finally the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte that evening!)!

When you're driving 500 miles in a race car, anything can happen.  Well for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing it had a lot of that in the following happened early:

Scott McLaughlin crashed on the warm-up lap while swerving to get heat in his tires. Scott Dixon had a brake fire before the race went green and then Marco Andretti was crashed on the first lap.  Alexander Rossi went to pit road as his car became enflamed and spread to his fueler catching fire too.  Rinus VeeKay crashed on pit road and pole sitter Robert Shwartzman lost control in the pits and hit his crew members.

On the next restart, Kyle Larson, who was attempting to complete "the Double" (driving in the Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 on the same day ended sadly being simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as he was collected in a 3 car collision, but it did allow Larson time to get to the airport to get to Charlotte for the 600.  But he didn't finish there either.  Tough day.  But I think you have to pay the racing gods in advance in order to do well with that tall order.  If he comes back next year, I think he does much better.  Just my opinion.

I caught up to the race about the halfway point with former winner Ryan Hunter Reay in the lead.  That was kind of odd I thought as he hadn't had much success this season but looked back up and he pitted and was out.  Then Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward and Santino Ferrucci led a line of charging cars, but the last two cars on the lead lap Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco were actually ahead of the lead pack and that lead pack was on older tires, so the aerodynamics were tough for that group and less passing opportunities.  But with 14 laps to go, Alex Palou went low in turn 1 and passed Ericsson for the final time as no real opportunity to pass happened after that.

 

Congratulations to the first Spaniard to ever win the Indy 500 Alex Palou.  He stopped on near the start/finish line and ran down the main straight to his crew who were running over to meet him in jubilant celebration.  Pretty cool scene!

I'm surprised that Nascar & IRL can't work together to make things just a little easier on Sundays to allow someone to run the double.  Maybe start the Indy 500 at noon.  And I'm disappointed that Nascar decided to institute the "Larson Rule" this year.  Talk about head in the sand.

Especially for someone like Larson who legitimately has a shot, albeit an outside one, to win or at least do very well in both.

And he is the current ambassador for motorsports in general, because let's face it, put him behind the wheel of anything, he's got a shot to win.