Indy 500: Yes, it stings now. But it won’t sting forever.

By Asher Fair | May 24, 2020

Indy 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /

Memorial Day Sunday isn’t quite the same without the roar of 33 engines ready to contest the Indy 500 in front of a crowd of over 300,000 fans. But it won’t sting forever.

Memorial Day Sunday: it’s a day that IndyCar fans and racing fans from all over the world look forward to. It’s the one day that features by far the largest crowd at a single-day sporting event in the world year in and year out.

It’s a day for the Purdue University Marching Band to fill the hallowed grounds of the Brickyard with pre-race tunes as the grandstands fill up and hundreds of thousands of fans crowd around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval anticipating the greatest event in all of sports.

It’s a day for America the Beautiful, for God Bless America, for a special pre-race invocation, for Taps, for fly-bys, for Back Home Again in Indiana, for the Star-Spangled Banner, for “Drivers, Start Your Engines”.

It’s a day for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

It’s not a day for the Racing Capital of the World to be completely empty.

No fans, no vendors, no drivers, no teams, no pit crew, no spotters, no Dave Calabro, no NBC broadcast crew, no “Yellow Shirts”.

Nobody.

Empty.

But it’s 2020.

And that’s exactly what 2020 has produced.

That is what the coronavirus pandemic has produced.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sunday, May 24, 2020.

Memorial Day Sunday.

Empty.

You have to be at least 75 years old to remember anything even remotely like this.

Of course, there have been Indy 500 races postponed due to rain over the years. That’s one plus about this afternoon being free from the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”; many fans have been jokingly “relieved” at not having to check the weather forecast in Speedway, Indiana every 10 minutes over the last week or so.

Because we all know how that goes.

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But that’s not much solace for the fans who have been in the grandstands for 50, 60, 70+ straight years to hear the roar of 33 engines zipping by, driven by men and women who are what many would consider out of their minds with just one goal: to drink the milk in victory lane.

It’s really not much solace for anybody.

For the diehard fans, today isn’t the only day it stings. We’ve missed out on a week of practice, two intense days of qualifying, additional practice, Carb Day, you name it.

It’s allowed to sting.

But it doesn’t sting forever.

In an unprecedented move that took place on Thursday, March 26, IndyCar made the decision to postpone this year’s running of the Indy 500 to Sunday, August 23.

IndyCar even added a race at the track’s road course on Saturday, October 3, which is believed to be a contingency date if that August date doesn’t work out for one reason or another.

IndyCar built in a week for practice as well, and the traditional two-day qualifying schedule was implemented for Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16. Notably, the week prior to Saturday, October 3 is completely free from any other races as well, if it comes to that.

Of course, there are no guarantees. Especially in this day and age, that goes without saying. Who would have ever thought we’d be here today, and that Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be empty just a few hours before the green flag was scheduled to wave?

But with NASCAR having gotten back in action successfully this past week, albeit without fans in attendance, and IndyCar set to follow in under two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway, we have reason to be optimistic about August being the new May.

So once 3:30 p.m. ET or 4:00 p.m. ET rolls around this afternoon, which is right around the time the checkered flag would typically fly and one driver would roll into victory lane an Indy 500 champion, remind yourself that this year, the Indy 500 isn’t over, and there is no 12-month wait.

The Indy 500 began back in 1911, and only six times has it not been contested since then. The race was not held in 1917 nor 1918 due to World War I, and it was not contested from 1942 to 1945 due to World War II.

But in its first 103 runnings, it has never been held outside of the month of May.

So once today passes, remember this: for the first time ever, this year, we have an Indy 500 to look forward to beyond the month of May.

And assuming the world isn’t hit with another unprecedented pandemic next year, we will only have around nine months to wait between Indy 500s for the first time in the race’s long history.

Any other year, I’m pretty sure we’d all take that.

It may take a while to set in. The sting may not go away overnight, or right at 3:30 p.m. ET or 4:00 p.m. ET today.

But as we progress through the rest of May, through June, through July and through August, just remember: we still have an Indy 500 to look forward to.

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IndyCar’s 2020 season is scheduled to get underway with an oval race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 6, marking the first time the series has opened with an oval since 2008. This race is set to be the first 300-mile race around a 1.5-mile oval since 2011. It is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET.

NBC’s live broadcast of the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway is provisionally set to begin at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, August 23.