2016 Indy 500

[Fire-medic]

Best race for an unexpected finish I've seen in quite awhile, Alexander Rossi, the 24 year old from the USA whose real interest is in Formula 1, well, he may re-think his priorities now.

What a race: he was actually in last place at one point, turned the fastest race lap (!), and executed race strategy radioed to him by Andretti Motorsports member Bryan Herta, while getting a race draft from other temamates, and then ran out of gas coming out of the final turn on lap 200, but with enough of a lead to win! Other racers stopped for a splash of gas with just a few laps to go, to ensure they could finish, but the strategy to stay on the track paid-off for Rossi. What a great coaching job, and being able to follow instructions paid off in a way Rossi and his Andretti Motorsports teammates probably never expected until the race was over.

Other past Indy 500 winners, after the race, all said essentially the same thing: his life is never gonna be the same, he's an Indy 500 winner now! And it happened in front of a sellout crowd estimated at 350,000. The local tv blackout was lifted for the first time since 1950. One for the books.

 

[MtnMax/Magniac]

He's from the little town of Grass Valley, CA, about 50 miles North of me, and I had never heard of him until this race. Who knew?

 

[Fire-medic]

When I was barely into double-digits, I used to listen to the race live broadcast on radio. Over 50 years later, the tv coverage is really good, we take for granted the on-board cameras from different points in the same car, and being on-board when someone goes into the wall, well, when I was listening to it on the radio, this is almost science fiction. Today's young fan just doesn't have any idea how it was. It was a big deal when they began broadcasting it tape-delay on the same day.