Drivers Trade in their Fire Suits for Tuxedos for the Indy 500 Victory Celebration
The Indy 500 has many traditions. The singing of “Back Home Again”, the kissing the bricks, the drinking the milk, the list goes on and on. But there is one item that falls at the bottom of the chronological list.
Long after the fans have left the speedway and the cars have fallen silent, there is one more ceremony that must be undergone before we officially start that long wait until next May: The Indy 500 Victory Celebration.
About five miles from the track in downtown Indianapolis, drivers don their best suits, prepare their eloquent speeches, and settle in for a night of celebration. Jokes are told, checks are handed out, and awards are given. So strap in for one last Indy 500 custom as we dive into the highlights of the evening.
Brandon Pederson: Rookie of the Year
This award was very controversial last year when Jimmy Johnson took home the award even though he didn’t complete the 500 miles and had four fellow rookies finish ahead of him.
This year it wasn’t much of a controversy for the award to be given to Pederson. Coming into the month not much was expected from Brandon Pederson, or AJ Foyt Racing. But, to everyone’s surprise they unloaded absolute rocket ships. All of us had our mouths gaped open in shock when not only AJ Foyt driver Santino Ferrucci put up the second fastest time on the first day of qualifying, but Brandon Pederson snuck into the top 12 as well.
When the actual race came the following week, however, Pederson had a pretty quiet day until crashing with Ed Carpenter in the final laps. But with so little competition for Rookie of the Year this year and his opponents for the award (Sting Ray Robb and Augustin Canapino) also crashing out, the award was obviously going to be his.
Lasting Contention Between O’Ward and Ericsson
Probably the most interesting speech from the night came from O’Ward who was clear to express just how thrilled he was that Josef Newgarden ended up in victory lane, “Josef, I was very, very happy to see you win this race”.
It is pretty obvious who O’Ward preferred out of the two drivers who were fighting for the win at the end of the race. Spoiler Alert: it wasn’t Ericsson. After being caught up in the turn 3 incident on Sunday, Pato made one thing clear on Monday: he wasn’t letting it go.
Other Notables
Other interesting tidbits were sprinkled throughout the evening.
Kyle Kirkwood revealed that he experienced 80 g’s in his scary accident with Rosenqvist in Turn 2.
Marco Andretti made the outlandish claim that he was going to one-up his grandfather, Mario, by running 30 Indy 500’s to Mario’s 29.
Connor Daly jokingly broke the news that Josef Newgarden is going to be the first driver to not only have his face on the Borg-Warner trophy, but his abs as well. This is undoubtedly poking fun at Josef’s appearance on CW’s “100 Days to Indy” series where Josef worked out in slow motion for what amounted to 3 minutes of the show’s runtime.
So that puts the final cap on the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500. The countdown officially begins for the 108th running next year. At the time of me writing this we currently stand at 362 days, 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 10 seconds until the 108th drop of the green flag…but who’s counting?
