Without one shadow of a doubt, the drama and intensity of Bump Day for the Indianapolis 500 mile race came back in a way yesterday like many didn’t think would. The new format including the Last Row Shootout for the final row had a great look to it on paper, but many, including myself, wanted to see how the on track look would be. My gosh did it deliver in ways that were not imagined. The Last Row Shootout is PURE GOLD.
For ones that didnt get to see it….
The new format was to be a one shot, 4 laps, leave it all on the track style shootout, which raised my eyebrows from here to the moon. You had drivers the likes of Sage Karam, Max Chilton, Kyle Kaiser, Patricio O’Ward along with James Hinchcliffe and 2 time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso. The latter 2 drivers had everyone anxious. James Hinchcliffe in my opinion was a surefire lock, and I had the feeling Fernando Alonso would be as well. When the NBCSN team reported on the broadcast that a Penske setup, along with Andretti Autosport suspension components were on Alonso’s McLaren entry I said to myself he definitely should be okay, after the appearance of the Carlin Racing technical alliance was a massive failure. When Alonso laid a 4 lap average down of 227.35 down, comparing it to Hinch’s average of 227.5..natural thought is to be he’s good. Now here comes Sage Karam……
After he threw down a 227.7 average…..Indy went on edge wondering if Alonso would get bumped or not. O’Ward and his 4 lap average wasn’t going to cut it only being a 226.8. In the old biblical terms of David vs.Goliath, we were getting that very setup. Juncos Racing and Kyle Kaiser were on deck. They had rebuilt their car in 1 day after Kaiser crashed and destroyed it. Many thought that after they had struggled to get up to speed, only topping 225 before the crash, they were not gonna make it. Kaiser and Ricardo Juncos then proceeded to have the greatest ” hold my beer” moment that I can remember in a while at Indianapolis. 4 laps later, he had an average of 227.37, besting the world powerhouse of McLaren by .020 mph. The little engine that could took down the high speed bullet train at Indy. Later, in what I consider an admirable move by Fernando Alonso, he rejected an offer from McLaren to have a ride bought so he could drive after the team failed him in epic proportions. In his words, ” Its not fair to take another persons seat that has EARNED their spot in the race.” From a driver, that’s called keeping pure class in an embarrassing situation. McLaren didn’t have their stuff together this time for Indy, unlike 2017 when the alliance with Andretti paid off for them until the engine failure occurred. So McLaren, considering you have a Team Principal in the likes of Gil DeFerran in your corner, id utilize him a million times more that it appears you did and have your stuff better in line and better alliances formed before you roll out the Orange and Blue #66 again so you save your driver a lot of embarrassment.