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May is always one of the busiest months on the sports calendar. Its marquee events include the Kentucky Derby, the NHL and NBA playoffs, and, of course, the Indianapolis 500.

This May was different. No playoffs, no race, and a virtual Derby.

Now there’s some doubt as to whether The Greatest Spectacle in Racing will be held at all. The current plan is to run the Indy 500 on August 23rd, but track owner Roger Penske has mentioned October as an alternative if health and city officials won’t allow fans to attend at that time. Penske made one thing quite clear: no crowd, no 500.

Dan Dakich asked veteran driver Scott Dixon, winner of Saturday’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, what he thinks of all the uncertainty surrounding IndyCar’s signature event.

“I think it’s just hard to know,” Dixon said on Monday’s Dan Dakich Show. “Obviously, Roger [Penske] is leading us [during] this kinda crazy time. He’s super smart. He has great people around him. I think any decision that he makes is the right decision, basically. I love that he’s kinda sticking to his guns.”

It’s hard to imagine that 2020 could be the first year without a 500 since 1945.

“…The 500 with no fans would just be very, very strange,” Dixon said. “So hopefully that is a possibility. That’s all we’re shooting for, man. Hopefully that becomes a normal thing that we can have people back by that time. We’ll just have to wait and see. But Roger is a smart guy and always makes the right moves.”

There are still so many unknowns, but the 104th Running of the Indy 500 promises to go down in history, regardless of the outcome.

 

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