Yesterday was like a scene out of a movie.
It was the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented in front of the largest crowd at a sporting event since the pandemic began. Pair that along with an absolutely perfect 70 degree day, a stunning pre-race ceremony, and Hélio Castroneves climbing the fence?
Then you’ve got yourself a day for the ages.
Hélio’s win means so much more even on top of joining the elite club of Al Unser Sr, A.J. Foyt, and Rick Mears as four-time champions.
It felt like the world was normal at 16th and Georgetown on Sunday afternoon. People were happy; And the racing was as good as we’ve ever seen.
It was also a solid day for Michael Shank and the rest of the folks at Meyer Shank Racing. Shank jumped on The Ride with JMV and told John that when the team signed Castroneves, this was exactly what they had in mind.
“The debate at the time of signing him was do we go with the younger kid that we want to develop for our future or bring someone along that can bring our program up and help Jack Harvey,” Shank said. “Helio drove for me in some sport car racing in the late 2000s, and what he put on in the last 50 laps of that race, he was dissecting Alex Palou. He out chess-matched him.”
Dissecting.
What a word to use, because that’s truly what happened. Hélio was on Palou like a lion in the wild.
That’s not to say Palou finishing second wasn’t impressive. Palou is going to win a lot of NTT IndyCar Series races.
But yesterday belonged to Castroneves. Right from the very start.
Subscribe to The Ride with JMV Podcast
