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IN Driver’s Eye included James Hinchcliffesix o’clock INDYCAR the winner will put you in the mind of a racer as you break down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Speedway, Ind.) — The long wait is finally over. And the wait started minutes after the checkered flag fell on Alex Palou’s 2025 Indianapolis 500 victory.
32 drivers are eagerly awaiting another chance to add their name to the list of those immortalized by winning The Great Spectacle in Racing. A driver wants to defend his title as the 500 champion.
Held in the greatest sporting arena on earth, the Indy 500 is Sunday’s 110th race since 1911, and it’s the most important race for any driver privileged enough to attempt to compete in it. When you stack all of these things on top of each other, it’s no surprise that the Indy 500 amplifies every emotion a driver feels.
As a driver, you know winning this race changes everything. Your life will never be the same, and you feel that in every lap you make here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You also know that the team has spent countless hours preparing and driving the car.
Leading any INDYCAR race always feels good, but nothing compares to the thrill of leading the Indy 500.
Me leading the field to start the 2016 Indianapolis 500. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
When you take the lead at Indy for the first time, you can’t help but smile inside your helmet. You can almost hear the crowd cheering through the engine noise. Your heart rate increases and the adrenaline pumps harder.
I remember leading the 2016 race into Turn 1 at the start and you could see the stands come alive.
After two weeks of staring at them as they drove down the front line, mostly empty and gray, suddenly they’re this vibrant, colorful living thing. The view will take your breath away… for a second! Then you have to focus back on the corner coming at you at 220 miles per hour.
Qualifying on pole, leading laps and of course winning the race just means so much more here at IMS. This place really makes drivers experience the highest peaks.
But… it comes with the obvious caveat.
For each increased positive feeling, the negative ones hit and leave you breathless in a completely different, soul-crushing way. A bad Indy 500 stays with you that much longer and weighs a lot more on your mind. It is one of the hardest things to get over.
My rookie year I crashed in the Indy 500 right at the halfway mark. When I lost control and hit the wall, my heart sank lower than ever in my career.
I was desperate at that moment to invent a way to turn back time with my mind. Just a few seconds, nothing crazy. There was almost a refusal to accept what had just happened. But when it finally set in, the sense of devastation for a driver is unparalleled.
Whether you crash mid-race like me, or with a handful of laps to go like Pato O’Ward in 2023, or before the green flag even dropped like Scott McLaughlin last year, the feeling is the worst you can experience emotionally as an INDYCAR driver.
Dejected Scott McLaughlin after destroying the pace ahead of the 2025 Indy 500. (Photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The highest of highs can only happen in the same place that gives you the lowest of lows.
Second place at any other track is a decent day. Second place at Indy is a fiery dagger in the heart.
You only need to look at footage of the drivers who have finished second in recent years to understand. A picture is worth a thousand words, and those clips are novels about pain and disappointment.
That said, as painful as the results can be, as low as these lows are, any driver will gladly stare that pain in the face for a chance to feel the glory.
SOUNDS LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT
Drivers and their teams during a pit stop at the 2025 Indianapolis 500. (Photo by Phillip G. Abbott/Lumen via Getty Images)
We all know that racing is a team sport – from the manufacturers back in the shop, to the truck drivers, commercial staff, PR, mechanics, engineers and on and on – and nowhere is that more on display than at Indy. We’ve already talked about all the hard work that goes back into the shop in the build-up to the month of May, and then if you’re lucky enough to qualify for the race, the real high-pressure stuff starts.
In a typical INDYCAR race, we’re usually talking about the debate between two and three stops. At the Indy 500, there could be six, seven or maybe eight stops. This means that exceptional performance in the pit lane is a must for a team to win.
Teams will spend extra hours practicing perfect pit stops for the Indy 500.
On Carb Day there is even the official Pit Stop competition, which is a huge source of pride for the teams that go over the wall. These crews will work with physical trainers and sometimes mental trainers to try and maximize their performance on race day.
Marcus Armstrong and his Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian during a stop in the 2025 Indy 500. (Photo by Brett Farmer/Lumen via Getty Images)
[INDY 500: What Makes The Indy 500 So Hard?]
And talk about a high pressure environment. Hanging tires, filling fuel and working the air jack are all stressful tasks in their own right. But these pit crews don’t work in a quiet room or even in a wide open field. They are in a concrete alley with race cars flying by at 60 miles an hour and everyone is trying to beat each other off the pit lane.
The fact that these crew members are all exposed to 30 or more cars traveling at freeway speeds mere inches from their largely unprotected bodies—they’re wearing fire suits and helmets—certainly raises the temperature in the pressure cooker.
And like the drivers, pit crews know that any small mistake or hiccup can cost them their chance at glory.
So just know that when you see a driver drinking their celebratory choice of milk in Victory Lane, all the team members celebrating with them played an equally big part.
MY VIEW ON THE INDY 500
I have been lucky enough to experience the Indy 500 from three distinctly different seats.
First as a fan. When I was a kid I watched this race and cheered on my heroes. And not only was it a fun and entertaining way to spend a Sunday in May, but I also felt, even then, that it was a great way to bond with friends and family. It was always a great opportunity to get together with people you care about and cheer on the same driver (or not!) and be able to say, “I watched as that driver’s life changed.”
Me, high-fiving fans at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2018. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Then, of course, my 11 years as an INDYCAR driver gave me a whole different appreciation for this event. To have played a small part in the history of this great breed is an immense pride. The history of this event is unmatched in the world of racing and there is no doubt that is why it means so much to any driver lucky enough to compete.
And now I get to be part of the event in a completely different way as a broadcaster. It is a real privilege to help tell the story to the millions of people watching at home about what happens on the track and ultimately what it means.
There are many parts of the race that I love. Many traditions that I find incredible. As a fan, a driver or a broadcaster, the best part of it changed and evolved for me, but I will always hold this race very close to my heart.
1 TO THE ROAD
Alexander Rossi before qualifying for the 2026 Indy 500. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
If you needed more proof that INDYCAR drivers are modern gladiators, look no further than Alexander Rossi.
After a great performance in qualifying, putting himself and his team P2, he suffered injuries in a Monday practice crash. He had to have surgery on his left hand and right foot. And despite crashing at 200-plus miles per hour and having scars and metal in him that he didn’t a week ago, he plans to suit up and still compete in the 110th running of the Indy 500 from the middle of the front row.
No fear. No hesitation. Just a determined desire to return to victory lane where he stood 10 years ago after winning as a rookie.
Everyone likes a comeback story and this one would be worthy of a Hollywood script.
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