 |
| Robin Miller always made time for his fans |
Robin Miller died, aged 71.
I awoke from a three-hour snooze to the news I wish would have waited a few more years, if not a few more decades. I knew Miller had been battling leukemia and had gone through a rough patch this summer. Writing had become too taxing for him, and he took a break. He returned earlier this month but laid out his plans to move to Arizona later this year to be closer to his sister and the rest of his family.
His sister Diane returned to Central Indiana to help take care of him over the last few months. Miller never married and never had children of his own.
After the last few years battling cancer, this news didn't shock me, but it was startling to say the least, especially his blunt honesty, as only Miller knew how, about facing his own mortality and nearly dying back in July.
Miller's return to writing also brought him back to the racetrack, Indianapolis Motor Speedway of course, for the Brickyard weekend. Praise God for the timing of events. At the Speedway, he was transported via golf cart around the facility, but he smiled for every photo and cracked wise in every interaction.
I think everyone knew to savor those moments at the track. We didn't know how much time Miller had, but we knew he wasn't getting to any other racetrack this year. We knew in all likelihood he wasn't visiting the IndyCar paddock again in 2021. He wasn't in the condition to drive to Gateway or fly out west for the final three events.
Perhaps things would have allowed for him to make another trip to Indianapolis in May for another Indianapolis 500. After over five decades of being a full-timer, I think Miller had done enough to graduate to Indianapolis one-off status.
The beauty is his final race weekend was at Indianapolis. It might have been the road course, which he despised, and a shared weekend with NASCAR, whose presence at the Speedway he viewed as sacrilege, but there wasn't a better place for him to say goodbye. No other track did he love more than the greatest of them all, conveniently located in his own backyard.
Miller loved the 2.5-mile oval so much was nearly banned from it under the Tony George regime. It never got to that point, but there was always contention between him and ownership during The Split. The boy in Miller, who fell in love watching Sam Hanks, Jimmy Bryan, Jim Rathmann, Tony Bettenhausen, Eddie Sachs and Rodger Ward risk life and limb pounding around on bricks, saw the downside and the detriment of The Split and the Indy Racing League.
He was no fool pretending it was somehow better the names Penske, Newman-Haas, Ganassi, Andretti, Unser, Vasser, Zanardi, Moore and Rahal were not at the Speedway come May. The greatest race in his world had become a minor league affair and only one man was to blame.
Now, Indianapolis Motor Speedway presents an award named in Miller's honor and Tony George was in charge when it was created. Twenty-five years changed a lot.
Miller finally got to be on the network broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 in 2019 when NBC took over the rights. It had been a long and tumultuous road to the top, one that at many points appeared to be shut down after numerous conflicts and terminations from many different companies. But Miller made it.
Sadly, between his illness and the pandemic, Miller had one year on the broadcast. He contributed the last two years, but in voice only.
Miller's voice has always been there, whether it was in print or on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. As a child growing up with motorsports dreams, Miller, the infamous college dropout turned gambling junky and reporter, became a mother's worst nightmare for a son's role model. I saw the best and for the most part avoided the worst.
I frequently wrote into his mailbag. At times it was a great place to just chat about racing. I didn't grow up in a motorsports family. There was no local short track in my life. There was not a parent that dragged me around, leading me to catch the bug. I was alone in my fandom. My gateway was the 21st century route of the internet and cable television. The day SPEED Channel popped up on the living television I was hooked, and Miller was the leading disciple. He showed passion for the best and worst that happened in IndyCar, and he was always taking comments from readers.
But the mailbag could be a bummer. It is tiring being angry. I wrote angry many times. There was a breaking point. I could only write so much and read so much discontent. As was familiar with the 2000s, many wrote in and said that was it. One IndyCar flub had pushed them too far and they were done watching. Many wrote that and were back the next week but looking at the television numbers and attendance plenty of people walked away. I never got to that point, but I did cool it with the mailbag.
I always kept reading Miller's work. You could always count on him to have a scoop most weren't close to discovering. He could editorialize a heated or pivotal moment in the championship unlike the rest of them. If blood had boiled over in an IndyCar race on Sunday, you could not miss what Miller was going to write on Monday.
In the last decade, we did see a change in Miller. To me, I found he expressed more openness to ideas he once bemoaned. He could see the plus-side in an IMS road course race. He accepted the aeroscreen and other safety changes. He saw the benefit of IndyCar and NASCAR working together, especially when both were fully under the NBC umbrella. He didn't change his point on everything, but over the last ten years, there was definitely a change in tone, partially because IndyCar had changed its tone.
The last few seasons have been massive positives for IndyCar. We have seen Scott Dixon crack 50 victories and Will Power crack 40 victories. Josef Newgarden has become a multi-time champion. American drivers are more prevalent and more successful with the likes of Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta leading the way. International respect has returned to IndyCar. Fernando Alonso came and ran the Indianapolis 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix! Forgotten Formula One talent has stepped through the IndyCar door and found a home and one that loves them back. Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean are happy here. IndyCar has also had likes of Scott McLaughlin, arguably the best driver racing in Australia, and Jimmie Johnson, one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, become IndyCar regulars.
Miller's final years saw IndyCar on an incredible rise. It was tough to be angry when all of the above happened. Were things perfect? Of course not, but it was hard to view IndyCar negatively when all this was happening. Miller got to see the record book re-written and American talent succeed in his final years at the track. Robin Miller's final Indianapolis 500 also happened to be Hélio Castroneves' fourth Indianapolis 500 victory. Not a bad one to end on.
IndyCar might still be a few oval tracks short of a sufficient amount, and USAC drivers might still deserve more opportunities, but the series Miller loved the most was at a high at the time of his final goodbye.
My biggest takeaway from Robin Miller is to remain honestly passionate about what you love. Defend it when you feel it has been mistreated. Unapologetically profess that love. It is the only way to live. You may step on some toes but always make sure people know you care.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Miller family, a family that includes drivers, mechanics, fellow writers, television personalities, Mug-n-Bun employees, dirt track hopefuls and jet-setting millionaires and a countless number of fans who read Miller's work along the way.
