Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
NASCAR had two races rained out, setting up a busy Monday. Monaco had a slightly unexpected shower that didn’t change anything. Ferrari still made questionable decisions. George Russell said he will kick himself. Toprak Razgatlioglu is heading to BMW in 2024. The Motocross season began and there is a new contender filling the absences of a few stars. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season began, and both races had historic results. Josef Newgarden got the monkey off his back, but this May was on my mind.
May Feels Different
Not better, not worse, just different.
February might be 28 days, but May is over the earliest of them all.
Perhaps that is part of growing older. It goes quicker.
As a kid, it felt like May lasted a year. May 1 would arrive, race cars would soon be on track at Indianapolis and each day had a life of its own. I couldn't wait to rush home from school to find out what was happening on track during practice. My favorite thing to do was to take the laptop and put on the stream of practice and just have the cars on in the background while doing homework.
Those days seemed endless. I must have had at least ten or 12 days doing that each year. It never got old. Then qualifying weekend would come around. A rainy day was bound to come up, but for two weeks Indianapolis was present in my home.
Maybe that extra time, the endless amount of practice, the excessive number of qualifying days, was the difference. There was more of everything. We live in a streamlined world now, which has its perks. With three or four practice days, there is no dull moment. Somebody is always on track. I will admit there was much more dead time back in those early days. There were more single-car runs. Some teams would have qualified already and not need the track. There were only six or seven cars that had to practice because they still had to qualify. There could be 30, 40 or 60 minutes with nothing going on every day and it wasn't for a caution or a rain delay. Nobody needed the track.
Today, because everything is condensed and there is only one qualifying weekend and everyone think they have the shot to make the Fast 12 or win pole position, there is less open time on track. A six-hour practice day breezes by. Perhaps that is why it feels like it goes by so fast. It does. You don't have time to ponder.
May feels different, because it is different.
There was a race two weeks ago at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and we just had the Indianapolis 500 yesterday. IndyCar has entered the 21st century or it is doing more with what it has at its most famous venue.
The irony of saying there was once more of everything and now there is more of everything is not lost on me, but the balance has shifted.
Responsibility comes with age. As a child, Indianapolis could be my only focus. I didn't have much more else going up besides school and little league baseball or lacrosse. Time is more precious now, and I have important things to do with it, mainly work to pay to live. I have greater concerns. Younger me didn’t know how good I had it.
There is more competition in my life that Indianapolis has to make room for. I am not losing out. Sure, I cannot sit and aimlessly watch practice on a Wednesday, but I can keep up. I am comfortable with walking away and catching up later. The good news is qualifying weekend is still an event. The time is still there to take in each qualifying run and watch the drama over pole position and bumping unfold.
May feels different because it is different.
I don't feel as nervous on Bump Day anymore. It is still dramatic, but it isn't a six-hour affair. The waiting made it different. It is still enthralling, but when reduced to an hour and there are so many restrictions, it becomes predictable. It is also down to whether or not one man can make the field after the initial runs. It feels inevitable that it will be the driver on the outside waiting until the last second and that one run will decide who is in and who is out. The driver in 31st after the run through the line is safe. There isn't going to be enough of a shakeup that sees three drivers run faster than 31st on their second or third attempt.
The qualifying speeds still dazzle me. Once 230 mph averages were just a dream. They were here, then they were gone and we wondered if they would ever return. There was a time when it seemed like the field would just live at 225 mph forever, maybe break up to 227 mph or 228 mph if the conditions were right.
The 230s of Arie Luydenyk's time were just myth to me, like many of us. It sounded tremendous. It is. It is overwhelming. A new track record will come someday. We are getting closer, but once we get there, how fast do we really want to go? There is a limit. If we hit 240 mph and never go much beyond that I think we will live. These are incredible speeds. The drivers are already on the razor's edge. This will never get boring, not even in a century's time.
May feels different because it is different.
I have seen plenty of these races. The memories don't feel that far removed but time says they are. The active participants are starting to go away, some are already gone. I haven't watched an Indianapolis 500 at home since 2019. It has been over a decade since I watched an Indianapolis 500 with my grandfather. I don't think I watched another one at my grandparents' house after he passed.
This year I got to be at the Speedway.
It was a dream my entire life. Living nearly 700 miles away, it wasn't practical. Vacations were rare in my house, and never were taken during the school year. Disposable income was a myth. Even if I saved every cent I got from shoveling driveways over the winter and any other cash I could earn on the side, I couldn't spend it all even if it was for what I wanted the most. There was too much fear returning to zero. Even when I started working in high school, I knew that money had to be saved for something more important.
May feels different because it is different.
Part of me didn't want to come. I found my own comfort each Memorial Day watching from afar. You get to see more of the race on your sofa. You also don't have to worry about traffic race morning or afterward. You don't have to spend over $1,000 on lodging and there is never a line for the bathroom.
But, more importantly, I loved what I had. I wasn't there but I wouldn't want to be with anyone else watching the race. I wanted to watch the finish and then step out to backyard for a hamburger and hot dog from the grill. I wanted to listen to the drive home show from the comfort of the patio. I found my own routine, and it was damn good.
May feels different because it is different.
I don't know what future Mays will feel like. I guess they will go quicker. That is how life goes. The days don't slow down. Nobody ever complains about how long it took for them to turn 60. They are mostly wondering how the hell they got there. Despite this change, it is still possible to enjoy each day. There will still be moments I will hang onto. Things will change. Drivers will retire, new ones will join. I may never return to the Speedway again, but I had this one.
There are harsh realities about life that I don't want to think about, but I know they are there. Those will change how May feels as well. At the moment, I will appreciate the May I had, the ones that have come before, and I pray for more to come.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Monaco Grand Prix, his fourth victory of the season.
Ayumu Iwasa and Frederik Vesti split the Formula Two races from Monaco. Pepe Martà and Gabriele Mini split the Formula Three races.
Salvador de Alba won the USF Pro 2000 race from Indianapolis Raceway Park. Mac Clark won the U.S. F2000 race.
Ben Rhodes won the NASCAR Truck race from Charlotte.
Franck Perera and Christian Engelhart split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from Oschersleben.
Jett Lawrence swept the weekend in his 450 Motocross debut in Pala, California.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar returns to Detroit, but back to the downtown streets on a new course.
Formula One makes a later trip to Barcelona than usual.
NASCAR visits Gateway for a second consecutive year.
The Le Mans Test Day will be on Sunday.
Jakarta hosts a Formula E doubleheader.
World Superbike heads to Misano.
Super GT visits Suzuka.
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup runs 1000 kilometers around Circuit Paul Ricard.
The World Rally Championship will be on Sardinia.
