I can't remember so much about the 200 races that I won, but I can tell you every single detail about the 1,000 races that I lost. That is how we racers are. Isn't it sick, isn't it?
The King wasn't driving in the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, but as race winner Marcus Ericsson climbed from the cockpit of his Honda in Victory Lane, his shared illness was on display down below.
After seeing his day undone by a pit road speeding penalty to finish 21st, Scott Dixon rubbed his reddened face with his hands and cried as his wife looked on.
"You do all you can do and hope that the breaks go your way, and sometimes they don't," the always-composed six-time champion said. The 41-year-old driver smiled when reporters asked him questions such as "You were going to win, what happened?" and "You've still only won this race once."
The defending champion, who waited 12 years between his third and fourth Indy wins, was able to go solo from 27th to seventh but was stopped by a series of late cautions. The 47-year-old racer waved to the fans who remained from the original green flag attendance of more than 300,000.
Tony Kanaan was behind the wheel of a one-off ride but was the fastest car in the field when the laps went to go. He had to settle for third because he ran out of steam. His head drenched in sweat, the 47-year-old 2013 Indy 500 winner fended off postrace questions about retirement and talked about race strategy. That is all I can do.
The man who ran wheel-to-wheel with the other driver was asked if it was bad to be second. It is hard to swallow, but it is a great day. He said to the people following him to the elevator that it sucks.
It does. At any race. The sting of missing out at Indianapolis is like a stun gun. It hurts. It takes a long time to get over that pain. The Indy Series has 17 races, including the Indianapolis 500. There are lots of money to be won throughout the year. There is a season title to be won. There is only one day on the calendar that is a potential gateway to immortality.
When you win the Music City Grand Prix, they don't commission an artist to sculpt your face from silver to be placed on a 6-foot- tall trophy. There is only one Borg-Warner trophy. The faces of 106 winners will adorn it. The mugs of the nearly 3,500 winners can be found in the pits, home on the couch or in the grave, all in a mood that is far from sterling silver.
Indy is a city. Winning the greatest Spectacle in Racing isn't enough for a place that is so enchanting.
If you win it once, it only makes you more desperate to win it again, according to Alexander Rossi, the 2016 Indy 500 champion who finished fifth on Sunday. He has finished seventh or better in five of his seven starts. He looked off into the distance as he talked, replaying the final laps of the race in his mind and sounding like a man in a dentist's chair. There is nothing you can do. They are right there. It is the most helpless feeling. All you can do is hope that you are close again, but you have to wait a year to see if that happens.
After he finished his traditional victory lap ride atop a pace car adorned with a wreath, he was more desperate to win it again than he was to catch the leader. He admitted that he was thinking about falling into anguish in Indy before the victory became official.
The Swedish racer came to the open-wheel series with an admitted fear of racing on the ovals. His best Indy 500 finish was 11th and his average finish over 13 oval starts was 14th. He appeared to be on his way to a win when the red flag came out after Johnson hit the wall.
As I sat under the red flag running through all of the scenarios and thinking about the guys who would be attacking on the restart, I thought about a conversation I had with Franchitti. Playing defense. Keeping them out of my way. Just make sure that I did not make a mistake.
During a two-lap shootout, O&Ward was the only one who was able to challenge as they dove into Turn 1 to bring fans to their feet. Ericsson flashed under the checkered flag.
As the sun rose over Indianapolis Motor Speedway, many believed that this would be the day when the owner of the four-time Indy 500-winning team would finally win a race. They believed that the victory would come from one of the four higher-profile teammates: Alex Palou, Kanaan, or Johnson.
In Monaco, where media and fans watched the action from Indy on TV after the just-completed Monaco Grand Prix, it was widely believed that a driver from the team formerly known as Sauber F1 would earn a victory in one of Earth's most prestigious races. They thought it would be Charles Leclerc in Monaco. Leclerc was fourth.
All of their predictions came true. They had the racers and places wrong. It was the 0-for-his-career F1 racer who hated ovals who won the day. Helping racing is the least coveted feeling. There is no cure for that ailment and only one person is prescribed a jug of milk every year.
Our goal as racing drivers is to win, no matter what it takes, and that is what we are trying to do. He said that when he won the Detroit Grand Prix in June 2021, it was his first victory in five years. It took eight years of losing to get here. It was so much heartbreak.
The newest Indy person smiled.
It is worth it right now.
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