But the magnitude and spectacle around the Indianapolis 500 is pretty hard to debate...but some of the logistical planners around today's race tried to ruin the day, in my opinion.

The race wasn't very well-attended last year, by Indy's standards, and seemingly, those who made decisions around the track thought this year would be the same...it wasn't. The traffic into the oldest, greatest race venue in the world was slower than I can recall in my 25 years attending the race. A pedestrian was struck and a few more accidents occurred near the track this morning, and that was the excuse we were hearing on the radio, but as we got close, we found out that wasn't the real reason.

At nearly every intersection where applicable, Indianapolis Police Officers and Marion County Sheriffs were doing a very poor, very unprofessional job of directing traffic. Perhaps the reason this was surprising is because we've become pretty used to them doing a good job and moving us to the track with ease...it seemed their job was to make law-abiding citizens frustrated and angry- they were great at that. The real problem with that is there are so many people from outside of the city here just to watch the race- they didn't get to see the best of the city today, in my opinion. But, the drivers made up for the problems outside the track.

The field looked amazingly-sound on paper. There were no under-qualified Milka Duno, no Dr. Jack Miller types. In fact, the rookies seemed solid and the part-time ( not full-time on the circuit) drivers were a good-looking group. Solid, but sometimes slow, John Andretti was in, Always-fast in Indy Ed Carpenter was set in Sarah Fisher's ride. Bertrand "The Sandwich" Baguette has a year under his belt. Thomas Schechter and Paul Tracy are madmen at times, but always agressive and fast. Ex-winners, Buddy Rice and Dan Wheldon strengthened the field by their preference. The only guy that really bothered or scared me for the rest of the field's sake really, was E.J. Viso. My best hope was that he would take himself out without sweeping anyone else up in the mess ( kinda got my wish).

My family and I discussed recent race winners and couldn't think of a true dark horse winning in the last few decades. In hindsight, names like Lazier and Rice seem that way, but the race was a shell of itself in the CART/IRL split days. Teams were weaker and tons of underqualied drivers were the norm.

Andretti, Ganassi and Penske have pretty-much owned the Borg Warner for the last decade. Turns out, even in a spec series, the best engineers with the greatest resources and the best drivers still dominate.

So, when Ganassi's henchmen dominated for much of the first half, no one was surprised. But, Alex Tagliani (Sam Schmidt Racing) and Dan Wheldon (Bryan Herta Autosport) kept the red cars honest by mixing it up when the opportunity arose. But, Penske machines were no where to be found...and I loved that. Plus, the Andretti machines were seemingly continuing what they had done for the past few weeks in Indy.

I don't dislike Roger Penske. I hold no grudge toward him for ancient history...in fact, I think he's great for the sport because his teams seem to be better-prepared than anyone, usually. This month was not a typical May for Penske though. They struggled finding speed in practice and qualifying. That said, this seems to happen for one reason or another every decade or so for Penske.

The second half of the race was much different much to the chagrin of Chip Ganassi. The dominant 1-2 punch of the Flying Scot (II) and The Iceman was disrupted as long stretches of green racing and green flag pitstops that helped a ton of old favorites get into contention. Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti found their way into the top-10. Tony Kanaan scratched and clawed his way into the lead pack as did Graham Rahal. Oriol Servia raced aggressively and stayed out of trouble, and second-year American racer, J.R. Hillebrand hung around quietly.

The closing third of the race was a great example of why I like to watch this race. Fuel/pit strategy, new leaders coming out of nowhere, drivers putting it all on the line and an unexpected finish were the defining aspects of this period.

Thank You.