ICYMI: Jim Nabors Does "Back Home Again in Indiana" for the Last Time

For those who've lost track of the Indianapolis 500, there's a lot of things that have changed since it's heyday in the 1970's and 80's.

Indy Car racing has become pretty much a niche' sport, relegated to the second tier after losing the marketing war to NASCAR.

The 500 itself, it still is a big deal to those in and from Indiana. For the rest of us, it's mostly a curiosity. But hardly the must watch event featuring the Unser's, Andretti's and others from a time long gone by.

But one thing has not changed. At least not since 1972. The constant: Jim Nabors (see Gomer Pyle) singing "Back Home Again in Indiana".

Nabors has performed it 37 times. Number 38 was Sunday May 25th.

There will be no Number 39.

Nabors, who is now 83-years old, is not from Indiana and there are conflicting stories as to how he ended up doing it.

But it is and has been a tradition, one that will never again be quite the same...

4-Wide Finish For Freedom 100

((HT: IMS/NBCSN))

Anything we say can't do this justice...
Here's the last two laps of the Freedom 100 race at Indianapolis this afternoon...


26-ten thousandths of a second is the end result for Peter Dempsey's win in the Indy Lights series...

"Beers are on me tonight," said Dempsey, who earned his first Firestone Indy Lights race in his 20th start.

Gabby Chavez was second and pole sitter Sage Karam was .0290 of a second behind the winner in third. Carlos Munoz, who led Laps 14-39, was .0443 of a second off the winner.

Now, the HQ would like to see if the 500-miler will be anywhere close to this race in the level of excitement...

Doubt it...

Racing Icon Economaki Dies At 91

((HT: ESPN/IndyCar/NASCAR Images))

ESPN's Ed Hinton is spot on in his assessment of all us media types that decide to do something motorsports-based in our lifetimes... on two fronts...

1) Those of us who grew up watching IndyCar or NASCAR in their infancies in television were impacted by what analyst and expert Chris Economaki talked about when his mic was open. It was the history and the context that we all needed without any kind of shenanigan thrown in. He made the point and elevated it at the same time.

And,

2) there are a lot of young people in the business today who have no clue who Economaki is (or was) and have no idea about his impact on the business and its context.

Economaki passed just shy of his 92nd birthday. Here are some of what we learned and how we figured out how to talk about it...

Like the 1973 Indy 500...


The lessons... know your stuff... backwards and forward...
He'll be missed... no question...

Indianapolis Race Weekend Starts On A Bad Note...

((HT: MT89MotorSportMedia/NBCSportsNetwork/IMS))

The Freedom 100 is, usually, the first race of the Indy 500 weekend that is part of Carburation Day festivities.

It went the sum total of four laps before a wreck and a subsequent red flag...

Here's the incident...


The cars of Oliver Webb and Brandon Wagner took the biggest licks in the wreck while Emerson Newton-John, Peter Dempsey, and David Ostella all ended up being casualties...

There would be some four-wide racing with two laps to go, but the winner would be Esteban Guerrieri and Sam Schmidt Racing under a yellow-checkered situation after Jorge Goncalvez hit the wall on the back stretch at the same point of the five-car crash earlier in the race.

IndyCar Has Drivers Meeting At IMS

((HT: WTHR-TV/Fox59- Indianapolis))

A group of about 20 IndyCar drivers met at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with management to discuss safety in the wake of Dan Wheldon's death on the track in Las Vegas.

"We all got to talk a lot and listen a lot and look at how we can improve things going forward in all areas," Dario Franchitti said. "I think it was a very positive and productive meeting and that's the first step. We all want to improve things. It was a massive shock what happened to Dan last week. But we saw in MotoGP yesterday (where rider Marco Simoncelli was killed during the Malaysian Grand Prix) that racing is a dangerous business.

"How we react to this is critical and I'm very encouraged by what I saw today," Franchitti added. "There's still a lot of heavy hearts -- massively -- but everyone is very positive about the outlook. This is the first step and we'll move forward with it."

Kris Kirschner is outside IMS in the dark with a preview...


Randy Bernard, CEO of IndyCar, hasn't said much since the prepared statement he gave in Las Vegas announcing the passing of Wheldon. But Franchitti and other drivers admitted there's a long way to go...

“He had nothing to do with how poorly we were all driving,” Graham Rahal said...