It's Not the Car The Bloody Madness of the First Indy 500 — (1911)
Little ditty... 'bout a race and a Speedway! Two Indy names, growin’ up in the heartland. Race gonna make the front page of the Indy Star? Speedway gonna something something… uh... museum... race... car!
Yeah, sure, that makes sense! Don't tell me if it doesn't?
The story of the first Indy 500 holds a lot of things—death, sand, smoke, around a million blown tires—but it does not hold John Mellencamp lyrics. Still, I hear Mellencamp in my head every time I meet Indiana, so that’s what I'm puttin' here.
(If you squint, that first paragraph almost fits the rhythm of "Jack and Diane." With apologies to the ol' Cougar himself.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history.
In this case, that means the time a quiet little American city kicked off one of the world's greatest speed traditions. Risk, blood, guts, bricks… and the first year was flat-out bonkers.
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
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ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.