MotorSportsTalk recaps the Indianapolis 500 banquet night, which brought the curtain down on a successful and more buzz-worthy Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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By Chris Estrada: Another Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wound down last night with the Victory Awards Celebration, where ‘500’ winner Ryan Hunter-Reay was the guest of honor.
The American driver, who held off Helio Castroneves in the second-closest finish in Indy history, took home $2,491,194 from a total purse of more than $14 million.
RHR led 56 laps after starting 19th; the last time a driver led the most laps in the ‘500’ from a lower starting position was in 1975, when Wally Dallenbach Sr. paced 96 circuits after rolling off 21st (a blown piston relegated him to a ninth-place finish).
Castroneves just missed becoming the fourth four-time winner of the ‘500,’ but picked up a tidy sum of $785,194 for his runner-up performance. Third-place finisher Marco Andretti will have to wait another year to break the Andretti Curse, but still banked $585,194.
Carlos Munoz followed up his eye-opening debut in last year’s ‘500’ with a steady run to fourth last Sunday, and that earned him a check for $449,194. Juan Pablo Montoya netted $441,944 for finishing fifth in his first ‘500’ since winning his only other Indy start in 2000.
Sunoco ‘500’ Rookie of the Year honors went to NASCAR star Kurt Busch, who started 12th and finished sixth in his IndyCar debut for Andretti Autosport. His total winnings of $423,889 included a $25,000 bonus from Sunoco.
Busch ran the ‘500’ in his quest to run the full 1,100-mile ‘Double’ of Indy and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Unfortunately for him, Busch was stopped at 906 miles when he suffered an engine failure in the ‘600.’
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By Tony DiZinno: The Indy 500 banquet night is traditionally a great night of viewing. For as stressed, on edge and focused as the drivers, crews and teams have to be for the rest of the month, the banquet is a great chance for everyone to reflect, relax, crack some jokes, and soak up all the moments that made this month magical.
You also get to see a side of the drivers that you don’t for the rest of the month. Personalities emerge as the guys take chances to riff on each other, all in good fun.
Graham Rahal kicked the night off with earning $341,194 for finishing 33rd and last, and then made the comment that if he or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Oriol Servia didn’t win, he hoped Hunter-Reay did. Scott Dixon took that line a bit further when he said, “Graham Rahal, you told me the same thing.”
And then… we got to James Hinchcliffe and Ed Carpenter. On Tuesday before the race, front-row starters Hinch and Ed enjoyed having some playful banter in Milwaukee. But on Sunday, the two collided in Turn 1 as Townsend Bell made it through on the outside.
Luckily, the immediate frustration of both drivers being out on the spot on Sunday shifted back to pleasantries and banter when these two took the stage to accept their prize money.
Hinchcliffe was introduced by a Justin Bieber song (songs were picked based on the driver’s native country or hometown… Hinch is Canadian), and the “Mayor” promptly ripped on the selection committee for the choice.
Asked whether he and Carpenter had kissed and made up, Hinch replied, “Soft lips. Soft lips. You’re a lucky woman, Heather (Carpenter, Ed’s wife).”
But Carpenter got the last laugh when he came up next. “His check isn’t big enough; if it was, he’d have proposed,” Carpenter joked, which sent the room into an uproar. “Sorry how it worked out, Kirsten.”
Seriously, INDYCAR, get these two a show soon…
Anyway, through the rest of the field, rookie James Davison’s speech stood out as he got ultra emotional in calling his first start “the best day of his life.” Alex Tagliani paid tribute to wife Bronte by saying “Yes, she’s hot … she’s got the heart of an angel.” Simon Pagenaud paid tribute to the entire month saying, “We won 50 percent of the race in May so we’ll share that with Ryan!”
Busch was overcome by the moment, too. “I’ve done the Daytona 500… the Coca-Cola 600… and the Brickyard 400… but the Indianapolis 500 will blow you away,” he said. “I’m blown away by the challenge of the open-wheel world. My career was at a crossroads.”
Lastly Hunter-Reay took the stage with a measured, polished and thankful speech to round out the night.
