Special Contributor // Alex Brewer
To whomever was watching the Indianapolis 500 along with myself: Did you get the feeling same feeling I did? The feeling of “holy crap what did I just watch”?
Yeah, I hope you did.
Dan Wheldon takes home the trophy after the 100th running of the Indy 500 Sunday afternoon in more then thrilling fashion. How did he do it? Well….he owes a big thank you to JR Hildebrand. But before we even get to the last lap, there is a lot more to reflect on.
Enter Scott Dixon and Alex Tagliani. The race was dominated early on by these two (who led 93 of the 200 laps) Dixon was sure making it seem like another routine day at Indy for Ganassi. However, Dixon and Tagliani faded and the field started to cycle through leaders. They couldn’t get it done. 
Enter Danica Patrick. She tallied 10 laps in front of the field late in the race and appeared she could make a fuel gamble work. Alas, with 11 laps to go, she could not get it done.
Enter Bertrand Baguette (best name in the field in my opinion). He assumed the lead that IndyCar’s sweat-heart gave away, and kept it..for a little bit at least. The IndyCar world was ready to be shocked by a Belgian one and done driver…but fuel again came into play. He pitted with three laps to go, and couldn’t get it done.
Enter JR Hildebrand. The 23-year old rookie gains the lead after masterfully conserving fuel in the last 40 laps, and is staring at an Indy 500 title right in the face. The kid ran perfectly in the last couple of laps, maintaining his lead like he had been there before. Both the radio and television announcers were starting their “final calls” (as they call it in the business) as Hildebrand rounded Turn 3 at IMS. Then…the unthinkable.
“NO NO NO” shouted the ABC play-by-play crew on the television. Hildebrand lost control of his car in Turn 4 trying to pass a lapped car. The car skated up the track as he existed the turn, and boom. All JR could do was roll down the front-stretch and watch the eventual winner whizz by.
Enter Dan Wheldon. Fired by the very race team that Hildebrand drove for on Sunday, Wheldon soared past the wrecked rookie onto his second Indy 500 victory. He was only scheduled to drive one race this season. One race, one win. One really big win.
JR could only sum it up in one way really, “It’s a helpless feeling”
Honestly, Hildebrand drove the race brilliantly. His race team told him that he couldn’t make it on fuel and conserve gas. The rookie did, and had enough gas to make it to the end come crunch time. He put himself in that position to win. He was right there, but got caught up in the wrong part of the track.
As unfortunate as the ending was for the No. 4 car and Panther Racing, IndyCar got a huge boost from the type of ending the race had. The last 20 laps were absolute chaos with multiple people in contention to win. It was as riveting as it could get on IndyCar’s biggest stage.
Every race fan knew walking into this year’s 500 that it was going to be one to remember. In 1911, the first green flag flew at auto racing’s most hallowed ground. One hundred years later, fireworks flew and a rookie almost took the trophy home. After all the miles of fighting Hildebrand was 200 yards away from being crowned Indy 500 championship…..too bad the race was 200 yards longer. Dan Wheldon walks away IndyCar champ, and JR is left wondering what could have been for a long time to come.
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