Personal view, individual capacity, made on no one else's behalf: Yes, the right time for the first time since 1975 was obviously 1976, but accepting that it didn't go that way, it is so exciting, four years after the grant to do this was announced, to see this happen.

There were two people I knew of who were born in NJ, moved to MA, had some professional political involvement, and once publicly wore an unflattering blue shirt (2024 Indy 500—my adult weight has spanned a 111-lb range, and at no size did I ever look good in a polo). I am now the last one left.

It's always a relief to be able to take on-demand CLEs. While I understand the value of live delivery, I have had too many "older lawyer attendee goes to pee with his camera and microphone on" Zoom calls to imagine a world in which each hour must be synchronous learning.

Guessing everyone on this site has read this, but if not, I think you should racer.com/2026/05/18/t...

Please tell me that recently announced Truck Series driver "Kasey Kleyn" pronounces his last name like Marlo Klain and not like Jonathan Klein. I need this person to just be Kasey Kahne with an "l" thrown in there.

Typing "how about entering Alexander Rossi in the 66 car for the Coke 600 to invoke the most favorable replacement driver rules to cover as many scenarios as needed" in the ECR Slack chat and getting sent to a lunar prison

ME: *This* is the year that I am finally going to have hobbies that I enjoy doing with no regard for whether they lead to any professional advancement ME: [wrote three blog posts and got asked to be on a magazine's editorial board] I'm the only one surprised, aren't I? No one else fell for it?

"Wow. That's going to be universally hated. A real radicalizing moment in this nation," I say, unaware I live in a country of Guys who hate the IRS because they get their federal tax return intercepted for child support enforcement and think the DOJ just announced $1.776 billion for them.

ME: Gonna put a load of whites and lights in the laundry DEB: Isn't whites and Indy Lights the tagline for the DC race?

How can you not be excited about a front row of an active legend who could put up all-time numbers if Chip Ganassi doesn't hire Dario back from NASCAR against him, a guy who will overdrive his program, and someone so unknown Daniel Dye has never heard of him? Three different, interesting stories.

Meyer Shank had a good car but only for 8 laps is supposed to the race story, not the qualifying story?

"Can we do this to the ghost car?" I ask of the network that gave us AI Michael Strahan twice in one broadcast window, completely unable to learn anything

I am not going to pretend Ferrucci isn't good here (and outstanding here relative to how he is elsewhere). I am also not going to pretend that I understand this repeated narrative about him and the Foyt team when his teammate there beat him and almost won the race last year.

"Nelson Philippe listens to his iPod while driving his Champ Car" was the precursor to "Pato O'Ward simulates playing an iPad slot machine game on his steering wheel"

SlimFast and driving the SlimFast IndyCar trimmed out like that: two ways to get incredibly bad diarrhea

"This is the golden hour" sure is, so let's redo some of the FOX headshots in this outdoor lighting, Rossi looks like he was found in a basement closet after seven years, but then some of the others look like they have Chris Myers' tanning routine, it's worse than the cartoons

My favorite thing about Chris Myers is that he became a sportscaster by calling into a sports radio talk show incessantly until they just hired him as a character. It's exactly what you would guess Chris Myers did if you didn't know and someone asked you to speculate on his background.

If Scott Dixon ever retires, they should put him right back at this exact desk as the analyst. Insightful guy who is incredibly easy to listen to.

Having Santino say the "can't be having almond milk, oat milk, soy milk" line was a great choice. You really feel like he said that organically. That is 100% a guy who goes home after a big race and gives himself hemorrhoids over other people's dietary choices.

Okay, now that we have seen that Chris Myers is not having a serious medical emergency, I feel comfortable asking what MAHA TikTok supplement Danica had Chris try during the break

The 60 team's shirts really do not match the 60 car, which itself is the color of my childhood home's one bathroom (appropriately enough for the sponsor's featured station).

Buxton has been obsessed with Daly for longer than Bell has known who Santino Ferrucci is, and I honestly take comfort in knowing that, should Daly win, we'll at least get Buxton's most engaged commentary.

Calling into Wind Tunnel tonight to say, "Scott McLaughlin's team coulda trimmed him out to go 242 at the end of the straight but had him drag the brake to only do 240 to regen," in one of the ridiculous voices I used to do for my kid's stuffed animals when she was younger.

Finally, something Townsend Bell really is an expert analyst on: the mental work it takes to come back from crashing a lot.

Canadian announcer saying "a football field a second." My IndyCar on ESPN on ABC-loving self will take it.

Just two qualifying runs that summarize this series perfectly: O'Ward driving his absolute ass off to accomplish nothing; Palou driving his absolute ass off but it also looking like he could just find 2 more mph average if he really wanted to.

Credit where due: the FOX booth is doing a good job explaining what Palou is actually doing in the car relative to the expectations for what a booth would talk about on a network timeslot.

Juan Pablo Montoya on F1 TV is somehow better dressed than everyone in the FOX booth there? Remarkable.

David Malukas stated on radio that it was his dream as a kid to drive for Team Penske, "especially this Verizon 12 car." What a disingenuous comment! That car did not exist until 2009, when he was...oh. Oh, no.

There shouldn't be any breaks during qualifying because it leads me to fill the time with, "There's a reasonable resale ticket, a reasonable hotel, and a reasonable way to the track with no need for parking available to me. I could actually go to the Indy 500." That is not healthy!

A lot of drivers who have been fast today and prior are people (or on teams) that I just do not trust to win a 500-mile race. Starting to expect a wild race out of which Palou emerges a "surprise" winner to anyone who wasn't paying specific attention to how he was managing it all afternoon.

Accidentally becoming a "here's *my* impossible idea to fix the ASR" guy and proposing that they do head-to-head eliminations inside a stadium in pairs of a current All-Star and any retired driver who ever would have qualified as an All-Star under retroactively applied criteria. We SRX fans need it.

The IMS PA stream of the test, the radio feed, presumably someone on FOX: everyone wants to talk about how beautiful the Sunoco car is. And it is! But it's erasing that the Journie Rewards car was even better, and we deserve (1) both of them and (2) the Sunoco car with the old Honda logo instead.

Who would win a head-to-head DTM Munich/Race of Champions style event: the 2001 The Winston field running slicks in the rain or the 2026 All-Star Race field with no particular circumstance that I am aware of from viewing your posts

Drivers on the ragged edge will always stand out more on TV, but when you go to IMS, the drivers in complete control are incredibly noticeable. Hélio Castroneves at the speedway is the most artistically memorable "dude driving a car" I have personally seen. I hope he contends one last time.

A small misspeak during Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner "Sting" Ray Robb's run implied Nick was thinking the car belonged in a landfill when calling it a "handful."

You die a Conor Daly hater or live long enough for Conor Daly to become harm reduction for Santino Ferrucci users. (Always fun to see a one-off with pace, especially in the charter era).

Per her interview on radio, Katherine Legge plans to look at previous Coke 600s during the week. She's talking about in-car and all that, but I like to imagine Kat is just like me and you, watching the 2005 Coke 600 on YouTube and thinking maybe Bobby Labonte will win it this time.

Alexander Rossi is: (1) Balding (2) Italian (3) A man whose political ideology has always just been whatever he thought women attractive to him would want it to be (4) Chronically frustrated but learning to relax The closest city to my high school was Providence, so he feels like an old friend.

Kind of weird that Felipe Giaffone is a legend for going to a big box retailer on the last day of time trials, but I'm headed to Meijer soon, and no one has contacted me about doing a story on this or making a film about it or inviting me onto a small podcast in eleven years to talk about it.

Thinking about streaming the 2008 Indy 500 tonight, but ending it while Vítor Meira still has the lead as a self-deprecating bit.

Setting up a new Mac. I am naming this device Jamie MacMary.

A good use of any rain delays at Indianapolis would be telling me whether this year's entry list features the lowest ever highest car number (77).

What was that website where you could anonymously ask @mearn.me questions? I want to ask him if he ever played Pokémon and had a Horsea nicknamed (in all caps, the only way it ever was supposed to be) "SAUCE."

It is kind of interesting to me how the Formula E commentators, knowing it is a world feed, try to avoid saying "Jaguar." It's most often "Jag." Yet we should all agree that, in electric racing, it ought to be "Jag-wire."

Going on TV tomorrow with a haircut I don't like. Might be time for the gang to update the ol' Bible to include the story of me making fun of Noah Eagle's hairplugs in too many text messages and getting sent by God to a Supercuts for eternity as punishment.

Saw my kid's biological father at the school concert. He is newly missing a tooth. I think I should be given an official commendation for not asking if the county repossessed it as his only known asset in the matter of his $24,000+ child support arrears lien.

ME: I have no irrational patriotism [people keep posting screenshots of the FOX booth, revealing Will Buxton's extremely British microphone] ME: I am literally a RAM commercial over this

Now hold on. Kohler's the wrong faucet for a purple and white IndyCar. Mr. Brown has once again misappropriated history.

NASCAR TV networks in 2000 the seven times Conseco paid for a camera but the 14 DNQ-ed: