The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum is amazing. It’s also, from what I can tell, the only place inside the speedway complex where you have to wear a shirt to be admitted—€”and it’s worth it. The track has been around since 1909, and its museum contains examples from every era of the automobile. Most of the time, ancient iron doesn’t really do it for me, but it was cool to see a Benz and a Daimler—€”the two companies would later merge to form Mercedes-Benz—€”next to each other. It’s wild to think these machines are 122 years old. And I was absolutely blown away by the 1954 Mercedes W 196 below, which was a phenomenally successful Grand Prix competitor in it’s day. It’s easily one of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen. Check out a bunch more pics of classic race cars after the jump.

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Yesterday was Carburetion Day, when teams traditionally get some final track time to fine tune their cars before the green flag drops for the 500. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable. Heavy rain essentially canceled the session—it lasted a scant 12 minutes—and forced the scheduled Indy Lights Freedom 100 to be postponed. But Mother Nature’s lack of cooperation was good news for me, as that meant the race was rescheduled for today. The biggest difference between Indy Lights machines and standard Indy cars is horsepower—700 compared to 400—but that didn’t make things less interesting. Winner Dillon Battistini dominated—leading 38 of the 40 laps—but only beat his closest competitor, Richard Antinucci, by .02 seconds. The first lap was run under caution, as driver Jon Brownson lost control and hit the wall—or in NASCAR speak, got into the fence—on turn three, but the rest of the race went like clockwork. This video of the start isn’t terribly compelling, though I did manage to capture the "most famous words in motorsports" and subsequent deluge of engines firing on tape. This clip of the race cars ripping past—the sound is beyond awesome—is a lot better. The weekend is just getting started, so stay tuned! 

Look out! That’s the advice I’d give anyone before attempting to walk through the garages at Indy Motor Speedway. While I was navigating that gorgeous mess of carbon fiber and horsepower earlier today, I was living in terror of tripping over something and breaking off a very expensive piece of very expensive race car. And I wasn’t even drunk—that’s how crowded it is. Crew members on golf carts or bicycles are constantly whizzing by, race cars are being towed through the throngs of fans, and the soundtrack is a cocktail of racing engines, crackling radios and utter awe. All the cars set to race the 500 were safely tucked into their garages, but I did manage to snap a bunch of decent pics of the Indy Lights cars before they hit the track for the Freedom 100. Check them out after the jump.

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I’ve been watching the Indy 500 for years on TV, and right now, I’m about to hop on a plane for Indianapolis to see it in person. How awesome is that? I’m completely losing my mind! This year, I’m pulling for Danica Patrick to win. She’s starting fourth, she’s fresh off a win in Tokyo, and her driving skills are no joke, so I think she’s got an awesome chance to take the checkered. I’m going to be heading over to the track bright and early tomorrow morning, and I’ll start posting updates as soon as I physically can. Stay tuned!   

Although 96 year old Edith Pittenger has been going to the Indy 500 since 1965, this year, she finally got to see the iconic track from the driver’s perspective. For Christmas, her kids gave the great-great-grandmother a package from Indy Racing Experience, which included a ride-along in an Indy car modified to take a passenger. After a lap to get the tires hot, the driver hit a 180 miles per hour, and Pittenger was thrilled. While I’m not going to get to do anything that exciting while I’m there covering the race, I’m still stoked to get to the track. Stay tuned! via Huffington Post

This weekend, I’m flying to Indianapolis for the Indy 500, and I’m completely stoked. So I was a little surprised to stumble across this MSNBC article detailing how it’s lost some its luster. Because the race always been so exciting for me, overlooking that recent years have found Indy living in NASCAR’s long shadow, and ignoring the damage inflicted when American open wheel racing split into two factions—IRL and CART—has been easy. But since the two rival series have kissed and made up, and Danica Patrick is, well, everywhere, I have to wonder if Indy is set to regain some of it’s former prestige. What do you think? Are we looking at a new beginning for Indy?

The Sunday before the Indianapolis 500 is "Bump Day," and it’s the last opportunity to qualify for the race. For the less fortunate, it’s also an opportunity to get bumped off the grid by faster cars. Since I spent yesterday—all of yesterday—flying, I wasn’t able to catch the action live, but since I’ll be at the race Sunday, I think I’ll be able to deal with it. While the top seven positions were locked down last week, the rest of field wasn’t finalized until yesterday afternoon—and it went all the way down to the wire. After a couple of nail-biting position changes, A.J. Foyt IV, Buddy Lazier and Marty Roth squeaked through to fill the final three spots. For all the details on yesterday’s action, head over to MLive, and check out the full list of driver positions after the jump. 

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