There isn’t a single other experience in life that comes close to the feeling of being in the lead of the Indy 500 with two laps to go.
You can run as many races as you want. You can win championships. You can go toe-to-toe with the greatest legends on the track. But nothing gets you ready for the final few miles of a Sunday at Indy.
Unless you’ve been there before.
In the 2012 race, I was there. And I thought I had it.
I remember that day for a lot of reasons, but especially because of how hot it was. The thermometer read just over 100°F. But that played to my advantage. A lot of cars around me started having cooling issues about halfway through the race. Our Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda was working really, really well and we were moving up through the field with a lot of pace. We’d made our way up to fifth by the time of the final restart with six laps to go.
With two laps to go I was third, right behind Dario Franchitti. He made a move up the inside of Scott Dixon into Turn 1, so I followed him through.
During an Indy 500, you’re not just racing — you’re learning. Every one of those 495 miles up to that point I had been mentally storing information on my car. Where do I have the grip? Where do I feel the quickest? How do I defend my line if I need to? When I went up the inside of Dixon, I felt the grip on the bank of Turn 1 — it was great. Now I had seven turns to win the biggest race of my life.
