Indy 500 Apprehesion

By Jenni Hammitt

May 21, 2009

indy500

Today my co-workers were going on and on about the Indy 500. I’ve lived in Indiana since 2001. You would think by now I would be all about the race, but eight years later I barely recognize drivers’ names.

I’m not sure why, but I just can’t get into the race. I know I have friends who live and breathe it the whole month of May, but I just don’t care. I couldn’t tell you who won on pole day. I couldn’t tell you who won the race last year. I have an idea of where the track is, but I couldn’t tell you who to get there from here. I have no real inclination to go to the race. For all I know Carb Day is just an excuse for people to take the day off and drink. I have nothing against the race or its fans, but I am just indifferent.

You would think that after I learned to follow the Colts out of a survival instinct, this would be a no brainer. When I first moved to Indy, it was football season. In order to keep up with office small talk, I quickly learned that I needed to watch every Colts game even if I was not a fan. After a few years of just being Colts proficient, I slowly became a fan. I just can’t be that way about racing.

I’m not sure what the issue is. Maybe if I grew up with this as a tradition, it would be different. If this was something my family looked forward to every year, I would be more apt to care. For example, I grew up with football. I watched it every weekend with my dad. We are Ohio State fan and we were Browns fans (until they went to Baltimore) and then we were split between Detroit and Cincinnati for years. That made making the transition to being a Colts fan easier.

Now it isn’t like I dread the month of May. Okay, I do dread the unending drunk texts on Carb Day, but aside from that I sometimes wish I could just get into the whole festive mind set.