This Sunday at noon on ABC7 will present the 91st edition of the Indianapolis 500 and according to ESPN/ABC analyst Rusty Wallace, who will be part of the broadcast team, “The 500 is still an American institution that is regaining its place with the fans as a must see race.”
I spoke to Wallace from Indianapolis earlier this week.
Wallace on the Indy 500: “I became a real big fan of IRL, I’m real excited to be able to come back and do the second Indianapolis 500 with Marty and Scott. We had a great year last year, I learned a lot, and they taught me a lot. I was very serious about what I did, and everybody knows now that I’ve moved on this year, my new assignment in NASCAR, but I was privileged enough to be asked to come back and do the Indianapolis 500. So I called Pole Day with Marty and Scott last week, and it wasjust a fantastic deal. Just like Scott said, we’ve got three gals in the field with Sarah Fisher, Milka Duno and Danica Patrick — that’s going to be exciting. Michael Andretti is back, racing against his son Marco. We’ve got Al [Unser] Jr. back in the field. We’ve heard a lot about Chip Ganassi’s team, Roger Penske’s team, but I’m here to tell you Andretti Green Racing is back right now. I’ll never forget the closing laps of last year’s race, when I got so excited because I’m looking at a 19-year-old kid, Marco Andretti’s about to win the Indianapolis 500, and I said, “This is the most exciting Daytona 500 … I mean Indy 500 … I’ve ever seen.” That’s one thing that’s a defining moment in my television career that stuck in my mind. I’ve been a stock car guy for so long … a lot of people laughed about it, but I was really excited.”
Wallace on Danica Patrick: “Danica got what she wanted and that was a move to the Andretti Green Racing team. Her car is fast, she has a top-notch crew behind her and now she is expected to be a real force in the IRL and that includes winning the Indy 500. There are no excuses at this point. I do think that she made the right choice by not getting involved in NASCAR, I think that for now she is best suited for the IRL cars. So I expect that she will be a force on Sunday and she is absolutely one of those dozen drivers that I said could win this race.”
» Also on Sunday NASCAR has the Coca Cola World 600 starting at 5:30 p.m. on FOX5 and the longest race of the series will be a great challenge to the ratings of the Indy 500. For the past 10 years this has been a true showing of just how strong NASCAR is up against the IRL when they have two big races on the same day and this weekend should not be any different.
On the tube this weekend
» ESPN makes Baltimore the center of the lacrosse universe this weekend. ESPN2 on Saturday, Delaware takes on Johns Hopkins at noon followed by Duke battling Cornell. Then the NCAA Final comes at 1 p.m. Monday on ESPN.
» Meanwhile CSTV has the Division I Women’s final on Sunday as part of a triple header that will also show the D-II and D-III championship games with the action starting at 1:30 p.m.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
