NBC Sports 2023 Indianapolis 500 Conference Call

Monday, May 22, 2023

Mike Tirico

Danica Patrick

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Leigh Diffey

Townsend Bell

James Hinchcliffe

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. This will be NBC Sports’ fifth Indianapolis 500. Coverage begins on Sunday, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. exclusively on Peacock, and then at 11:00 a.m. NBC and Peacock will have more pre-race coverage before the green flag drops a little later on.

Joining us on our call today is going to be Mike Tirico, Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe.

Let’s begin the call now, and we’ll start off with our host, Mike Tirico.

MIKE TIRICO: Good morning, everyone. I’ll be brief. I’ve come to love my Mays at NBC with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and then the shift from horses to horsepower and getting to cover the Indy 500.

As someone who lives in Michigan and has spent a quarter of a century in the Midwest, I know what tradition and big events like this mean to the folks who share that part of the country. There’s nothing like the Indy 500. I’ll never forget standing on the grid with Danica and looking forward and backward and seeing people as far as the eye could see. It’s a perspective I never thought I’d get the chance to experience, and now it’s one I crave and look forward to and was reminded of when we were there last year in person.

Dale and Danica have become friends and colleagues over the last couple years. I look forward to the time with them.

I was watching qualifying during the week while I was in Baltimore at the Preakness and then yesterday, and the job that Diff and Hinch and Townsend and the rest of our INDYCAR group does is just so great, and they’re so locked into every story, and it’s great to be able to be around some of the best in the business and share this amazing event.

I look forward to that and any questions anyone might have, but I’ll now hand over to Danica.

DANICA PATRICK: Hello, everybody. Thank you, Mike. So well spoken, as usual.

I’m really excited to be back. I’ve been myself also watching, and so many exciting things happening at Indy this year. Some sad things, obviously, with Graham, but Foyt is having a great year, and with a great run for the pole yesterday, I think there’s just going to be a lot of really great storylines, which is always great.

But I think this crew is just a really good crew, and I thoroughly enjoy working with Mike each and every year. Dale and the play-by-plays, you guys are incredible. Like Mike just said, you guys were so locked in and just did such a great job with everything throughout the weekend.

Just hoping to bring just a little sprinkle of insight here and there and really just get the fans amped up and ready for the weekend.

I was watching yesterday, and my sister texted me and we were texting back and forth about various different things going on, and she just said, it’s so cool, I wish you were still out there because I loved watching you. But she said, there’s just something very special about Indianapolis, and there’s a feeling.

I think that that’s just something kind of undeniable when you become a part of it, whether you’re watching it and you can feel it, but when you’re there you can really feel it.

I just hope I can convey that to the fans that are at home, just the magnitude of the event.

We also said, my sister and I, when you are in the car, obviously it either is one or the other, it’s either calm and easy or terrifying. When you’re watching, it’s all terrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I’m just lucky to be able to come back and enjoy this event. It’s been a really great treat to be there over the last couple of years, and Danica mentioned the atmosphere and environment, and it’s really electric, and there’s a ton of tradition and history, but there’s also this sort of really cool, modern feel to it, especially when you get close to the race cars and the technology, and the passion that the fans of INDYCAR have for their series and this race is endearing.

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be there to experience it and will try my best to convey what I’m seeing and feeling. But I look forward to an awesome weekend, and I know the booth is going to do an amazing job showing everybody how great this race is.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Good morning, everybody. Thanks for your time. The overwhelming feeling is just of excitement because this particular month of May is the first one that has felt like it did pre-pandemic. Just the enthusiasm from the fans and just generally around Indianapolis, that feeling is back, which is really nice, frankly.

The crowd numbers have been up over the weekend. It was very encouraging over the two days. Really good numbers. There’s just a wonderful feeling of positivity in the air.

Yesterday we saw firsthand just the real drama of live sport at either end of the field, with Alex Palou, series champion, winning his first Indy 500 pole, and just what that meant to be the first Spaniard to do that, and at the other end of the field, had one of the most famous names in racing in a Rahal missing out, and talking to Graham this morning, he just said he’s never felt anything like that.

That’s the full impact of this event, the importance, the significance of this event.

Then you can fill in the storylines in between. We’ve been spoiled already. We wish it was tomorrow. We wish it was today. It’s going to be a great week.

To see the unbridled raw passion from Townsend and Hinch in the booth, to know what every one of those drivers was going through over the past two days leading into the Greatest Spectacle in Racing this weekend, you know how real it is, you hear it in their voices, and we’re lucky to have Mike and Danica and Junior back, and we’ve got our family, got our team together for what is now NBC’s fifth Indianapolis 500.

Ready to go, and T-Bell, I know you are, too.

TOWNSEND BELL: Absolutely, thanks, Diff. I think one of the reasons that the crowd was bigger than it’s been in the last 10 years over the weekend is that the fans love to come out not only for the tradition, but for record-setting speeds and drama, and we had all of that over the weekend.

This is the fastest front row in history, the fastest pole speed in history, and the closest front row. I think that’s what made it so exciting is these razor thin margins between first, second, third, and frankly all the way through the field. In fact, this is the fastest field of 33 in history, and that’s what Indy is all about — pushing the limits, how fast can you go, new records set, and it was so exciting to be part of another great qualifying weekend.

Our incredible team at NBC that’s behind the scenes is working to produce 60 hours of live coverage between Peacock and NBC. It’s humbling what they do. Diff and I worked maybe 20 hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but certainly not 60 hours, and we’re led by an incredible team, including John Barnes and Rene Hatlelid.

Our statistician, Russ Thompson, who’s up there for every one of those 60 hours, he is attending his 60th Indy 500. A lot of great stats, but it’s all about speed and drama, and we were not disappointed, once again, and I think we’re going to have an incredible Indy 500 Sunday.

James, take it from there.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Thanks, Townsend, and thanks, everybody. Not a lot left to add. Certainly we’ve been spoiled with what we’ve seen on track so far. All the stories have sort of been touched on.

I just want to mimic Townsend’s comments about all the hard work from everybody at NBC. That 60 hours going on over the month is an impressive feat. I know the fans are very appreciative. The tweets that were streaming in as Kevin (Lee) and I were doing practice, just thanking everybody for making the effort to put all the practice sessions online.

It was on the background at work and all that sort of stuff, those stories were really fun to hear, and then obviously, like you said, the drama that we’ve seen so far has been incredible, and I just feel so thankful to get to enjoy this race and this new role.

Getting to do it a handful of times as a driver is obviously super special, and now being able to call my second one with the NBC Sports crew is phenomenal. It’s great to welcome back Mike and Danica and Dale, and I’m excited to share the booth with the two guys that I’ve been doing it with for the last year and call my second Indy 500. Thank you, guys, for the opportunity.

This may be an odd question to start, but I want to ask Townsend, James and Danica. Putting together a story of the best Will Power stories, quirky, weird, funny, and I wonder off the top of your heads if you can recall some of the funny stories that you might have from your times around Will Power.

TOWNSEND BELL: Thanks for the question. I think for me, it really just comes in his unique mannerisms. We joke at his wide and trance-like stares sometimes, both in moments of speed and performance, but also in sort of humor.

When I think of Will Power, I think of those transfixed eyes, certainly when he won his first Indy 500 and just the passion and rage, frankly, at that moment.

But also on a personal note, just anytime I have a conversation, sometimes I’m looking at Will and I feel like I’m speaking a foreign language because I’m not sure if he understands anything I’m saying.

But that’s what makes him special. He’s such a unique character, one of the most talented racing drivers that I have ever had the pleasure of racing against, and if you’ve ever seen some of his performance data and speed traces, especially on places like street circuits, he does things that are seemingly inhuman.

A special guy. He’s a friend, and yeah, I’ll always think of those eyes. I hope that helps.

DANICA PATRICK: The first thing that comes up, and I think I remember showing this video not that long ago to somebody I was talking to, and I don’t remember the premise of it, but basically it was about driving in wet conditions or challenging conditions and how hard it is, and it was about Loudon.

It was my last year in 2011, and watching back the clip, everybody was like, why on earth are we going green? It’s raining out. It went green, and I spun. Like I barely got on the throttle and spun, and everybody started spinning on the front straightaway, but there’s an awesome clip that shows Will Power’s reaction because I’m pretty sure this had a negative effect on the championship. He crashed and he flipped off the stand, like the timing and scoring stand where everybody is at, where Barnhart is at. It was a great view, great picture.

But also, I remember just like from a personality standpoint how also humble he is and how my first win in Japan was also — I think it was his first win, too, and it was in Long Beach — no, it was after Long Beach, and it was all in the same weekend, and I think my friend Hayley asked how he did, and he was like, I won. I remember hearing the story, and he was just so sweet.

So he’s just such a nice guy, but he’s kind of crazy, too.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I’ll jump in on a story that kind of echos a little bit of what Danica said and the humility of a guy that’s had this kind of success. It was my rookie season in 2011, and the race in Brazil, I’m pretty sure he won it, and we were flying out on a Monday, and we were sitting there at the airport and just talking about the race and congratulating him on it, and remember, this is in an era when Will was winning like four to six races a year. It was just sort of assumed that he was going to be winning a handful of races and fighting for the championship.

He looked at me and he said, yeah, man, you know what, you just never know when you’re going to win your last race, so you’ve got to enjoy every one of them. It was like, yeah, but you’re Will Power; you’re going to win a lot more races. He goes, you just don’t know that.

It kind of caught me off guard at the moment. I thought he was just being kind of goofy and stupid, but at the same time, it’s a very true statement, and it just showed the humility of a guy that was absolutely dominating the sport at the time and was still just so thankful for the situation he was in, appreciative of the opportunity that he had been given, and doesn’t take a single day for granted.

It’s so cool to see how after his first championship and then having a couple tough years, questioning his own drive to want to do this again, sort of rediscovered himself, came back and won the championship last year. It’s kind of always stuck with me. He’s a much more philosophical guy than I think a lot of people might think, and as Danica said, the humility there is very impressive for someone that’s got his CV.

Danica, I’m doing a story about women at the Indy 500, and of course there will be a female driver in the field again this year with Katherine Legge, but a cooler story is it’ll be the first time the defending Indy 500 winner has a female team member with Angela Ashmore being part of Marcus Ericsson’s crew last year as the engineer. That’s kind of indicative of how many more women there are across the paddock. Seems like every team has done a lot more hiring, a lot more gender diversity. I know Penske Entertainment and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have talked about more women in their ranks, as well. I don’t know how many races you get to anymore, Danica, but I’m wondering, have you noticed that? Not just maybe in INDYCAR but like across the board in racing. Are you seeing that it’s not just about women drivers that we’re talking about now, but it seems like across the board there’s more gender diversity?

DANICA PATRICK: I guess a little bit. I wasn’t really around Formula 1 a lot until recently, but you definitely see women around the paddock. The Sky Sports team that I’m on, there’s a woman that was part of the strategy for one of the teams that is now doing the broadcast stuff. You see a little bit more of that, and obviously Naomi (Schiff) is part of that broadcast.

In NASCAR, sprinkled in here and there. I can’t say that it seems like a dramatic change.

But INDYCAR I think in particular has probably had the most amount of women filling positions in everything from obviously driver, which I think at its highest, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, it was five of us at one time at the 500. It might have been somewhere around 2009 or 2010-ish. So there’s been many drivers at one point in time, but then there’s also female owners, women on the crew, putting together predominantly female teams.

I think INDYCAR takes the trophy for the series, top-level series, that has been putting the most into giving women their opportunity.

I guess I can say that that felt the same for me. I feel like my time in INDYCAR felt like I got a really great shake at it, and I drove for great teams. But it’s kind of like a stock market; it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down, and it trajectory-wise tends to be going in an upward fashion, but there will always be these lulls. We can go from five women in the field to none, or one this year, but the fact that it’s more normal is still an uptick from where it used to be.

That is exactly the angle I’m doing is obviously there were no women drivers last year, and as you said, there had been five at one point. But it seems like across the board there’s more than ever in the paddock. I know when you grow and have success that it was about performance, it was about your results, that everything else is sort of a byproduct of that. But a lot of people I talk to point to you as being a big part of this, the if-you-see-it-you-can-be-it sort of thing has filtered its way through. Do you have any thoughts on that? Do you ever think about that? Do you think about the impact you had there?

DANICA PATRICK: Well, I’m super flattered by that. I think by not thinking about myself as a girl or using women as a benchmark for anything, it’s probably what gave me my level of success.

But in all of history, in all aspects of life, there will always be the four-minute mile people. There will always be people that do things for the first time, and people need to see it, and then it enters the collective or the zeitgeist, and then all of a sudden you see more of it right away.

Whatever level of contribution I had to that, I’m honored. I was not the first woman to come along but the first to do a few things.

Happy and proud to have my part in history.

I had a couple for the booth with James, Townsend and Leigh. From what you guys have seen on track so far this month, especially in qualifying, how do you see the flow of the race will be, similar or different from years past?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I think certainly with the added downforce options that INDYCAR brought to the speedway this year, we’re in for a good race. We saw this trend in Texas where we’ve had some difficult races the last few seasons, we showed up with some added downforce and it really did help the cause. From what we’ve seen in practice, I think cars can definitely follow a lot closer. Even though it’s still not easy to pass, I think we’ve made that window a little bit wider and opened up the opportunities a little bit further down the line.

From everything we’ve seen, how close it is and how fast it is and now how close they can race, I think we’re going to see a very similar sort of race to the first half of last year and then hopefully one just as exciting at the end.

TOWNSEND BELL: Yeah, I agree with James. I think it’s going to be fiercely competitive, mainly because there are some teams on the rise in the field — Danica talked about AJ Foyt Racing. Absolutely incredible performance in qualifying. But that performance starts with preparation and a commitment to excellence that frankly goes back to probably October of last year when the teams really set the course for their off-season development, specifically to perform well at Indianapolis.

You’ve got two AJ Foyt cars that look incredibly fast that frankly would not have been in the picture in terms of expectations even a month ago, and then you add in Arrow McLaren that have come with a four-car team, also crazy fast race cars, on top of the establishment, Penske, of course, Ganassi, the Andretti teams.

Then you’ve got smaller programs. Just like at Dreyer Reinbold Racing with two cars that easily qualified, or Juncos Hollinger Racing that comfortably made the show, not without a little bit of drama.

You pack that all in, the flow of the race is oftentimes really determined in that first stint. Does it go green for 40 or 50 laps to start this race, or is there kind of high drama and big aggression at the start that puts us into a cadence of maybe more yellows than we’ve seen in the past.

I tend to think we’re going to be more in that dramatic first stint where there’s going to be some contested moments at the end of these long straightaways at the speedway, Turn 1 and Turn 3, maybe even on the start, principally because you’ve got so much high expectation coming from the middle of the pack with two Penske drivers, Newgarden and McLaughlin, starting further back, Ed Carpenter and Will Power, who we already talked about. These are cars and drivers expecting to be at the front and to be there early, so I’ll be watching big moves at the start and see what the resulting drama looks like.

LEIGH DIFFEY: I think the other thing we keep into consideration, too, is this has been an eventless practice and qualifying period. There has been no major incidents, yet there’s been some engine issues and there’s been some brushes of the wall, but there hasn’t been that one moment, which is quite rare to go through a month of May and not see it like this. So is this the saucepan with hot water in it that’s about to bubble and tip the saucepan lid off? Like is that amount of pent-up energy, is that going to be released here somewhere?

I think adding to what Townsend and Hinch said, don’t forget about Team Penske. They don’t enjoy what’s happened in qualifying and not being in the limelight, so they’re going to be ready come race time, as well.

Danica, given that you know the Rahal team extremely well, they’ve had a difficult time yesterday with Graham, obviously, how do you think they go from what happened yesterday to preparing for the biggest race of the year?

DANICA PATRICK: Yeah, that was heartbreaking. I watched that just with my fists together going like, oh, I just know the pain. I have been there before with rain conditions and various different things, and also just having so much empathy for Graham, to be the driver that he is and then to not be in it. I texted him and just said, everybody knows your talent, and this just happens.

I said that the speedway shows no mercy. There was a point in time when Penske didn’t make the field.

It’s just one of those places that when it’s not there, it’s not there. He had so much poise. I didn’t hear Bobby (Rahal) talk at all. I’m not sure if he did. But Graham had so much poise, but yet so authentic, and I think he handled it incredibly well.

There’s a very common saying, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so I’m sure that that will be the case. But Bobby and his team have been extremely successful, as I’ve been a part of some of that, so I’m sure that this will give them the kick in the butt to figure it out, as I’m pretty sure they have some very talented engineers on the team right now.

But at this point in time, all you can do is buckle down and try and fill your head with the most positive things you can and get a good race car that gives you confidence. That’s the best thing they can do for their drivers at this point in time is to get a car that’s steady in traffic and comfortable, and that usually goes a long way on Sunday.

Mike and Dale and Leigh, as guys that cover a number of big events outside of motorsports and INDYCAR, how do you put the scope of the Indy 500 into context, and is there a first memory you have or a “holy cow” kind of moment in terms of when that struck you, being at a big event like the 500?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I came from growing up around NASCAR races and thinking that the Daytona 500 was the greatest thing and the biggest thing going, and while I’m very proud of that, when I walked out through Gasoline Alley on race day for my first Indy 500 and saw — I know that the race cars are out on the front straightaway but you couldn’t see any of that because of the people.

There’s just the enormity of the size of the crowd, the interest of so many people, like-minded people in one place at one time, it was just incredible.

Standing down there with the cars on the grid and everybody going through the traditional processes of the pre-race leading right up to the moment the drivers kind of shoo everybody away from the cars and the drivers get in, I had seen nothing like that. I had never been around anything like that in motorsports.

I think being in a pace car leading the field, it looked like jet fighters floating right across the top of the racetrack. There’s this really odd, incredible energy that comes from specifically before the start of the race from the field of cars. There’s so much preparation that goes into getting to this moment, and here they are getting ready to be turned loose for the very first start of the race, and there’s this anticipation, excitement. There’s this hope that things are going to prevail individually. All of that sort of radiating off of the field and they’re pacing around that racetrack.

When you get that close to it, if you ever have a chance to ride in a pace car or anything like that before a race of that magnitude, that’s where you’ll feel it.

That’s two moments right there, I think, that I’ll never experience again anywhere else, and there’s countless others as you move around the racetrack throughout the day.

LEIGH DIFFEY: I always think about large events, and NBC Sports being the home of the Olympics here in the States, we get to go to different countries and different venues, and it moves around, and then you have all of the respective sports and different venues. It’s not one concentrated point at any one time.

Then you have the football World Cup which changes venues, and then you have your different sports, different iconic events like the Super Bowl or the AFL Grand Final or this past weekend with the Premier League with the title being decided, never in the same spot at the one time; it always moves around.

But this is such a concentrated tradition that you get sucked in by the passion and the history and the ritual and the respect that the people have for the ritual. It’s just so addictive, and it drags you in.

Then you never forget the first time that you stood in a corner and watch an INDYCAR take one of the four turns at speed, and you don’t know whether to giggle or to be afraid. You’re excited. You are blown away. You’re amazed. It’s a feeling that never leaves you. There is nothing — it doesn’t matter what anybody says — there is nothing like this event on the planet.

You may go to an event that has 65,000 people in a stadium, or you may be lucky enough to see 100,000 people in a stadium, but to be at a sporting event where cars are going over 200 miles an hour and there are more than 300,000 people in one spot at one time, it’s not hyperbole; there’s nothing like it in the world.

MIKE TIRICO: I’ll add two quick anecdotes. I mentioned the one at the beginning of the call. My first time with Danica at Indy before the race got started when we were all sitting on a set right before we entered Turn 1, I couldn’t believe we were there and I couldn’t believe looking in either direction how many people there were, and there were people as far as you could see.

The big-sport perspective is I’ve been lucky enough to be on the field, helping hand out the trophy at the Super Bowl a few times, and host the opening ceremony for the Olympics and call football games regularly in stadiums that have 70,000 or even in my college football days, the Michigan stadium has 110,000 people, and this is three times that. That gives you just a sense of the scale.

What I love about how large it is is how personal and individual it is, as well, because when we had the pandemic year, that place was so eerie, so silent, yet all you heard from folks were, well, I’ve been to 43 in a row, and I don’t want my streak to end. It’s a very personal connection with the community that I think no sporting event has.

For something this large to go house to house there in Speedway and in Carmel and all the places in Indiana really resonates with me.

The last thing I’ll tell you is Dale Jr. and Danica have been in high-pressure, high-speed situations, and they’re cool about all this stuff, and I get to sit on the pit box with them and watch the race.

Last year, I think there was a restart maybe with 25 (laps) to go. I think that was the restart. The two of them took out their cameras and they’re taking a picture of the restart as it’s coming. They’re filming it or taking a still picture. I don’t know which one. I’ve got a picture of the two of them taking a picture, and I thought, this is the damned coolest thing; these two have done this at the highest level, but they are caught up in what this is all about, and it’s the scene and it’s the cars and it’s the moments that only Indy delivers, and that resonates with me still to this day, that even those who have been behind the wheel and in these moments like this still think it’s cool.

That says to me how powerful the experience of Indy and the 500 together truly is.

James, Graham was bumped from the race late in the session yesterday, kind of similar to the devastating fashion you were bumped in 2018. Can you relate to what Graham went through, and did you have any advice for him yesterday?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I can certainly relate. I saw him last night afterwards, and basically went up and gave him a big hug and said, hey, man, I get it.

It really is one of the worst feelings on earth as a driver, sitting there in that car watching Jack’s run, and I’m sure when Jack left the pits, he felt not necessarily confident, but I think like most of us, we were pretty skeptical that they were going to be able to go out immediately after a run and go faster.

Then as those laps started clicking off quicker and quicker, I’m sure he felt like the entire world was caving in, and that already small tight cockpit felt even smaller and tighter.

But as was already mentioned, the way that he handled it, in fact the way both drivers handled it was incredibly impressive, two very class acts there.

But I told him straight up, I said there’s no words of wisdom here. I don’t really have anything for you that’s going to make you feel better because nothing is going to make you feel better, but just know that it’s just a phase. Today is going to be one of the worst days of your career, but tomorrow is going to be a little bit better and then a little bit better the day after that, and eventually this will just be a story you tell to your kids.

But I certainly can feel for him and the anguish that he’s got going on right now.

For the drivers, Danica, Townsend and James, looking back on your careers at the Indy 500, what was that “welcome to the Indy 500” moment, whether it was good, bad or anything in between?

DANICA PATRICK: I suppose the ones that stick out the most from each would be, for me, it all felt very good, for Indy especially, showing up to rookie orientation. I had never worn nail polish, but for some reason, I think it was because it was so early in the month and I was flying there from Arizona where I lived, and that was the very beginning of the month, that was when we had a whole month there, and I had pink nail polish on, and there’s like one of my favorite photos other than right after the race in 2005 hugging my dad. There’s a picture of me putting my Hans device on with my pink nail polish, and I just have just such fond memories of that first time at the track and rookie orientation and pulling into the pits every single time after I made a run and there being just 10 or 20 photographers right in front of the car.

It was just, welcome to Indy. It was like, this is a big deal, and you felt like it was.

Then the one that sticks out from Daytona is my first full season in the Cup car to qualify on the front row and have photos of me starting on the pole with the outside front row being Jeff Gordon, which was – sorry, Dale – my favorite driver when I was young.

I have a picture from when I raced at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the go-kart track on the inside with my sister and my dad at the race shop standing in front of the Rainbow Warrior car. That was one of those two where I’m like, wow, this is real life. This is so cool.

TOWNSEND BELL: I think one of the lasting memories from my first Indy 500 was strapping my helmet on as I stood next to my race car about to climb in for my first 500 in 2006 and for whatever reason, glancing up into the grandstands at the approximate location of where I sat 20 years prior, exactly 20 years prior as an 11-year-old boy watching my first Indy 500 in 1986 and realizing the achievement of just being there.

It was surreal. Some of you might know my story; I didn’t have two nickels to rub together when I decided to drop out of college and pursue becoming a racing driver, and it just was an enormously powerful realization of that journey, and I’ll always remember that, how special it was to be on the other side of the fence, and to almost see that 11-year-old boy in the grandstands was powerful.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: For me, it’s interesting. Mine is a little different, I think, because when you come here as a rookie, everything is overwhelming. You’re just so floored that you’re really here and you’re really doing it, and you go through all the things that you go through in May for the first time and you go through qualifying and you go through the parade on Saturday, then you have driver intros, then you do the whole ceremony at the start with the anthem and “Taps” and “Back Home Again” and all those things, and they’re all so special.

You just sort of are kind of wide-eyed and trying to take it all in.

But for me, the real weight of the Indy 500 and the true meaning of it really hit me was when I crashed out of the race about half distance. I crashed out, and I had gone out of races before in INDYCAR and lots of times in your career as a kid, whatever. I’ve never had a feeling like that.

It felt so much worse, and you were almost like pleading with some higher power to just hit the reset button and go back 30 seconds so you could do something different and make a different decision. In that moment I just felt a way for all of my team and my sponsors and my family and just everybody that I had never felt with any other kind of DNF or anything like that or any kind of mistake.

I think that’s the moment that it really struck me. It was when it all sort of disappeared, all got taken away in that moment, and it was very powerful. I never forgot that.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for participating and for joining today. There will be a transcript of this call available in a few hours on NBCSportsGrouppressbox.com or by contacting one of us in the communications department. Our coverage begins on Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. exclusively on Peacock and then 11:00 a.m. on Peacock and NBC. Thanks, everybody.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Mike Tirico

Danica Patrick

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Leigh Diffey

Townsend Bell

James Hinchcliffe

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us today for our media conference call to preview Sunday’s 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Joining us today is host Mike Tirico and guest analysts Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., as well as our lead INDYCAR race team of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe.

We’ll begin with opening remarks. We’ll start with Mike Tirico.

MIKE TIRICO: Good afternoon, everyone. Great to be on the call, and great to be with our INDYCAR group one more time. It has been three wonderful experiences for me. I’m looking forward to the fourth for me personally. The entirety of NBC Sports, it’s so great to bookend the month of May with two of the biggest races in America, the Kentucky Derby at the start of the month, then the Indianapolis 500 at the end of the month. These massive crowds, traditions that are over a century long in our country.

For me personally, it’s great to be back working with Danica and Dale Jr. I’ve had a chance to do this a few times. It will be nice to enjoy the weekend at the Brickyard, back to the way it was the first time there in 2019 with a full crowd.

Obviously no one there in 2020. Limited crowd in ’21. To be back to full steam like we’ve seen at other events adds to the ambience, experience and the television broadcast as well. Looking forward to being with everyone and being back at the Brickyard. Happy to answer any questions, but I’m sure they’re going to be for the experts.

With that, I’ll kick it over to Danica.

DANICA PATRICK: Thanks, Mike.

Well, great to be back with you, Mike, Dale, the whole crew that does the whole season. I have so much fun when I do this race. I’m already back in Indianapolis as of yesterday. Just driving around, seeing all the checkered flags, Indianapolis Motor Speedway flags out in front of houses, the city is in the spirit.

Even better of course, everyone that wants to come can come to the race as we have full grandstands for the first time in a couple years.

On track, it’s one of the most exciting years. The story line of the young guns, then the old guard, is still going. Even more dramatic right now with the polesitter of Scott (Dixon) being the fastest qualifier in history. But then, of course, the young guys are right there. It’s going to be another super exciting Indy 500 I’m sure.

Can Helio (Castroneves) get his fifth? Obviously that would be dramatic. Being there for when he won his fourth, it was a really fun experience. It was cool to be able to watch that happen. He’s such a good guy.

There’s just lots that’s ready to unfold. What I’ve always loved about the Indy 500 is that there are so many opportunities for different endings. That’s why, from a driver’s perspective, it’s such an alluring race, so sought after. There are so many drivers that can walk away and say, It could have been me if it had just gone this way. It’s the longest, most amount of pit stops, most amount of things that can happen.

We’ll all be ready to report on it and get that to the fans. Just happy to be back. I think from here, turning it over to Dale.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I’m excited to get the ask from NBC to return to Indy and work the race. It’s hard to explain to anybody what it’s like to be there in person on that day. I’ve watched that race my whole life, and most of the time was watching it from the garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway, like the rest of the NASCAR industry. We all stopped everything we were doing in that moment and tried to get every minute of viewership we could to see how that was going to play out.

I’d always grown up in the stockcar world; that world had captured my heart. When I went to the Indy 500 for the very first time, it’s not even close what that race is like in person compared to anything I had ever experienced in my career.

I’m bringing my wife this year. I just cannot wait for her to see the size of this event, to feel the tradition that you feel, as the pre-race is sort of playing itself out, it’s so special.

I’m so thankful to be asked to come back. Traditionally in these type of events I would be working with Rut during the pre-race, but I’ll be on the pit box for the pre-race show with Townsend. I’ve really enjoyed working alongside him. It’s going to be fun to do that again.

During the race, I’ll be up there with Danica and Mike, like I’ve done in the past. That will be a lot of fun when they drop in to get our take on what we’re watching. That’s such a great location on pit road. You really get a sense of the speed and the energy. You’re in great proximity to the crowd itself. You’re taking all the things that are happening at the racetrack during the event. You’re in close proximity to everything. You really get pretty fired up. Just really makes for an enthusiastic show.

I’m excited to get into town. It’s going to be an awesome week. Can’t wait to see Diffey and Townsend and everybody. Haven’t seen some of these folks in quite a while.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Dale, you speak about the feeling, you’re bringing Amy this year, what she’s going to experience. There are so many great story lines throughout the field, which we could point to in any direction. But I want to bring everybody back to the fans.

We experienced the most bizarre race and sporting event ever in 2020 with nobody here. This year, there’s going to be in excess of 300,000 people here. It’s the biggest sporting day, single-day crowd, in the world. We cannot lose sight of that because having done Olympic Summer Games, Olympic Winter Games, I went to Super Bowl 50. Everybody on this call has their favorite or a meaningful sporting event. We cannot lose sight of the fact this is the biggest single-day sporting crowd in the world. Nowhere assembles a crowd like Indianapolis.

The other day our new teammate and our buddy James Hinchcliffe and I experienced this, on qualifying weekend, trying to walk from the pagoda to Gasoline Alley was a challenge. There were that many people there on qualifying day, which has not been a rich tradition for a number of years. It used to be back in the day.

For some reason, maybe people are just enjoying going to live sporting events again. We’re back. The world is back. I know there’s still some health challenges. But the feeling this year just seems something different. It’s awesome. We had a terrific GMR Grand Prix of Indy. We had the most mesmerizing qualifying weekend with the fastest ever qualifying field in more than a hundred years. There’s so many special elements to this weekend that we should and rightfully so be excited about. T-Bell?

TOWNSEND BELL: Thanks, Diff. Great opening remarks by everyone. To drill down even further on the energy and the excitement and the size of the crowd, as you guys were speaking, I was thinking to myself, Why is that? Why is this the biggest live sporting event in the world? It’s called “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” for a reason.

Ever since I was 11 years old and came to this race in 1986, the spectacle was twofold: it was the foundation of insane, regard-breaking speeds, then competition on race day. People showed up for really I think those two reasons, in addition to being an amazing celebration of our country, Memorial Day weekend.

For many years it felt like the first part of that equation, the speed part, kind of flat lined. I think that Diff’s observation of the crowd this past weekend, they’re back because, yes, things are opening up again, everybody wants to get out, but they’re back for a reason. They’re back to seeing speeds that are really pushing the limit again. That is the bedrock for me of the Indy 500.

Conor Daly clocked a back straightaway speed in practice on Friday touching on 245 miles an hour, which is just awesome. You think about Scott Dixon’s qualifying run, the fastest polesitter we’ve ever had, at an average speed — average speed — of 234 miles an hour.

The energy for me, the passion, is just at an all-time high. I just cannot wait for this weekend because the cars are going faster, and that matters. Then the competition side of that, this weekend, on Sunday, I think we can expect a huge amount of urgency from some of the cars that didn’t qualify as well as they wanted because I just get the sense you can’t afford to sit and ride around this year like you have in years past.

If you’re somebody like Josef Newgarden or Scott McLaughlin, with fast race cars, but maybe not the fastest qualifying car, I think you’re going to see some urgency in the beginning. It should just be a fantastic race right from the get-go.

Thrilled to be back. Excited for that foundation and that core attribute of speed to really be back in our sport in a fantastic way. Also love having James as part of the team. It gives us really current experience and a lot of key insights that I’m thankful for.

James, take it away.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Thank you, Townsend.

For me, it’s obviously a huge honor and a privilege to be asked to be part of the NBC team for this event. Bit of a different seat for me from the last few years. That transition so far this year has been very smooth, been a lot of fun. Such a great team with us at the racetrack, back at Stamford that makes this all happen. It’s been a real joy to be part of that team.

For me, the month of May, specifically race day at the Indy 500, no doubt some of the most special memories of my career and of my life. But also some of the most stressful times you’re ever going to spend behind the wheel of a race car or getting ready to get into a car.

I’m so excited to kind of see from this new perspective now with the knowledge that I have from the last 10 or so years of being in the sport. Now getting not to just witness it from the outside, but share that experience with so many people.

One of my favorite things has always been educating people about INDYCAR racing and what we do. Now we have this phenomenal platform to tell the world what they’re watching these drivers do. An incredible feat that every one of these 33 drivers is taking on Sunday. Just trying to make sure we get that point across to the viewers is an important one.

Like I said, just really happy to be part of the team. Really appreciate the opportunity. Can’t wait to follow along on all the story lines that were touched on, talked about, see how this plays out.

Q. Dale, it seems like some of your best Dale Jr. Download interviews are when you get together with INDYCAR drivers and legends, seems like you get immersed into their story. As a fellow racer, you’re able to appreciate what they’ve done and how they do it. How much has Dale Jr. Download, along with your curiosity about the Indianapolis 500 as a youngster, really helped you get immersed for this role to be part of the telecast?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think doing the podcast and the show gave me a little bit more confidence as I do it, as an interviewer, challenged me to sort of get outside of that comfort zone and interview not only non-NASCAR drivers and individuals, but non-racing, non-sports individuals.

We have had a lot of fun talking to a lot of the INDYCAR drivers because each driver’s path to where they are and where they will be this Sunday is so unique to themselves. In other forms of motorsport or in stockcars, the paths are maybe not predictable, but unremarkable. That’s not the case with a lot of these INDYCAR drivers.

Their route, there’s never one the same, no two are the same. They travel all across the world seeking opportunities in racing in different countries to eventually somehow find their way here, end up here, with this opportunity to race in INDYCAR and in the Indy 500. It’s really compelling to hear how they made those decisions.

I think INDYCAR has some of the most interesting and entertaining, fun personalities in the drivers. And they are different than what I’m used to experiencing.

There’s a difference in approach to being accessible that these drivers have; the way that they need to be accessible in their series, at the racetrack, to the fans; the way I think the INDYCAR drivers all seem to recognize the importance of that and all seem to work together to push not only themselves but the organization, their sport, forward.

It’s a fun thing to be around. Yeah, we have a lot of fun when we get those guys in the room. Certainly makes us much bigger fans of not only the series but the drivers individually. It’s pretty cool to get to know some of them.

Can’t wait to run into a couple of those guys this weekend.

Q. How excited have you been watching your former Hendrick teammate do so well this month?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I’ve been really excited for Jimmie. I was talking about that today on the podcast. I’m a little bit nervous because he seems to be pushing to the max. Every time he’s on the track, it’s like he is on the edge. Nobody’s going to reach out and tell a seven-time champion, with all the success he’s had in his career, what to do, how to drive, how to approach anything.

I’m just pulling for him to have a great experience in the race and have a result that he can be happy with and smile about in the end.

I am full of anxiety that he’s going to push, push, push too hard, and somehow that might put him in a bad situation. He’s gotten so, so close a few times already this month to some bad situations. But he’s a pro. You trust that he knows what he’s out there doing, understanding the limits of the car.

Q. Leigh, given Formula 1’s growth in the United States, I’m curious what opportunities and challenges you see for INDYCAR moving forward.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Thanks for being on and thanks for the question.

Look, I think it’s a massive positive just for the sport. We are super proud of the production values and the product that we put out for the Indy 500. Actually, frankly, for the entire NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

Part of the family is Sky Sports under the umbrella of Comcast. What Sky does for Formula 1 is very good. It’s a great product. Then you go to more poignantly about your point, sport, Formula 1, its success, which the explosion here in the U.S. can be pretty much directly attributed to the Netflix Drive to Survive multiple episodes and series.

I like the fact that it has been able to attract not necessarily motorsports fans to the sport. We don’t need to really dig into F1 or INDYCAR or NASCAR, whatever it might be. It’s just the sport holistically people are interested in. We’re seeing that. Our ratings are up on INDYCAR. The beginning of the year with FOX for NASCAR before we take over, ratings are up. Formula 1 is enjoying a really good team. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar series, which we air on NBC Sports, is enjoying a terrific year.

I don’t know why, but if it is attributable to Formula 1, let’s ride off it, let’s enjoy it. Right now the sport of motorsport is enjoying a really positive time. As I said in my opening remarks, just the crowd at Indy here for qualifying weekend was fantastic.

People are jacked. People are engaged. People are enjoying the sport of motorsports. While we’re in this, because people are all too quick to talk about the glory days, the golden days, back when, blah, blah, blah, maybe the glory days and golden days are just now, so let’s enjoy this moment.

Q. Townsend, James and Danica. As the three on the call who have competed in this race, we saw some of the fastest qualifying speeds in history last weekend. How do you think that affects what we might see in the race? Do you think it favors a specific team, veterans over rookies? What do you think on that end?

TOWNSEND BELL: Yeah, it was awesome to see the speeds up. I don’t know that I could put my finger on any one reason why it’s just a little bit quicker this year. The car obviously has evolved, the engine manufacturers between Chevy and Honda are in a fierce competition.

But mainly I think it’s the track penetrant has also made a little bit of a difference. The biggest thing I think it leads to is on race day maybe we’ll see some fuel consumption that is a little bit more aggressive than we have had in years past. Anytime you’re going faster, you’re burning more fuel. Potentially it’s going to shorten up the stints a little bit and open up the strategies just a little bit more.

Maybe some teams are going to elect to make one extra pit stop than we have seen historically. I’m not exactly sure the reason why, but I’m happy the speeds are up, I think it’s that much more exciting.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: I’ll jump in here and say I agree with Townsend. It’s hard to put your finger on what’s causing those speeds. I don’t really mind why it is, I just love that it’s happening.

For the race itself, I think when we went back to race running on Monday, the pace that we saw from cars running up front was probably a lot closer to what we saw in race trim last year compared to the gap that we’re seeing in qualifying trim.

My hope is that, as Townsend alluded to the penetrant, maybe it is adding a little more grip. Maybe that makes following a little bit easier, which hopefully will make passing a little more frequent. Either way, with the fastest field in history, you know it’s a close competition guys fighting out there to make up every spot every chance they get.

I think the race is going to be just as exciting as what we’ve seen the last few seasons.

DANICA PATRICK: From my perspective, I think it’s just really mostly exciting from a fan perspective. It adds drama and excitement to know that we have essentially, like you say, I don’t know if it’s considered the fastest field in history, but we have at least the fastest qualifier. I think that’s just great to tell the fans.

Speed is exciting to people.

As far as what it means inside the car, we’ve been creeping around these speeds for a while. It’s kind of just a little bit more. So I think probably the guys had a better perspective on that, having been more in the thick of it this year, having obviously been recently in the car.

I mean, fuel could be a thing, sure. I remember driving at 230-some miles an hour versus 200 miles an hour, you got to turn the wheel a little bit slower. Just that little bit could make it a little bit more exciting for the drivers. By ‘exciting’, I mean a handful.

Q. Townsend, James and Danica, as the three folks that have raced with Scott at different portions of his career, can you give any sort of perspective of what you feel like finally being able to break through and get that notorious second win at the Indy 500 after 14 years might mean for him.

TOWNSEND BELL: Thanks for the question.

I raced against Scott starting in 2000, I think was my first year in Indy Lights. It was clear back then that Scott was special in a number of ways, particularly his race craft, his ability to compartmentalize what would normally be a range of emotions that I think any human would normally go through during a race, whether that’s exhilaration or frustration or anything in between, he seemed to really manage that well.

When I think about what it takes to be successful at Indianapolis, being able to compartmentalize emotion throughout the race is really important. He’s done it better than anyone. That’s why he’s a six-time champion.

Sure he has one Indy 500 win, but I would put that mostly down to circumstantial. He’s been in the hunt so many times. He’s been at the front so many times. I think we ran the stats the other day. The Andretti family, with Mario, Michael and Marco, 70 total starts, one win. We’re talking about a group of names there that have always been competitive at the Speedway.

I’m going to put it down mostly to circumstance.

Now, if there was ever a year that I think Scott has a better chance than others, it might be this year. His team, Chip Ganassi Racing, all month or all week, if you will, practice and qualifying, we have circled those cars as standouts in terms of their balance, speed, how they handle dirty air, all of that.

They seem to be a cut above everyone. Scott, on that team, is the strongest driver at Indianapolis. He’s got a great shot this year.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: Kind of following up on Townsend’s point there, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn deep down part of what motivates Scott to still be an INDYCAR driver, other than the obvious, is that second win at the 500. Six championships in, I know how much a second win would mean to him. I can’t help but think that’s part of the reason he’s still doing this full-time and why the drivers push yourself to be competitive exists.

The big challenge this year, as Townsend said, are his teammates. I think in years past, Scott has kind of always been the clear favorite on the team, the clear fastest on the team. This year has been a little bit more of a struggle for him. Even the start of the month of May wasn’t as smooth as we’re used to seeing. It wasn’t really until Saturday morning where we saw the unbelievable pace. Sunday morning actually where we saw the big pace come out of the 9 car.

While I agree that he has a tremendous shot because of the dominance we’ve seen of the team so far, his biggest competitors unfortunately are in the same stable. You look at what Alex Palou did last year, Tony Kanaan, Marcus Ericsson has been quick, then of course Jimmie having run more 500-mile races than the rest of the 32 drivers he’s racing against Sunday combined have done. We’ll see what plays out. But he is definitely going to be one to watch.

DANICA PATRICK: Yeah, James, I think that’s a really good point, just the struggles that he’s had. He hasn’t had the best start to the season this year.

What I find just so impressive and admirable and rare is how long he’s been at it and how good he is, how much passion. I think that’s a part that’s amazing, just the real passion and drive for it after that much time.

To be struggling, then to sort of end up in the place right now where he’s the fastest qualifier, that drive is still there. I think that’s just rare. It’s exciting to watch that.

As you guys have pointed out, he’s been in the mix so many times, like it just seemed like a clear favorite to win so many times, leading so many laps. I would be really curious to ask him, like, what fuels him, what motivates him. There’s clearly some magic there because he just keeps coming (laughter).

Q. Danica, obviously as the pioneer for females in auto racing, then last year you had Simona De Silvestro run the Indy 500, and it was announced earlier that an all-female INDYCAR team led by Beth Paretta with Simona as the driver is going to compete in three races this year. Danica, having run your last Indy 500 a couple years ago, where is your evaluation of auto racing as far as accessibility for drivers, owners, pit crew members? How much ground has been made, and what ground is yet to be made up?

DANICA PATRICK: Thanks for your question.

Just something unique about me, I’m just not one of those girl athletes that is trying to point out all the girl athlete stuff. I competed against the guys, and I used my femininity to my comfort level, to the extent it helps me in my career with sponsors and really just, honestly, express that side of me.

So I’m not here to – how do I say it – try to promote it. But I think if there are women drivers and pit crew and engineers and personnel that are qualified for the job, they sure as heck should be doing it.

So I think there are more opportunities than ever, to be honest. I don’t think it’s less. I don’t think it’s harder. I think it’s easier, as those that came before me, and then myself, and so on. It clears the path.

Also it makes people want to find something rare again. Women are still not common. So, yeah, I mean, I think there are probably some aspects within a full women’s team of physically it’s going to be hard to be as fast as guys on a pit stop, things like that. I think like pure physicality does play into it.

The car was an extension of me, but it wasn’t just me. So I think that kind of bridged the gap between the difference. But all in all, there are more opportunities I think now than ever. It will be interesting to see how they do. I hope they’re competitive.

Q. Dale Jr., just as sort of a crossover with NASCAR fans, like everyone wants your opinion on things. If you could make a prediction for who you think will win Sunday’s race?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Oh, my gosh.

Well, I think as some people on this call said before, the Ganassi car has a lot of speed. (Scott) Dixon being fast, being smart, being such a great talent, probably is putting himself in that conversation as one of the favorites.

Honestly, though, I think Jimmie (Johnson) could surprise a lot of people. I think that he made a good account of himself at Texas. This whole month, he was able to have so much time with the car and the team at the facility, sort of move beyond the enormity of the moment. I know that’s going to be nearly impossible when he walks out on the grid for the race to sort of be beyond the enormity of the moment or the weight of it. I really think Jimmie could do really, really well.

Outside of that, the one thing that I kind of like about this race and where the series is, where the pace is throughout the field, it’s really anybody’s race. At some point somebody could be there that maybe surprises us a little bit or somebody we might not tend to expect to be there. The potential for that shocker is always there.

I guess it depends on how the pace goes for the race, how hard these guys run. If fuel mileage is not an issue or if there’s guys that are trying to work themselves into a certain pit strategy where they have to run a certain pace, we’ve seen that in the past. We’ve seen other teams run hard all day long, not worry about fuel mileage, dictate from the front of the race what’s going on.

It will be interesting to see how they approach it, how the different teams approach it, how the drivers approach it as far as that goes.

I don’t know. I would probably put my money on Dixon if it was me. I’d have a little bit on Jimmie, as well.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Dale, it just blows me away that more people aren’t talking about what Jimmie Johnson has already accomplished. So this Sunday he has the opportunity to become just the third person ever — ever — to win the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500, along with A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti.

People are saying, Oh, yeah, Jimmie is in the field… They should be talking about him. He qualified in the Fast 12. He had the most miraculous save in qualifying that you’re ever going to see at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He doesn’t need to do this, he wants to do this.

His results on the road and street courses have not been what he wants. They’ve been pretty disappointing in his own words. But on the oval, he has done more 500-mile races than the entire field put together. It staggers me why more people aren’t talking about Jimmie. That’s to his benefit. If he sneaks in there and does this, we’re all going to witness a special piece of history.

I think we should all acknowledge what he is doing and what he’s done, what he continues to do when he doesn’t need to do it. He could be sitting on a beach somewhere, but he’s not. He wants to do this because it was his childhood dream to be an INDYCAR driver. His hero, Rick Mears, and his dirt bike hero, Ricky Johnson, have motivated him to get to this point.

People talk with such reverence about Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Petty, and Jimmie has the same amount of NASCAR championships.

We shouldn’t forget this moment in motorsports history of what he is doing. Shouldn’t be so blasé about the fact that he’s in the field. This is a guy in his mid 40s and didn’t need to do this, but he is doing it. On the ovals, he’s excelling. He blew past Scott Dixon at Texas Motor Speedway to go into the top five. The team called him back because he had some fuel issues, so he finished sixth. He went past a six-time champion and a guy who has excelled at Texas Motor Speedway and the guy who sits on pole position for this weekend.

We have to take the blinkers off and acknowledge what this quietly spoken hero has achieved already.

Q. Mike, Danica and Dale. Could you expand on how you view your respective roles on the broadcast this weekend?

MIKE TIRICO: I’ll be happy to start. It’s the same thing like any other event that I have the pleasure of hosting. I think it is to welcome us on the air, set the scene, big-picture perspective of what’s going on, some resets within the broadcast. Also all the buildup.

I’ve been lucky enough to cover about everything here in sports in the last few years. I can’t think of a more tradition-filled, dynamic buildup to an event than what we have at Indy. To be right there on the track as all of that is building up, moving around that area with the driver introductions, back home again in Indiana, national anthem, all of that, especially on Memorial Day weekend, it’s part of the essence and great tradition that everyone has been talking about.

My job is pretty simple: to set up those moments and our analysts who are with us, elicit the information that lets the person who is watching feel a little bit more close to the event and a little bit more knowledgeable about what’s going on.

Once the race starts, sit with Dale and Danica and get their responses to what they’re seeing from our perspective.

DANICA PATRICK: Mike, I don’t know if it’s a simple job, my friend. You make it look simple, but you have a big job to carry the broadcast and build the excitement up.

I feel like my role is to help give some perspective from what it would be like if you were a driver, the whole experience of the Indy 500, what it’s like, the ambience, what it’s like the night before, the morning of, going to intros, being on the track, what are you thinking about, what kind of things can occur in the race, what is your perspective. Just everything from a driver’s perspective is really what I’m there to help educate the fans on.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think for me, I have motorsports knowledge, but I don’t go to every single INDYCAR race. I didn’t grow up going to those races. A lot of things that I’m seeing, questions are instantly popping into your head about why did this happen this way, why did they choose to do this? Maybe I’m seeing or triggered by things or excited by something that someone who’s there every single day may take for granted.

I think just being curious and tapping into that curiosity, saying, Why did this happen? How come this was the decision made? A lot of times you end up asking the question that the viewer at home has in their own head. That’s kind of fun for me.

You got to embrace the fact that you’re not an expert. You do have questions and you would love to have some answers. I kind of enjoy that role, to be honest with you. When I’m put in these positions, it’s kind of fun. I’m there as a fan, there experiencing it as a fan. I’m sitting around people who have all these answers to the questions that are popping up into my head. I enjoy it. It’s a great way to see the race.

MIKE TIRICO: If I could tailgate on that answer for a second.

It’s a good point because events like the Kentucky Derby might be the only horse race people watch all year. The Indy 500 might be one of the few, if any, INDYCAR races that you watch all year. There are a lot of fans who are not the hardcores, who are week in, week out watching.

To have us on the show, the pre-race show, some perspective, it’s welcoming to the viewers because, my goodness, Diff and Hinch, Hinch isn’t a rookie. If you watch any of the qualifying or practice, he’s awesome. Townsend, the rest of the crew. Rene, the producer, does such an incredible job. That group does terrific work.

If you watched the qualifying over the weekend, or even the practice show yesterday, such captivating stuff. Hopefully we can just add to it a little bit and help fill out the largesse of a show like this around our team that week in, week out is at the top of their game.

We’ve seen that the last three years during the 500. We’re excited we get to hang with our group, to be with Diff and everybody else who is the regular INDYCAR group for NBC, to get to work together.

It’s a fun experience for all of us, for sure.

Q. Danica, Townsend, Dale, about the record speeds this week, I’m kind of curious really in general how fast is too fast? I understand 230 mph in today’s car is different than 230 ten years ago. How do you weigh the record speeds versus the safety of the cars, being able to put up a banner saying record speeds? I bring in Dale also because I know he witnessed as a teenager NASCAR going through something similar with Bill Elliott doing 200-something miles an hour at Talladega.

TOWNSEND BELL: I think it’s a great question, and the simple answer is I don’t know, but I want to find out. I think that’s really the story of Indianapolis for over a hundred years, is just that question: How fast can they go? How much faster can they go? Where is the limit?

Whether that’s Indianapolis or chasing the speed of sound back in the ’50s and ’60s, that curiosity I think is the reason I fell in love with this race in the first place. It was mind-bending as a kid to go to Indianapolis and just couldn’t imagine these cars going over 200 miles an hour. When you see it in person or on TV, it really brings that fundamental question up.

I will say years ago we started to flirt with the driver’s physical limit at a race in Texas where there was a lot more banking on a shorter course, really high speeds. We started to get to a G-force level where the driver’s physical well-being was compromised a bit in terms of blackout and vertigo.

At Indianapolis there’s less banking in the corners. Right now, from a pure G-force standpoint, we are well below that threshold. I think there’s room to go there, and I’m fascinated to find out what that limit might be, and that’s why I watch, why I’m so curious.

DANICA PATRICK: I mean, of course I agree with Townsend. I don’t know. But I do know that the safety team and everybody that works hard on making sure that the cars are as safe as possible, there’s a meeting where we go over what has been done in the off-season to prepare for the next, what updates and tweaks are they making to make it more safe.

Obviously INDYCARS now have a windshield, which is something we never had for all of history until a couple of years ago. They’re always making improvements.

They would know from a technical standpoint, like, what speed does it take flight, when the car gets to a certain angle. They would know all that information.

What I guess I hope this would do, just the topic of it being the fastest qualifier in history at Indy, it was just like everybody out there racing is reminded of the sheer speed that’s out there.

Look, you can have a big crash at 100, 150, 200, 245 mph. You can have tragic accidents. But let’s hope it’s at least a little bit of a reminder of how fast they’re going out there and to respect each other, not do silly things.

We want an exciting race, but you can do that without touching wheels.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Townsend had some really, really great points.

I think a couple boxes need to always remain checked. A few of those being the safety of the fans attending the race. I think outside of making sure there’s no danger to people that are there to attend, things like that, I mean, there is no ‘too fast’.

As long as the cars are somewhat relatable in terms of how they perform, what makes them work, how drivers drive them. As long as the fans can kind of somewhat relate to what’s out there on the racetrack and what’s making that car go fast, they will always be kind of compelled to watch it. They’ll always be impressed with the speed.

Like you talked about, Bill Elliott’s run, even watching the cars at Indy this week, it’s incredible. We can relate to these cars. They’ve evolved, but the idea and the basic makeup of the machine is the same.

So as long as we can kind of maintain that connection, these things will always be amazing, and we will always be excited to watch them try to push them further and make them go faster.

Q. Dale, now that you’ve been to an Indy 500, is there any part of you that wishes maybe 15 or 20 years ago you could have found a way to run one?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Of course. Without a doubt there are regrets that I didn’t maybe try to figure out a way to be able to experience that once in my life.

So, yeah, when you’re watching a guy like Kyle Larson talk about it and consider it, you’re encouraged because you want to see him go out there and do it. Having my own experience, my own regret, I certainly think that a guy like Kyle Larson would have the same regrets if he doesn’t ever give it a shot.

I love the crossover. I love seeing other drivers from other disciplines go and try other things. My favorite crossover is absolutely NASCAR Cup and INDYCAR, the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500. Watching the drivers move back and forth between disciplines is pretty incredible.

But that ship has sailed. I’m 47. I’ll always wonder, I guess, what might have been, what I could have had the opportunity to do.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. We really appreciate all of our speakers for taking part and all of the press for all of your questions. Thank you so much, everybody.

Again, Indy 500 on NBC, Peacock and Universo, Sunday, 11 a.m. Eastern.