Column: American open-wheel racing is alive and well

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Ryan Hunter-Reay slowed his car on the cool down lap approaching Turn 3. The Indy 500 faithful chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A," in as close to unison as they could manage, and the newly crowned 500 champion drove by.

For the first time since 2006, an American has won the world's greatest race. For only the third time in the last 15 races, a homegrown driver will get his face etched into the Borg-Warner Trophy on Memorial Day weekend.

Maybe I'm a biased American.

But that feels right.

"I'm a proud American boy, that's for sure," Hunter-Reay said in Victory Lane. "This is American history, this race, this is American tradition."

The Indianapolis 500 is an American tradition. But lately the tradition has been for Americans to struggle.

I typically don't care what a driver's nationality is. I grew up a fan of Brazilian Helio Castroneves, and it breaks my heart seeing him dejected after falling 0.060 seconds behind Hunter-Reay. I was wearing my Englishman Dan Wheldon memorial shirt at the track on race day.

But this win hits home.

American open-wheel racing needed this. We need more Ryan Hunter-Reays.

Open-wheel racing in the United States has been through its ups and downs. There are no American drivers currently racing in Formula One. The United States just recently got back its Formula One Grand Prix event in Austin, Texas. IndyCar isn't drawing the attendance numbers it used to, despite on-track action that I would rank the best in the world.

This columnist is an open-wheel traditionalist. No fenders, open cockpit cars racing on ovals, street circuits, road courses and whatever else you can throw at a driver.
Pure racing.

It used to be that you could go to a local short track and watch a young Mario Andretti or AJ Foyt cutting his teeth in a USAC Sprint Car on the road to IndyCar or Formula One. You'd find young Americans wrestling their cars around grassroot tracks in small towns with funny names and dreams of one day racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But young American drivers don't grow up wanting to race in Formula One or IndyCar. They have dreams of NASCAR. That's where the American audience is glued. And I think part of the problem was that the casual American fan was turned off from IndyCar because of the lack of Americans winning the 500.

But what I saw out of Hunter-Reay on Sunday restored my confidence in IndyCar and American open-wheel racing.

His move on Castroneves to take the lead with four laps still has me in awe, and it's etched into my memory forever.

Castroneves left no room for Hunter-Reay to go low, but Hunter-Reay showed him a tire low anyway to let him know he was there. Hunter-Reay made a slight cut to the right, which forced Castroneves to defer from his line slightly up the track and still left practically no room to his inside.

Hunter-Reay went for the little space there was. As quickly as he went outside, Hunter-Reay dove back to the inside and got his nose on the preferred line going into Turn 3.

He forced Castroneves to make a decision: concede the spot or risk wrecking both drivers in the process of defending. It was a move Ayrton Senna himself would have been proud of.

Now, I've grown up watching racing. I've seen too many races to count everywhere from Martinsville, Ind., to Eldora, Ohio, and from Indianapolis to Anderson Speedway and just about everywhere in between.

But THAT ranks as one of the single greatest passes I've ever seen. And it's a carbon copy of the type of move I'd expect to see in a sprint car race at a local short track in the middle of nowhere.

The place where Andretti and Foyt would have cut their teeth. The place American open-wheel racing still lives on.

Hunter-Reay's win is a reminder that open-wheel racing in America is not dead. Americans still have the talent. Not everyone is running to the world of stock cars like the pessimist in me feared.

American Ryan Hunter-Reay won the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500. An American in Victory Lane on Memorial Day weekend celebrating on racing's grandest stage.

So go ahead and chant, fans in Turn 3. It's your day too.  

"U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A."