Indy still ‘Greatest Spectacle’

Sunday will be a full day of racing from Indiana to North Carolina, but more excitement will come from the Indianapolis 500 than the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The best show will be at Indy because cars without fenders racing 230 mph will keep you on the edge of your couch longer than 43 NASCAR stock cars.

That's not the only reason the Indianapolis 500 is worthy of its trademarked billing as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

■ AUDIENCE: A worldwide audience has more reasons to watch Indy than the Coca-Cola 600 because 24 of the 33 Indy starters represent 12 countries. In the starting lineup for the 600-mile marathon at Charlotte, there will be as many Las Vegans -- Kurt and Kyle Busch -- as foreigners -- Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Marcos Ambrose of Australia.

The Busch brothers, however, could give NASCAR the edge.

■ FEMME FATALES: Indy 4, NASCAR 3. Four women qualified for Indy, and three females will be on the starting grid for the NASCAR event if you count the three Sprint Cup trophy girls. Count on frequent updates on where Danica Patrick is running at Indy, which will help you prepare for her hype when she returns to the Nationwide Series next month.

■ PRE-RACE: Charlotte gets saluted for its over-the-top celebration of our military on the eve of Memorial Day. All of that good, however, is diminished by politicians -- a Democrat and a Republican -- invited to serve as honorary starter and honorary race director.

Indy is more traditional, led by the singing of Jim Nabors and Florence Henderson. And its official starter will be Jack Nicholson, who will wave the green flag because no NBA playoff game with his beloved Lakers is scheduled that day.

■ TV COVERAGE: IndyCar races on television are light years ahead of NASCAR broadcasts because IndyCar features split-screen during most of the race with live action shown concurrently with most commercials.

■ NEVADA TIES: NASCAR has the Busch brothers, but the 500 will feature Las Vegas resident Alex Tagliani, Townsend Bell driving for Henderson's Sam Schmidt, and former Las Vegan Davey Hamilton, who will start 14th.

■ POTENTIAL HISTORY: NASCAR and IndyCar can share this one: No team owner has won the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 in the same year. That could change Sunday.

Chip Ganassi driver Jamie McMurray won this year's Daytona race, and Ganassi's Indy drivers qualified third (Dario Franchitti) and sixth (Scott Dixon). Ganassi is also fielding a third Indy entry with Schmidt.

■ RODEO WRINKLES: This is the first 500 for new IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard, who led Professional Bull Riding into the mainstream.

He could spice up the show by replacing his corner workers with bullfighters, who would jump in front of race cars during caution laps to slow them down like they do with bulls. The starter might be replaced by rodeo clown Flint Rasmussen, who would wave flags from track level like in the old days.

■ POST-RACE: The Indy winner will drink milk. The Cup winner will promote his beverage sponsor by spraying Coke, Pepsi, Vitamin Water or an energy drink.

Well, probably not Vitamin Water because Carl Edwards would have to win, and that won't happen.

Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Visit Wolf's motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.