Rochester, N.Y.—"Racing's Greatest Weekend," as SPEED so eloquently hyped all month, is really an American experience. Sure, it includes the Monaco Grand Prix, but that is merely a coincidence. It's not like Monaco planned on placing their event based on an American holiday. Not to mention, the Monaco GP date is based on when Easter falls. There are times when the race takes place earlier in May, such as two years ago when it ran on May 16.

Racing's Greatest Weekend, other than Monaco, consists entirely of American racing events, most of which, outside of perhaps Indy, the rest of the world doesn't give two hoots about. Plus, it is not quite what it used to be as the "traditional" ending of the weekend included the IMSA race at Lime Rock on Monday, where occasionally you got to see some drivers who had competed the day before at Indy fly in to drive a prototype around the tight 1.53-mile Connecticut track.

However, that doesn't mean us Americans can't enjoy Racing's Greatest Weekend and take advantage of the fact the calendar works out perfectly for the sport, even if IMSA and the Lime Rock weekend are long gone.

The weekend traditionally starts with the Night Before the 500 which nowadays is held at the paved Indianapolis Raceway Park, now called Lucas Oil Raceway. As always, some sort of sprint or midget car race highlights the show. This year the USAC Midget cars were the feature. Tracey Hines won a thriller, making the winning pass on the last turn of the last lap.

For us formula car fans, it has included for the past few years a round of the Star Mazda Championship and the USF2000 Championship. Connor DePhilippi won the Star Mazda race with ease. Spencer Pigot had a much tougher time with his USF2000 win. First, the race was delayed after an eight car pileup at the start. Then, Pigot and Matthew Brabham ran in tight formation before they touched. Pigot survived the contact, pulling away for the win.

Next, coach potato Sunday, starting with the Monaco Grand Prix, followed by the Indy 500, and wrapping up with the Coca Cola née World 600. (Note which is the only one of those traditional events to change their name for commercial purposes...)

The excitement at Monaco was wondering whether it was going to rain or not, and watching the strategies play out based on this hypothesis. It didn't, or at least not early enough to make a difference, and Mark Webber went onto a well deserved second win in the Principality.

Kasey Kahne won at Charlotte in a un-NASCAR like margin of 4.29 seconds. So much for NASCAR having the closest racing on the weekend.

Which now brings us to the Indianapolis 500. First, let's get the criticisms out of the way. After all, this wouldn't be Deep Throttle without some slagging on the once great Indianapolis 500.

• The number of empty seats are once again shocking. And the excuses rolling in are even more pathetic. My jaw dropped when Marty Reid was so quick (I thought he was going to hyperventilate) to defend the massive empty pit row grandstands the one (and interestingly only) time they showed an aerial shot of the pits during a yellow flag when the field came in for stops. "Those seats are all sold, but the fans are taking a break from the sun during the yellow flag." Really?! Mr. Reid, fans buy tickets on pit row for one reason and one reason only – to watch the pit stops up close. So, why would they leave right at the moment when they are getting their money's worth? Those were thousands of empty seats. Don't you think if they were full, you would notice a mass exodus, like a wave, of everyone standing up, filing out of the grandstands? They were empty because they were EMPTY. No other reason. Empty seats were not a problem before 1995...
• Mike Conway did not walk away from his scary crash because the cars are so much safer than last year when Dan Wheldon was killed. He walked away because his cockpit never touched the fencing. The way Conway's car rode along the wall meant the gap between the safety barrier and fencing was filled with his cockpit. Ergo, he was very, very lucky to be in a "safe zone." If his cockpit had indeed impacted the catch fencing at that angle, we would be writing another obituary. Conway's crash proved nothing in terms of whether the new cars are or are not any safer than last year's model.

I don't agree with Robin Miller that it was the greatest Indy 500 ever. Though it was quite apparent after the first 100 miles that we had no idea who was going to win the race and though the cars drove like the CART cars of the Handford Device era, there was a period in the middle of the race where it was obvious everyone was simply going along for the ride waiting for the final 100-mile shootout. Plus, it appeared there was going to be a mileage race after the last pit stop if the yellows did not fall right. Luckily, they did, and we were in for a final heart stopping shootout, where seemingly everyone and his brother had a shot at victory.

As the race was winding down, I said to my wife, "If anything happens, it will involve Sato." I wasn't disappointed, except for the fact that I knew Deep Throttle missed out on a chance to relive SATO-MANIA. (Though I see he still managed to get that into his Monaco Thoughts.)

The most lasting impression of Indy is one of great irony. I felt I was watching a NASCAR race from back in the ’70s and ‘80s, where real drafting, not the absurd restrictor plate drafting of today, took place. At superspeedway races like the Daytona 500, it was as much of a chess match as a race. How you positioned yourself for that last lap without putting yourself in a dead-to-rights position of not being able to defend the slingshot move from those behind coming out of the last corner was just as exciting to watch as the race itself.

This was the exact situation we saw at Indy this year.

One of Tony George's key "goals" for the Indy Racing League was to emulate NASCAR. Which as we all know was a complete and utter disaster (see above criticism of empty seats and the death of Dan Wheldon). Any longtime NASCAR fan can tell you today's version of NASCAR isn't all that great. And, trying to emulate the bumper car mentality of NASCAR for open wheel is absurd.

NASCAR's greatest on track racing era was 30 plus years ago. This year's Indy 500 emulated that to perfection.

Oh, the irony!

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