Final practice, air demonstrations and music acts round out schedule Friday, May 24 at IMS. Read More>
Two departure times provide more flexibility for fans who want to commute to the track on their bike on Race Day. Read More>
This partnership represents the first time a major athlete's sponsorship has been decided by a vote using blockchain technology. Read More>
View images from the shortened first day of the Indianapolis 500 Open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. View Photos>
View images from the once-in-a-lifetime Total Solar Eclipse event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. View Photos>
Josef Newgarden unveils the 2024 Indianapolis 500 Ticket View Photos>
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway prides itself on its fire rescue and medical response teams that arrive to the scene of an accident within seconds. But how do they get that good? On Behind the Bricks, IMS President Doug Boles takes you through the annual Motorsports Safety Training at IMS, which features specific training scenarios for INDYCAR, NASCAR, IMSA and more to make sure every driver at IMS is safe. Watch Video>
On this episode of Doug and Drivers, 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson sits down with Doug Boles to talk about the pain of coming so close to scoring back-to-back wins, how he wanted to compete on ovals after his Formula 1 career and the transition to Andretti Global. Watch Video>
Why does Scott McLaughlin move his hands around so much in the car? What "button" is he pushing? What's the pressure of the iconic Yellow Submarine like? We cover that and so much more with Scott McLaughlin on the latest Doug and Drivers. Watch Video>
May 22, 2013 | By Marshall Pruett
“Turn 1 was always the most notoriously difficult corner. You've got the grandstands there, but you really felt the buffeting, and the wind was unpredictable. That’s one issue you know to look for.” ON WHAT MAKING IT THOUGH TURN 1 MEANS TO SETTING A FAST LAP: “When I went through Turn 1 well, I was in good shape, usually for the rest of the lap.” ON RACING THROUGH TURN 1 WITH/WITHOUT DOWNFORCE (1960S TO 1990S) “Well, to be honest with you, it's the same. Because when you’ve got downforce all you've got to do is go faster, and things will happen quicker. And so you're putting in the same effort. The trick is for the driver to take that equipment to the limit, whatever that limit is. And when we got downforce, all you did was go faster. But the job was the same. It was no harder and no easier. When you have more tools to work with, you're supposed to go faster. So it's about putting the ultimate effort into the job and take everything out of what you’re driving. That's the trick.” ON RACING THROUGH TURN 1 IN THE 1960s ON SKINNY TREADED TIRES: “We were sliding around. You could look at some of my qualifying in ’65, ’66, ’67, and I was taking every inch of the track, white-walling the tires in the short chute and sliding it around because there's no downforce. ON HOW DRIVERS USED TO TIME THEMSELVES THROUGH TURN 1 BEFORE THE ADVENT OF ON-BOARD DATA SYSTEMS: “There was a stripe on the wall going in and a stripe on the wall at the exit--we used to measure that. For the longest time the magic number was going through within five seconds. And I know that I was one of the first ones to break into the four-second era with the Lotus four-wheel-drive car. I remember that because five seconds used to be high fives and six fives and all that. And all of a sudden I got into the fours. That's how we used to measure it. That was a big deal.” ON THE OLD-SCHOOL 3-2-1 BRAKING MARKERS LEADING INTO TURN 1 AND HOW THEY WERE USED BACK IN THE DAY WHEN DRIVERS HAD TO SLOW INTO THE CORNER BEFORE WINGS AND SLICKS: “I used to brake very lightly and very late because I used to carry a lot of speed even with no aerodynamic help. It was all between the two and one marker most of the time. And you could be precise every lap. That's one of the reasons they even kept them on there, not that you really need it much today, but at least you know the proximity of the radius. That's the important thing.” ON HIS FAMOUS USE OF THE TURN 1 APRON AND BAITING OF DANNY SULLIVAN IN 1985, CAUSING SULLIVAN TO DO HIS ‘SPIN-AND-WIN’: “You've got to remember the apron was flat and Turn 1 had some banking, so you had to be very careful how you used it. And that's what caught out Danny, too, a little bit because he backed off at the wrong time. You had to power through the transition, and he did just the opposite. He lifted, and that hard transition from banking to the apron made him spin. But that's how you learn. I knew how to use the apron. I just wish they would have not gotten rid of it, quite honestly, but they did.” FINAL TURN 1 REFLECTIONS: “There's something about that corner. You almost don't get to catch your breath from lap to lap. That's the big difference, especially in the race. Turn 1 at Indy ranks right up there with the great ones, for sure.”