NBC Sports’ lead INDYCAR commentary team of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell, and Paul Tracy, as well as executive producer Sam Flood, previewed this Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 on a media conference call yesterday afternoon.
NBC Sports presents the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by Gainbridge from Indianapolis Motor Speedway this Sunday, May 30, at 11 a.m. ET on NBC. Six-time INDYCAR champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon won the pole position and will lead the field to the green flag for this year’s Indy 500. Race day coverage begins at 9 a.m. ET on NBCSN.
Following are excerpts from the call. Click here for a full transcript.
Sam Flood on this year’s edition of the Indianapolis 500: “We’re really excited to be covering this spectacle, the biggest crowd we’ve had in this country since COVID started, probably the biggest crowd ever assembled since the COVID crisis got going. To get the sports world looking full with folks in the stands celebrating this great American tradition on Memorial Day weekend, we couldn’t be prouder to bring that to America.”
Leigh Diffey: “I’m more excited and looking forward to this one perhaps even more so than our maiden one in 2019. We’re back on Memorial Day weekend. The fans are back. We get this unbelievable gift of calling the biggest race in the world when the championship and the series is arguably at its strongest point.”
Paul Tracy on the uniqueness of the Indy 500: “It’s a juggling act. It’s a three-hour, five-balls-in-the-air juggling act to win.”
Townsend Bell: “We have to remember this is the only race in the world in terms of the top level where you’re going to grid three-wide, 11 rows deep, fire it off into Turn One at these incredible speeds.”
Tracy on Qualifying Weekend: “We truly last weekend had a treat of seeing the fastest field ever assembled…It just shows now how competitive this field has become and how important it is to have every I dotted and every T crossed when you come to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you even just hiccup, you’re not going to make the field.”
Bell on the struggles of Team Penske during Qualifying Weekend: “Boy, doesn’t that train up for an unbelievable Indy 500 to have the most successful team in the history of the race starting mid to deep in the pack with four drivers and four cars that in practice look to be better than anybody…I think we’re in for a real treat.”
NBC Sports PR
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