Memorial Day weekend has to be one of my favorite weekends of the year. It’s filled with pleasant memories of my family and friends that I’ll always cherish. It was one of the few times a year that we did get together. It’s amazing that most of those memories always feature a perfect backdrop of sunshine on what is usually considered the first day of summer. For some reason, good memories in retrospect never have gray clouds or rain. I remember good food, being taught how to respect and honor our soldiers who died in service, and then of course there is the Indianapolis 500.

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The race is a must see event on the day and always compliments the days festivities. It’s the 92nd running of the Indy 500 and it is about as American as any event we have in this great county. However, the importance of the race has waned considerably. What used to be a highly anticipated event because it featured the best drivers in the world is now an event that uses its tradition as its selling point. I’d prefer it the way it used to be, but I’m still buying what they’re selling however diluted the product is.

Without getting too deep into the root of the Indy 500 demise, let’s just say it all begins with Tony George, owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was so bad for his series that he helped another thrive. The myriad of poor decisions he has made in hind sight almost make you believe that his initial intent was to sabotage open-wheel racing as if he had a monetary interest in NASCAR’s stock rising.

When George took over the track, his first major decision in 1994 was to bring stock car racing to his track. Everyone who loved and respected the track were shocked. Many became angry citing that the Bricks will forever be tainted if those cars with fenders were allowed and that the prestige of the track would be diminished severely. The drivers, owners, and fans didn’t approve. They treated the track with reverence, while Tony George treated the track like a business.

Can you blame him? It’s his track, he can do what he wants with it! It doesn’t make good business sense to use a facility only once a year and to continually shut NASCAR out. Let’s bring them in, we’ll all make some money, and sooner or later the Indy fans will get over it.

What George could have never imagined is that those Indy fans didn’t just get over it, they also got something else, NASCAR fever. George opened the doors to the entire country and opened their eyes to the great racing of NASCAR. Lots of regular folks who only watched the Indy 500 because of tradition tuned in to watch the Stock car race at the fabled Brickyard. In the Mid-west, some folks started watching because they figured if the race was in their back yard, they might as well go, and if they were going they might as well start following the drivers so they know what their watching.

Something else also happened during that race that captured an audience. A young driver named Jeff Gordon won the inaugural race and began what would be a great career. The way he drove to victory, it was apparent to many people that he was going to great from that moment.

So those are just a couple of things George did to get NASCAR going and expand their audience. The final nail in the coffin for Open-Wheel racing was in 1996 when he formed his own league, the Indy Racing League, and used America’s race, the Indy 500, as his bargaining chip. His league consisted of cast-offs and drivers who would have never started a Champ car race. Meanwhile, the other series, CART, took all the good drivers, but slowly faded away and attendance dipped everywhere. And guess whose attendance and TV ratings increased?

Things aren’t likely to get better for open-wheel racing anytime soon. What used to be considered the highest level of skill driving is now a mere training ground for future NASCAR drivers. The most talented drivers in the world obviously want to get paid the most they can and they all know they can’t make the most of the driving career in open-wheel racing. Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, and Ryan Newman all made the choice early as to what series gave them the best opportunity to maximize their profits. Juan Pablo Montoya, Robby Gordon, Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier, Dario Franchitti, and A.J. Allmendinger all followed suit and saw the light.

So for all you NASCAR fans, you owe Tony George a Big thanks for bringing the NASCAR closer to you. For all you Indy fans, you owe Tony George a big sarcastic thanks.

The rant on George is more a matter of me just being disappointed at what happened to my race. There is no drama and nothing to debate. Only 8 drivers have a shot at winning that are part of three teams. End of story!

As for the Coca-Cola 600 which will be run later on Sunday night, that race is wide open. There are so many questions and variables because of the distance, the recent Charlotte testing, and how the All-Star race unfolded Saturday Night. Kasey Kahne wins? Are you kidding me? This guy couldn’t even beat the slugs in the qualifying race, he had to be voted in by the fans and then he holds off all the best cars in the series for the win? That blew me away. I’ve seen some out of the ordinary stuff before, but that win was a definite shocker because there was no way to see it coming from every piece of data accumulated which is why I am very apprehensive about the Coca-Cola 600.

All the data says it should be Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and one of the Gibbs Toyota’s, but that All-Star race definitely threw a monkey wrench in the formula. Good Luck this week, have a great holiday, and a special thank you to all the veterans around the country who put their lives on the line for us.

INDY 500 Top 5 Finish Prediction:
1-#26 Marco Andretti (8/1)
2-#9 Scott Dixon 9/2
3-#10 Dan Wheldon (9/2)
4-#7 Danica Patrick (12/1)
5-#3 Helio CastroNeves (7/1)

Coca-Cola 600 Top 5 Finish prediction:
1-#48 Jimmie Johnson (7/1)
2-#99 Carl Edwards (6/1)
3-#20 Tony Stewart (10/1)
4-#18 Kyle Busch (8/1)
5-#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr (7/1)

Micah Roberts is a Race and Sports Director for Station Casinos in Las Vegas , Nevada who covers motor sports from both a bettor and bookmaker's perspective.