You folks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, did you hear it? It was in there, though you might have missed it. At some point during this month of May, somewhere amid the roar of engines, screeching of tires, cheers of the crowd and even crunching of pelvic bones, you could hear it. The rustling of paper that comes with the turning of a page.
After a decade of buildup and six years of reflection, the world's greatest race is shifting its collective eyes away from the rearview mirror and turning them toward the horizon ahead.
Welcome to the 101st Indianapolis 500. Not the track's 100th birthday, as was marked with great fanfare in 2009. Not the race's centennial birthday, which was celebrated with even more pomp and circumstance in 2011. Not the race's centurial running, as was unfurled with even more ginormous hype -- and in front an even more ginormous crowd -- one year ago.
Nope, this is just a regular old edition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. All involved are curious to see if the winds of the milestone-fueled success of 2011 and '16 are still blowing strong enough to push the 500 forward as it returns to business as usual.
Really, the most usual of 500s in perhaps two decades.
"I think there is a real energy in the air here that maybe some people claim they hadn't felt in a while," team owner Chip Ganassi observed last week. "It isn't tied to an anniversary or anything like that. It isn't about trying this or that as a countdown to a historic moment. It's just about the race itself in the here and now. That's pretty cool."
There will still be plenty of nostalgia to go around. As long as they are waving the green flag over the yard of bricks on Memorial Day weekend, the event will be draped in familiar traditions. On Sunday, there will be renditions of "God Bless America" and "Back Home Again in Indiana." But Florence Henderson and Jim Nabors are gone, replaced this year with opera singer Angela Brown and Jim Cornelison, the voice behind the national anthem at Chicago Blackhawks games. Both have Hoosier State ties.
Meanwhile, the prerace ceremonies will serve as a tribute to A.J. Foyt on the 50th anniversary of his third Indy 500 victory and the 40th anniversary of his record-setting fourth. It will seem like a goodbye. (Though if the 82-year-old's health continues to improve after his wintertime stem cell therapy, that goodbye will be premature.)
However, everything else about this year's race will seem more forward-facing. Last weekend, qualifying speeds reached levels not seen in 21 years, with nearly half the field posting four-lap average speeds of 230 mph or more.
But within that group of 33, the veterans are surrounded. There are 10 drivers making at least their ninth start in the 500, including six who are hitting a dozen or more. Then there are 11 making their third start or fewer, including four first-timers. And they aren't merely back markers. One is the biggest international star in the field and the other is the defending race champion.
For every quick lap laid down by the legendary likes of Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan in practice and time trials, there have been near equally fast answers from the youthful likes of 24-year-old American Alexander Rossi and 22-year-old Brit Ed Jones. And for every talk-show appearance or billboard ad starring longtime Indy stars such as Helio Castroneves, there's been a TV commercial or a trending social media topic from 26-year-olds Josef Newgarden and Max Chilton.
"You were the young guys, and then one day you wake up and you are the old guys," says Kanaan, 42, about to make his 16th Indy 500 start. "I know some guys have a hard time with that. I don't. It's exciting. Getting beaten on the racetrack isn't exciting. But seeing a guy like Rossi win this race like he did last year, it was like, 'Wow, we all better get to know this guy a little better, huh?' I think he's going to be here awhile."
Though not so warmly embraced at the time, Rossi's upset victory was a much better fit for the future-forward hopes of Indy than if the victor had been an old fan favorite. Sure, a fourth win by Castroneves or a Marco Andretti/Graham Rahal legacy title would have been a nice fit for the 100th narrative.
But the upset triumph of Rossi, a young, good-looking, California-born Formula One convert just beginning his IndyCar career, is a much better torch to carry into the Speedway's second century.
Now the hope is that the people who tuned in to last year's 100th celebration -- the sports fans who watch one IndyCar race a year, just as they watch only the Kentucky Derby or Daytona 500 -- have perhaps become Rossi fans. Or perhaps have become fans of the spectacle itself and, whatever their reason, will tune in again.
This year there will be a guaranteed new audience, millions of them, peeking in to watch Formula One world champ-turned-Indy 500 rookie Fernando Alonso. He has run extremely well throughout May and will start in the middle of the second row.
"I have always been intrigued by this place and this race," the 35-year-old Spaniard explained earlier this month. "I said this before, I want to be remembered as the best racer in the world. That is why I am here. Indianapolis is a place that can prove that."
Indianapolis has been that place since 1909, the globe's motorsports proving ground. Now, on the eve of its 101st go-round, the hallowed ground of Speedway, Indiana, seems ready to do a little proving of itself.
"The transition toward something different, it never stops. Trust me, I have seen it happen more than a few times," explains Mario Andretti, mentor to Rossi at Andretti Autosport, the team owned by Mario's son, Michael Andretti, and employer of his grandson, Marco, who just turned 30. "We have done a lot of looking back here at Indianapolis over the last few years. That will never stop here. That's part of what makes this place so special.
"But sometimes it is good to turn your eyes toward the future."