Aside from the question of whether or not the field would actually fill up, the area of greatest speculation for this year's Indy 500 was security.
With the attendance of two former U.S. presidents and the national terror level increased to orange just days before the event, no one was quite sure what the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had up its sleeves when it came to security.
In the end, it appears that whatever security measures officials refused to release ahead of time worked. It appears the race was secure.
No major accidents or incidents occurred. No major injuries or threats were reported.
There is no doubt, however, that it only went that way thanks to luck.
Actual security measures were about as strong as the lock on my grandma's back screen door -- a simple tug and in you go.
To understand how secure or not secure the track really was, let's quickly run down my day.
After waiting in line outside the track for an hour and a half, I approached the tunnel to pull into the center of the track.
I pulled up to the guy tearing tickets, handed him the three tickets for the other people in my car and showed him my press credential. He sort of chuckled when he read Ball State DAILY NEWS, he looked at me with a smile and said, "Have fun."
I said, "Thanks," then proceeded to drive into the center of the track where I parked my car. The only other contact I had with a track official was following the direction of their whistles in route to my designated lot.
Later, I decided I wanted to watch some of the race from the grandstands. With ticket in hand, I made my way to the short shoot of turns one and two. I walked right by the track officials and straight up to my seat.
No one checked the bag around my shoulder or the ticket in my hand. I could have been holding a piece of paper rather than a ticket.
As troubling as that is, unfortunately, here's the disturbing part.
In the back of my Ford Explorer were two coolers, a backpack and three other bags all about the size of a backpack.
The only glance that my bags and coolers even got was from the guy who laughed at my affiliation, and even he wasn't really looking at them.
Some security.
I could have had anything from a small dog to pounds of TNT in my coolers.
I realize that checking every car inside and out is impossible. I pulled into line at 7:30 a.m. and didn't park until 9 a.m. Imagine how long it would have been had they actually been checking cars.
But do realize one thing. The Indy 500 is not secure.
No matter how much any track official says it's secure, no matter how many Indianapolis police officers are stationed on 16th Street, the greatest spectacle in racing could very well be the biggest disaster in racing if someone wanted it to be.
Sounds kind of morbid I know. But it's true.
It's one more example of claimed security in this country when, in reality, it is a bunch of officials hoping for secure results.
Well, to those officials I say, congratulations. Your hopes and prayers worked, this time anyway.
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