INDIANAPOLIS – The magnificent Borg-Warner Trophy has stood the check of time because it was first launched in 1935 and made its first look in Victory Lane on the Indianapolis 500 in 1936.
The profitable driver that day was Louis Meyer, who captured his third Indy 500 on a scorching, Indiana day and launched one other enduring custom by requesting a chilly bottle of buttermilk after finishing 500 grueling miles on a race monitor that also had a brick floor on the frontstretch.
Eighty-eight years later, each traditions stay a part of the historic legacy on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Meyer’s face, etched by a sculptor and forged in sterling silver, seems on the Borg-Warner Trophy as the primary three-time winner. He’s one among 75 drivers which have gained the Indianapolis 500 and one of many 111 faces that seem on the spectacular trophy.
There are two co-winners as a result of the profitable automobiles included aid drivers – LL Corum and Joe Boyer in 1924 and Floyd Davis and Mauri Rose in 1941.
From Ray Harroun, winner of the primary Indianapolis 500 in 1911, to Josef Newgarden of Group Penske in 2024, the faces on the trophy are frozen in time from the way in which they seemed on the 12 months of their Indy 500 triumph.
There’s one face on the trophy forged in gold and it honors Tony Hulman, the person who saved the Indianapolis 500 from extinction when he bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from earlier proprietor Eddie Rickenbacker on November 14, 1945, for $750,000.
Due to World Warfare II, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had been shuttered from 1942-45 and was in dilapidated situation.
Beneath the steerage of the Hulman-George household, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grew to become the world’s largest sporting enviornment and constructed the Indianapolis 500 into the world’s largest single-day sporting occasion.
When Roger Penske bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2019, it ended 74 years of “stewardship” by the Hulman-George household. Penske has added his particular contact to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, together with many fashionable facilities to enhance the fan expertise.
Along with proudly owning the speedway, Penske can also be the winningest workforce proprietor in Indianapolis 500 historical past with a document 20 victories, together with Newgarden’s unimaginable drive in Could.
In one of many extra memorable Indy 500s in historical past, a race that was delayed by 4 hours due to rain and didn’t begin till quarter-hour earlier than 5 p.m. and ended at nightfall, it was additionally historic.
Newgarden grew to become simply the sixth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 in back-to-back years.
The Indy 500 winner has defended his title 84 occasions with a median end of 12.89 place. Solely Wilbur Shaw (1939, 1940), Rose (1947, 1948), Invoice Vukovich (1953, 1954), Al Unser (1970, 1971), Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002), and Newgarden, in 2023 and 2024, have gained the Indy 500 back-to-back.
Because of BorgWarner, NBCSports.com was capable of get an unique, behind-the-scenes have a look at three key members which are a part of this 12 months’s Borg-Warner Trophy.
The one key aspect that every one three share is a gentle hand.
Newgarden wanted a gentle hand, and a coolness and tranquility underneath strain, to defeat Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren in a daring duel within the remaining laps of the 108th Indianapolis 500. He gained the race with a courageous transfer, taking the excessive line by means of Flip 3 to drive round O’Ward on the ultimate lap to change into the primary repeat winner since Castroneves.
For sculptor William Behrends of Tryon, North Carolina, it takes a gentle hand to first create a life-sized clay head picture of Newgarden’s face and doing it once more in miniature model utilizing the lost-wax sculpting methodology. This methodology has been used because the third millennium BC.
As soon as Behrends completes this course of, Newgarden’s face is forged in sterling silver. That picture is concerning the measurement of an egg.
Behrends attaches that sterling silver face onto the Borg-Warner Trophy.
This 12 months was the thirty fifth face of the Indianapolis 500 winner that was created by Behrends.
It additionally takes a gentle hand for the engraver.
Since 2021, that duty has gone to Reid Smith, a hand engraver from the Ballantyne space of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Smith etches the vital particulars that go beneath the profitable driver’s face on the trophy, together with 12 months, identify and the winner’s common velocity within the race.
The Borg-Warner Trophy is a monument to historical past because it really tells the story of the Indianapolis 500 by means of the faces and the engravings.
It takes a gentle hand to win, sculpt and engrave this story.
THE ENGRAVER
There’s a key aspect to the Borg-Warner Trophy on a silver panel proper beneath the face that’s equally vital because the face itself.
Engraved on that panel is the profitable driver’s identify above the 12 months and the typical velocity of the race.
It’s the data that identifies the face of the winner for every year on the Borg-Warner Trophy. It’s engraved in immaculate element simply because the stone tablets had been as soon as etched to inform tales of historical past in earlier millennia.
Smith is the person who engraves the vital particulars on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
For 35 years, he has mastered the artwork of hand engraving, together with 20 years as a full-time engraver and the previous 15 years engaged on particular initiatives from his small studio within the Ballantyne space of Charlotte.
Mockingly, the person who engraves some of the well-known trophies in sports activities, shouldn’t be a sports activities fan.
The truth is, when he was contacted by Behrends in 2021 to take over the position of engraving the important thing particulars on the Borg-Warner Trophy, he didn’t know what it was.
“Will Behrends known as me on the telephone when he was advised to assist discover a craftsman to do the engraving,” Smith advised NBCSports.com. “I am not a sports activities fan in any respect, but it surely was the primary time I remembered listening to the Borg-Warner Trophy and he says, ‘Are you aware of that?’
“I used to be like, ‘No, not by identify.’
“And he mentioned, ‘Effectively, it is the trophy that is given to the Indy 500 winners.’
“Then I went, ‘Oh, wow, then I can form of image it.’
Watching video games or races on TV isn’t Smith’s factor, but it surely was vital to his father.
“I do not care something about faculty basketball, professional basketball, soccer,” Smith mentioned. “I’d be watching cooking reveals. That’s what I’m used to watching.
“My dad was a giant jock and cherished watching sports activities. It simply by no means appealed to me.
“It is only a very completely different life-style and tradition that I am used to as a result of I am not likely into sports activities. It simply has by no means been a part of my life. I’ve all the time been extra of the artistic- and dramatic-type loves. So, it was a really completely different world.”
Smith agreed to change into the engraver for the Borg-Warner Trophy and his first task was a historic one as he etched the main points of Castroneves’ fourth Indianapolis 500 victory in 2021. With the win, Castroneves grew to become simply the fourth, four-time winner of the Indy 500 becoming a member of Foyt, Unser and Rick Mears.
Smith grew to become an engraver due to his father, who opened a trophy retailer after spending 24 years with the Sears company. When his father stop Sears and opened his personal enterprise, he specialised in trophies and promotional objects.
“I fell in love with the artwork once I was 17 years outdated,” Smith mentioned. “When my dad opened his trophy retailer, that’s the place I started engraving, doing a little machine engraving, and through the course of that discovered that there was such a factor as hand engraving.
“There was an outdated man named Jim Buchanan who labored in uptown Charlotte, and I occurred to go to his store at some point. I believe I used to be selecting up one thing for the household retailer and he requested, ‘Son, are you interested by engraving?’ I used to be like, ‘Effectively, I assume. I’ve labored the pantograph machine.’
“He mentioned, ‘No, no, no. That is accomplished by hand. Let me present you a factor or two.’
“I do not know should you’ve ever seen the Norman Rockwell portray, it is known as the Watchmaker. It reveals slightly, red-headed boy watching the watchmaker work. I had crimson hair once I was little, and it simply a lot jogs my memory of me, possibly as a result of it was identical to the heavens opened and it was, ‘I wish to try this. How do I be taught?’”
It takes a gentle hand, and an in depth eye, to engrave as a result of it’s so meticulous and so exact.
“There’s artwork, there may be craft, there’s a lot that goes into it with working with metals,” Smith continued. “It’s like every other love or every other craft you be taught by doing and by persevering with to do. It is a type of issues, a type of unusual issues that you just simply regularly run into roadblocks and simply issues that occur, however for some purpose, that love stays there and desires you to beat that.”
Throughout his 35-year profession within the engraving trade, Smith has labored on many initiatives, primarily antiques and silver jewellery. However there have been some objects that require hand engraving as a result of they’ll’t be accomplished on a machine.
It will merely be far too dangerous.
The method of engraving the winner’s data on the bottom of the Borg-Warner Trophy occurs earlier than the winner’s face is added. The bottom of the trophy is delivered to Smith’s studio in Charlotte by BorgWarner consultant Steve Shunck.
Smith takes the bottom into his engraving studio and begins a course of that takes between six-to-seven hours to finish.
“It begins after we place it on my workbench when he takes it out of the case, and I find yourself turning it upside-down and take away the six screws which are on the underside of it and take the underside off of it,” Smith defined. “Lots of people would have an interest to know that there is numerous goodies and memorabilia that is saved inside the bottom.
“I try this then I transfer it to my workbench and cradle it on an — it is mainly, a flannel pillowcase that is full of rice and it could possibly cradle it however but maintain it firmly sufficient for me to maneuver it round.
“Many of the job is concerned with simply manipulating the trophy itself. There’s lots of turning and twisting so my again muscular tissues get fairly shredded over the day. it is most likely 50- or 60-pound base.
“It’s important weight and I simply manipulate it round.”
Smith then waxes the floor so it would settle for a pencil line. He then hand-draws the design, or on this case, the place the duplicate winner’s data will go.
As a result of it’s the identical driver as final 12 months, he could make a “pull” and switch the design to this 12 months’s panel.
He then makes use of completely different hand instruments to chop out the design. That’s adopted by cleansing off the waxy movie and including the ultimate touches.
As a result of that is his first time as an engraver that the identical driver has gained the Indianapolis 500 in back-to-back years, Smith was in a position to make use of a “pulling course of” of lifting the engraved identify from final 12 months utilizing a mix a block powder known as “bone black.”
It fills within the earlier cuts the place a layer of Scotch Tape is utilized. Smith rubs that down and may elevate the inscription with the tape, just like the way in which a forensic scientist can elevate fingerprints.
He waxes the floor with a mix of half Bee’s Wax and half mutton tallow – a flowery phrase for “sheep fats.”
Smith makes use of quite a lot of instruments to engrave, together with calipers to get the correct measurements utilizing some mathematical equations to ensure it’s centered completely.
He additionally has a software that may assist transfer the steel in case a mistake is made, after which rubdown the floor to fill within the space that’s repaired.
“I’ve typically advised folks the primary rule of engraving is do it accurately, so that you do all you may to attempt to keep away from issues, however they do come up and it is a part of the work and it is a part of the artwork and ability of it,” Smith mentioned. “I believe should you follow sufficient, you are able to do no matter you wish to do — and even by means of all of the hardships of studying easy methods to engrave. I initially discovered the hammer-and-chisel methodology the place I used to have a vice mounted on the nook of the bench, and it could most likely be actually onerous to do the hammer and chisel.
“I might do it. If the facility went out — now this machine is mainly, just a bit jackhammer within a hand piece, but it surely’s imitating the very same, to the very same motions. And I’ve had that occur earlier than, like when the facility went out and you have got a job to do and you bought to make it occur.
“I’ve modified my instruments. I’m an expert. Typically you simply acquired to make it occur.”
For a person who admits he isn’t a sports activities fan, since 2021, he has made time to look at one sporting occasion through the 12 months.
It’s the Indianapolis 500, now that Smith, himself, is a part of the historical past of the Borg-Warner Trophy.
“It’s fairly humbling,” Smith mentioned. “The primary time I did it in 2021, I bear in mind it hit me after I did it, no one can take that away from me.
“I do not wish to make it about me, I do not wish to make it larger than this, however that was a giant deal with the ability to work on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
“And simply realizing that I’ve accomplished one thing, and no one can say that I did not.
“I am simply tickled that BorgWarner belief me and that it is a part of historical past. Easy as that.”
THE SCULPTOR
Nestled away within the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains close to the North Carolina/South Carolina state line is the small group of Tryon, North Carolina. It payments itself because the “Friendliest Metropolis within the South.”
Up on one of many mountain roads is the house of Will Behrends, a famous sculptor who has created bigger than life statues of former Vice Presidents of the US which are within the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. He has additionally constructed statues of a few of baseball’s biggest gamers, from Will Mays in San Francisco to Tom Seaver of the New York Mets.
Since 1990, Behrends has created the face that goes onto the Borg-Warner Trophy of that 12 months’s Indianapolis 500 winner. His first was Arie Luyendyk in 1990 and his newest was Newgarden in 2024.
By some means, Behrends needed to create a picture of the identical driver that gained the Indy 500 in 2023 and ensure it wasn’t the identical as final 12 months’s picture. To perform this and ensure every face appears to be like distinctive and updated, Behrends mainly began from scratch.
“Beginning with Helio Castroneves, I made a decision that what I’d do with back-to-back winners is simply begin from scratch, not even have a look at final 12 months’s winner and simply create the picture once more as a result of I believe there’s a variety of other ways you may painting that picture,” Behrends advised NBCSports.com. He was referring to the one different time he has created the face of the identical driver two years in a row.
“I take it as a brand new problem and begin from scratch,” Behrends continued. “Within the case of Josef, I have not put the 2 photographs aspect by aspect, so, I simply do not know. There might be variations, however I have not checked out them each in the identical body but.
“I believe this one, the brand new one, is robust and we’ll simply see the way it appears to be like subsequent to the one from final 12 months.”
By creating the identical face in 2023 and having a second likelihood to do one other one of many identical topic in 2024, it offers Behrends a chance to fine-tune it.
“I’ve excessive requirements for myself, and I attempt to do my highest yearly, however I additionally am a perpetual optimist that I believe I can perform a little bit higher than I did final 12 months,” Behrends mentioned. “And in order that’s my angle going into this. So, let’s have a look at if I can show on final 12 months, enhance on final 12 months.
“That is what I attempted to do.”
Behrends described what modifications he noticed in a single 12 months on Newgarden’s face.
“He has such a robust facial construction, and I simply wished to emphasise the brightness of his smile,” Behrends mentioned. “I attempted to actually pump these issues up, I believe.
“The issues that once I have a look at Josef and once I noticed him, proper after he had gained this 12 months’s race these are the issues that I actually tried to pump up on this one.”
One of many highlights of the IndyCar offseason is the annual journey for the profitable driver of that 12 months’s Indy 500 to Behrends’ studio in Tryon.
The primary driver to do come to Behrends’ studio for a stay research was Juan Pablo Montoya after he gained the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Each driver since, together with Takuma Sato through the COVID 12 months of 2020, has come to fulfill with Behrends, sit within the chair and have the sculptor make delicate modifications within the clay face that may be a key a part of the method.
This 12 months, nevertheless, was completely different.
Hurricane Helene ravaged the Western North Carolina space on September 27. Newgarden was scheduled to return to Tryon on October 4, however with widespread injury from the hurricane, most of the roads had been closed and the world was with out energy.
The choice was made to cancel the stay research and Behrends needed to depend on a sequence of images taken the morning after his victory within the 108th Indianapolis 500.
“We did effectively, however on the date that Josef was as a result of come right here we had no energy then, so it simply was not potential to do this,” Behrends defined. “It was harder.
“That call was made actually on the final minute. We tried to do it, and we actually might have cobbled collectively one thing to have him right here. However with so many individuals struggling round us, it simply did not appear to be the factor to do.
“So, we needed to go to Plan B, and that was the outdated plan of doing all of it from images and not using a sitting. However by that point, I already had the full-size mannequin paired from images that we took the day after this 12 months’s race of him. I used these images to arrange that that life-size picture.
“Having the motive force right here it actually helps my course of. It is spending time with them face-to-face and speaking with them, that helps me a very nice deal. It is onerous to outline how, but it surely actually does.
“Beginning in 2015 when Juan Pablo Montoya got here right here, and since then, it is actually been one thing we actually stay up for.
“I used to be helped considerably with the truth that I did him final 12 months. I believe that helped me bit, but it surely took me slightly longer, needed to work slightly more durable on it, however the finish outcome I believe is sweet.”
The excellent news for Behrends was he had the clay head basically completed earlier than Hurricane Helene hit. By being forward of the sport, it helped the method proceed with out Newgarden being current.
Behrends and his spouse, Charlotte, helped a number of aid efforts within the space that despatched meals and provides to the toughest space hit together with Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, Burnsville, Black Mountain and Asheville in North Carolina.
Tryon didn’t have an opportunity to rejoice Newgarden’s victory, although, due to the hurricane. It’s normally a really massive day for the group when the Indy 500 winner involves city and his identify is put up on the marquee on the Tryon Theater. It serves as a photograph backdrop that options the Borg-Warner Trophy and the Indy 500 profitable driver.
“Oh, it was an actual letdown,” Behrends admitted. “ that two to 3 days has change into one among our favourite occasions of 12 months. It simply actually is sort of a celebration for us as a result of my daughter and son-in-law and our two granddaughters come, as they did final 12 months and meet Josef and they’re starstruck, in fact.
“We actually take pleasure in it a lot, an ideal time of 12 months round right here to do one thing like that. And the identical within the city when we now have the images taken in entrance of the theater the folks the folks of the city come up and the whole lot and an uncommon form of factor to occur in slightly city like this in order that they we get lots of curious folks arising and it is lots of enjoyable.
“It is our two little days of movie star that we get to we get to take pleasure in.”
Newgarden’s sculpted face in 2024 is the thirty fifth Indy 500 winner that Behrends has created. It was his second, back-to-back Indy 500 winner.
Newgarden has an opportunity to change into the primary driver in Indianapolis 500 historical past to win the race three years in a row within the 109th working of the race on Could 25, 2025.
Behrends wish to play a job in that historical past.
“Effectively, only for that sake, I’d like to see it occur as a result of it could be such a formidable first,” Behrends admitted. “However from my very own perspective in my work I’d love the problem. I’d do as I did this 12 months attempt to discover one thing new and one thing recent there and go for it.
“I’d like it.”
Simply three days earlier than the Borg-Warner Trophy unveiling at a particular ceremony at COhatch Stables in Indianapolis, Shunck arrived with the bottom of the Borg-Warner Trophy. Behrends, who obtained the sterling silver casting of Newgarden’s face 5 days earlier, completes the method by attaching the casting onto the bottom.
As soon as that was accomplished, Shunck made a rocket run from Tryon, North Carolina to Indianapolis by automotive and arrived in Indianapolis at 2:08 a.m. on December 3.
The bottom was reattached to the Borg-Warner Trophy because it was ready for the particular ceremony on Wednesday, December 4.
When the winner’s face is unveiled on the Borg-Warner Trophy, it’s essentially the most important day for the Indy 500 outdoors of the on-track occasions through the Month of Could.
“It is thrilling,” Behrends admits. “It is a actually sense of ending one thing that, on my half, there are lots of steps within the course of.
“It is a six-month course of for me and for it to return to completion and efficiently is simply actually gratifying to me and joyful to have one other one within the books.”
THE DRIVER
A gentle hand is a requirement to be an Indianapolis 500 winner, in addition to unimaginable ability, bravery, the power to assume in milliseconds and possibly an extra-large dose of braveness.
The drivers within the Indianapolis 500 are fighter pilots. In earlier generations when innovation got here quickly, typically forward of security, they displayed the identical angle as check pilots. They willingly climbed into machines with no assure of coming again and had the power to look hazard within the eye and by no means flinch.
Fortunately, security enhancements give these high-speed Gladiators an opportunity to have a prolonged and profitable occupation.
On the subject of success, Newgarden is within the prime of his profession.
At 33, Newgarden has 31 profession IndyCar wins together with two Indianapolis 500 victories and is a two-time NTT IndyCar Collection Champion in 2017 and 2019.
Blonde and good-looking along with his spouse, Ashley, who was as soon as a Disney Princess at Disney World, and a younger son named Kota, the motive force from Nashville is the All-American Boy at Group Penske.
On December 4 at COhatch Stables, a shared office, social and household house in Indianapolis, the stage was set, and the highlight was on the Borg-Warner Trophy. A black curtain coated the bottom and can be eliminated on the applicable to disclose Newgarden’s newest picture.
“At present, we’ll see for the primary time Will Behrend’s paintings and what it appears to be like like on this lovely trophy,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles mentioned to the gang of media and different dignitaries invited to the revealing. “There’s nothing extra iconic than this trophy, however what’s actually cool concerning the relationship is that it simply is not concerning the trophy.
“It is concerning the relationship we now have with BorgWarner and the work that they’ve accomplished with the automobiles which are really competing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every year by means of the turbochargers and simply the expertise that the connection with BorgWarner brings to the NTT IndyCar Collection and the Indianapolis 500.”
Michelle Collins is BorgWarner’s International Director of Advertising and Communications and spoke of the significance of this occasion.
“That is one among my favourite days of the 12 months outdoors of the race and naturally, after we give the profitable workforce proprietor and driver, their Child Borgs,” Collins mentioned. “It is simply such an honor for me. I really feel actually honored to be a part of this custom, to uphold it, to nonetheless do issues in the way in which that they had been accomplished when this trophy was created.
“We hand engrave it. We now have a sculpture that does the precise face. We’re not utilizing any 3D printing. We’re not utilizing any kind of equipment. It is simply good old school onerous work, and I believe that ties in so properly simply with all the groups and the drivers.
“Lots of people have requested me, ‘Hey, effectively Josef gained final 12 months. Are you simply reusing the identical face? Is Will Behrends simply reusing the identical face?
“No.
“If Will, he’s a consummate, skilled, and perfectionist. So, the day after the race, he began like he did final 12 months for the very first time and went by means of each single step. And for BorgWarner as effectively, we handled the identical manner. We’re not going to do something completely different simply because Josef has gained earlier than. The truth is, we’re proper behind him encouraging him to win 3 times in a row subsequent 12 months.”
As Newgarden was known as to the stage, two movies had been performed together with one from Behrends and one other from Helio Castroneves, the final back-to-back Indy 500 winner earlier than Newgarden’s nice accomplishment.
Earlier than the wraps got here off, Newgarden described the significance of getting a gentle hand, cool composure and a calculating strategy to his race profitable cross on the ultimate lap of the Indy 500 in 2024.
“If I actually assume again to it, it’s so vivid in my thoughts, ‘like that is an okay run. It is not an incredible run and he’s blocking to the within,’” Newgarden recalled. “I used to be like ‘I am unable to wait although.’
“So, then I went to the surface and I assumed, ‘We are able to do that.’ After which about halfway by means of handing over, I assumed, ‘I actually hope I clear him, and he would not hit me.’
“I attempted to simply give him sufficient room in order that I had the excuse being like, ‘you’ve got room, so what, do not hit me.’ And he did not.
“I spoke about that afterwards. I assumed Pato was extraordinarily clear in the way in which he raced me. I attempted to be clear in the way in which I raced him. I attempted to provide him simply sufficient room to have his a part of the nook, and it simply labored out.
“I believe it is onerous to win that race with out the good automotive. Indy simply actually defines the workforce side, and the automotive is such a giant a part of that, and my automotive was so good on that day. So, it gave me the boldness to make that transfer. It is not simply, ‘oh, it was a courageous transfer.’ I had a very good automotive that was able to doing it, and I believe that made lots of the distinction, too.”
Lastly, it was time to take off the wrap and reveal Newgarden’s face.
“Oh, wow,” he exclaimed as he inspected the picture. “There are extra wrinkles, sure.
“The hair is slightly completely different.”
“I believe you really look higher in 2024,” Boles mentioned.
“Yeah, I agree,” Newgarden admitted. “I just like the hair slightly higher. , you do not all the time get the identical factor.
“Oh, yeah, it does look higher in 2024. Gosh, Will had day in 2024.
“That is actually cool. I do love that the main points are completely different, and you may inform I used to be slightly completely different on the day. I had a special night time from once I gained the primary time.
“So very cool.”
Afterwards, Newgarden had an opportunity to provide extra element to NBCSports.com.
“He is capturing it in time,” Newgarden mentioned of Behrends’ newest effort. “So, I believe I noticed a special night time earlier than, , and a special morning.
“I used to be slightly extra recent, the second time round. I believe I had a extra skilled night the second time round than the primary. And that actually comes by means of.
“And there is a little little bit of age distinction there, too. I believe the 12 months nonetheless reveals by means of and doubtless slightly extra wrinkles, however he did an incredible job. Will is simply an unimaginable artist, sculptor and I all the time take pleasure in attending to seewhat he does in his course of It is actually painstaking the element that he goes by means of.”
Having a face on the Borg-Warner Trophy is extra than simply honoring the winner of the Indianapolis 500, it’s honoring the historical past of braveness, bravery and human achievement in some of the distinctive sporting occasions on Earth.
“I believe the Indy 500 is what can immortalize you,” Newgarden mentioned. “I believe even should you do not win it, you may nonetheless have an immensely important profession. And that is what speaks to the issue of Indy.
“Folks that most likely ought to have gained it, by no means win it after which there’s some those that win it 4 occasions, , it is only a powerful race to get proper.
“There’s nothing prefer it. There is no such thing as a win that compares. It truly is the highest of the mountain, and you are feeling that if you lastly do win it.”
For a race that started in 1911 and continues 114 years later, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the Mount Olympus of motorsports and BorgWarner is the caretaker of the historical past of accomplishment on the Indianapolis 500.
“They’re a custodian of the occasion, of the traditions,” Newgarden mentioned. “The trophy is such an iconic a part of it. They usually preserve that cherished and working on the stage it ought to. It is likely one of the issues that makes Indy so nice and the Indy 500 what it’s.
“We’re indebted to BorgWarner and never solely their collaboration on the efficiency aspect and giving us nice turbochargers, but it surely’s the historical past, it is the tie-in collectively, it is defending what’s vital about this occasion and so they do it so effectively.”
Two faces, side-by-side, however subtly completely different, frozen in time.
“It is simply one thing to cherish, this occasion,” Newgarden mentioned. “And you actually perceive the importance of it, and why it’s what it’s. BorgWarner is a big part of that. They defend the sacredness of the race’s traditions and positively the Borg-Warner trophy is a giant a part of that.
“And so, nights like tonight and with the ability to undergo all these little processes that you just get to expertise because the winner is one thing that can by no means get outdated.”
