For Pam Crull, race weekend usually begins with a cookout with relatives that fly in from around the country for the Indianapolis 500.
After trips to Dari-Licious and a Saturday night dinner at Stookey’s, the family hits the road early the next morning to take their seats at the start/finish line of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Not this year.
With the track closed to fans Sunday for the 104th running of the race due to the coronavirus pandemic, Crull and other longtime Indy 500 devotees are left finding new ways to take in the tradition.
“It’s probably just going to be me at home by myself,” said Crull, who has attended 62 consecutive races and plans to watch on television this year.
This is the first time the laps will be run outside the fabled month of May. Track officials cited the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Marion County for keeping spectators at home.
Along with flag-to-flag coverage on the radio, the race will be televised live in central Indiana for only the fourth time. The green flag is set to drop at 2:30 p.m. Sunday on WTHR-TV (Channel 13).
Chelsea Ebaugh and her family and friends will tune in from home.
“We decided we’re going to sit outside for the race, even though obviously we’re not going to be able to hear the cars or anything, but we’ve got a TV we’re going to set up outside,” said Ebaugh, 31, who will be cheering on Ed Carpenter.
The family usually gathers for a meal at New Ross Steakhouse the night before the race, but relatives who normally fly in for the weekend aren’t making the trip this year.
Ebaugh, whose family has joined the throngs at the track for years, spends most of the month of May at the Yard of Bricks. As Dan Wheldon greeted fans after winning his second trophy in 2011, she and her sister, Bailey, rushed to Victory Circle from their perch on Turn 3.
“He spotted Bailey, so Bailey got to give him a high-five after he won, so that was pretty cool,” she said.
When Crull first watched the cars go around the oval in 1958, her favorite driver A.J. Foyt was a rookie.
“I just remember being so in awe with the place. It was just so big and not Darlington, Indiana, which is where I grew up,” she said.
“It was just so big. And it seemed like the cars were just going so fast and, of course, by today’s standards they were sitting still, practically.”
A few years later, Crull witnessed the aftermath of the 1964 crash that killed drivers Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald.
“I can shut my eyes and see that wall of flames and smoke that we could see clear down at the start-finish line,” she said.
Crull and her sisters inherited the family’s race tickets from their parents. When the track first announced spectator attendance would be capped at half-capacity, the family decided to roll over their tickets to next year.
“I’m probably going to have to go Dari-Licious at least once over the weekend,” Crull said with a laugh. “And I might even drive over to Stookey’s and get a carryout catfish. I don’t know.”
