When the checkered flags are waved over Sunday afternoon's 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500, they will also wave over the 54th and final (for now) airing of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on ABC. It will mark the end of the second-longest marriage of a sporting event and television network, trailing only The Masters on CBS. From a handful of film cameras to video to on-board cameras to the 90-plus HD cameras that will be pointed at the track this weekend, the eyes of ABC have always been on the Speedway.
As the winning driver and crew weep tears of joy and gulp down milk, the production crew in the trucks and trailers of the massive television compound -- located not too far from Victory Lane -- will also weep, though not from joy, and that evening they too will gulp, though it won't be milk.