The Indianapolis 500 has been broadcast on television in the United States dating back to 1949. Local Indianapolis television station WFBM-TV (now WRTV-6) carried the “500” live for the first time in 1949 and again in 1950. Then from 1964 to 1970, MCA broadcast the race live on closed-circuit television, a telecast which was available in theaters and other venues across the country. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) first covered the “500” with highlights on its popular anthology series “Wide World of Sports” from 1965 to 1970. ABC’s coverage of Time Trials dated back to 1961. From 1971 through 1985, the race was aired on same-day tape delay in primetime on ABC. Since 1986, the race has been has aired live in “flag-to-flag” format; ABC aired the race live for the first time in 1986 in a landmark telecast. A year later in 1987, cable network ESPN joined the fray covering qualifying (and later practice). ABC and ESPN would share Time Trials coverage, with the respective productions becoming more and more integrated – and eventually seamless – as ABC Sports and ESPN were merged into one division (in 2006) under The Walt Disney Company ownership.

In 2009, cable network Versus (later NBC Sports Network, and then simply NBCSN) started covering Time Trials and Carb Day as part of a ten-year contact, while ABC (now branded as ESPN on ABC) continued to air the race itself. In 2019, after more than five decades on ABC, the race made a highly publicized switch to NBC for 2019 to 2024.

In addition to Indy 500 race coverage, time trials, practice, and other ancillary events (including the 500 Festival Parade and the 500 Victory Banquet) have also been aired on television, dating back to as early as 1950. While some film and newsreel footage of the race exists as far back as the first “500” in 1911, the earliest telecasts are generally presumed to be “lost”. Much like race itself, the Indy 500 has a colorful and extensive history on television in the U.S. This six-part series will dive deep into the history of the Indianapolis 500 on television.

Some of the television ratings information contained in this article are courtesy of Ratings Ryan. The “rating” indicates the percentage of all television households in the U.S. tuned to the program (whether the TV set is turned on or not in use). The “share” reflects the percentage of television sets actually in use that are tuned to the program. The term “households”, pursuant to its name, refers to the total number homes that own a television set which are tuned into a program (but not factoring how many people in each of those homes are watching). The total number of TV households tends to grow each year, and when available, the annual totals used by Nielsen have been noted. The term “viewers”, where available, refers the grand total number of people watching (persons aged 2+). Further information, including demographic breakdowns, as well as half-hour and quarter-hour ratings (where available), can be found at the respective links and citations provided. Screenshots are copyright ABC Sports.

Indianapolis 500 on Television — Six-Part Series
Part 1 1949‒1963 Local Era	Part 2 1964‒1970 MCA/WWOS	Part 3 1971‒1985 Tape Delay	Part 4 1986‒2008 ABC Live Era	Part 5 2009‒2018 ABC/Versus	Part 6 2019-2024 NBC

Tape Delay Era (1971‒1985)

MCA-TV covered the Indianapolis 500 live on closed circuit television in theaters and similar venues across the country from 1965 to 1970 (See Part 2 for further information). After mixed reviews, various technical difficulties, and sagging theater attendance, MCA’s contract expired after the 1970 race and ultimately was not renewed. MCA stated that the venture was “unprofitable” and never returned. Rumors had already been circulating that MTS, another closed circuit firm out of New York, was interested in bidding for the race. MTS was covering college sports, and carried the Ontario 500, their first auto race; but a deal never materialized. In March 1971, a new era was set to begin. ABC Sports signed a landmark deal to carry the Indianapolis 500 in 1971 on same-day tape delay, a substantial expansion of their previous coverage, which had consisted only of highlights on Wide World of Sports. An existing 72-hour broadcast “embargo” was eliminated, but the broadcast would still be blacked-out locally in order to maximize gate attendance.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ABC signed an exclusive broadcasting rights deal reported to be $500,000 annually, with an option for 1972. The venture was considered risky by some accounts, but long overdue and inevitable by others. The 1971 race would begin a 15-year prime time run on ABC on same-day tape delay. In addition to the race day telecast, ABC Sports would also secure the exclusive rights for network coverage of Time Trials beginning in 1972. Local television coverage of race activities (both on-track and off-track) would continue through the 1970s and into the 1980s. However, little by little, the on-track live local coverage was reduced, eventually replaced with daily “wrap-up” shows.

ABC Sports ‒ Details

The ABC Sports crew would record the entire race, then edit it down to a two (or three) hour broadcast. It would air later that same day, in the evening “prime time” slot. It was customary during the tape delay era that most of the booth commentary was recorded during post production. This was a not-unusual style and format for the day. Sporting events (auto races, Olympics, etc.) that were not televised live were frequently edited down and purposely packaged to produce a program aimed at maintaining viewer attention, and maximizing ratings. Inconsequential or so-called “boring” segments of the race were left on the cutting room floor without much though. Since the “500” telecast was expected to be watched by not just pure racing fans, but a significant portion of casual fans as well as non-racing fans, producers wanted to create the most entertaining program they could. As such, the broadcasts were frequently augmented with numerous pre-taped features and puff pieces, usually introducing and focusing on a handful of top-name drivers (such as A.J. Foyt, Bobby & Al Unser, Mario Andretti, and a few others). According to producers, as many as 20 to 30 of these pre-taped features/interviews would be prepared ahead of time. Along with about 250 hours of archival footage, not to mention the race footage, the directors had plenty of videotape at their disposal. A considerable amount of attention was usually placed on a small number of drivers, insomuch as some drivers in the field of 33 might never be mentioned – unless they were involved in a crash or dropped out.

The entire race (including some pre-race ceremonies and post-race interviews) was taped from start to finish, then the post-production crew edited down the available footage to fit a two-hour window (approximately 90 minutes not including commercials. Starting in 1976, the broadcast was extended to two hours and ten minutes. Then in 1980, it became a full three-hour window. The crew had about five hours to complete the task, and the broadcast went on-air at 8:30 p.m. EDT (in later years 9:00 p.m. EDT) A few minutes of booth commentary may have been recorded live in real time at the start and at the finish, but most of the commentary was semi-scripted, and dubbed in during the final edit. According to some accounts, occasionally the commentary was performed as it was being broadcast at night. ABC also began the tradition of opening their telecast by showing the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana”. This would be the norm during the tape delay era. ABC also showed the starting command (“Gentlemen, start your engines!”), but ignored the other official pre-race ceremonies, including the National Anthem, “Taps” and in later years, the Invocation.

For most of the tape delay era, the ABC hosts and commentators were usually not stationed trackside in the broadcast booths. A temporary studio was set up in one of the production trailers in the infield. Nearly all of the on-air footage of the hosts/commentators was done from this studio, with the personalities sitting in front of a “green screen” (with stills or wide shots of the track utilized as background). The final commentary would also be recorded inside the trailer, with the play-by-play being done while watching monitors.

The process of editing down the race footage was probably the biggest challenge. While the race was being run, the producers (and likely the commentary crew) would watch the race closely, taking notes and deciding which moments were interesting and critical to the final outcome. They also took note of when long stretches of so-called “boring”, uneventful green flag racing (with little or no passing/action) would happen. These portions of the race could be omitted and replaced with pre-taped features, commercial breaks, pit interviews, or be used as a segue to simply skip ahead in the coverage.

As the race approached its conclusion (in real time), the commentators typically would enter the studio booth and call the finish live in real time. This was intended to increase the spontaneity and quality of the call. Depending upon how the race was unfolding dictated how early this “real time” commentary was initiated. In some years, it was as brief as the last 3‒5 laps, but sometimes it was the final 8‒10 laps. In 1975, a sudden rain storm pelted the Speedway, ending the race early on lap 174 (26 laps short of the scheduled distance). The announcers were seemingly rushed into duty to make a live call of the checkered flag, creating some minor, but noticeable continuity glitches in the final aired product. Nevertheless, if the “live” commentary was deemed unsatisfactory or even erroneous, the option still existed to replace it with a new track of re-recorded (scripted) commentary in post-production.

The tape delay era made for a very long day for the production crew. The day’s work would begin around sunrise, as technicians and crew members prepared the equipment, and made sure everything was set up and in working order. Pre-race ceremonies began in earnest around 10:00 a.m. (EST) and the green flag fell at 11:00 a.m. EST (12 p.m. EDT). The race typically lasted about 3 to 3½ hours, at which time post-race interviews were conducted. Shortly thereafter, the post-production team went to work, rushing to produce a final product in time for the 8:00 p.m. EST (9 p.m. EDT) air time. Sometimes the post-production work was split into two teams, one to concentrate on the first half, the other for the second half. It was not unusual for work on the second half of the broadcast to still be ongoing while the first half was already airing. When the telecast was finally over – in the latter years it finished at 11:00 p.m. EST (12 a.m. midnight EDT), the crew had easily been working for 18 hours straight.

As is and was the case with prime time network television in the U.S., ABC (and its affiliates) usually delayed the broadcast further in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. The broadcast airtime (except for the first couple of years) was 9:00 p.m. Eastern / 8:00 p.m. Central (no additional delay for central). In some cases, the telecast was aired at 7:00 p.m. in markets in the Mountain time zone (no additional delay), but in other cases it was 8:00 p.m. Mountain (representing a 1-hour time shift). On the west coast, the telecast was normally aired at 9:00 p.m. Pacific (a 3-hour time shift). In Hawaii, airtimes varied over the years. In some years, it was aired Sunday night, while in other years it was delayed locally until the following Saturday.

Tape delay versus Live

The 1971 television deal with ABC almost immediately sparked discussions and rumors about the possibility of a live network telecast of the Indy 500 in the near future. By the early 1970s, other major sporting events, including the Kentucky Derby (also in May), were being aired live, but live auto racing on TV was still scarce. ABC had started experimenting with live races, including the NASCAR Atlanta 500 and the USAC Trenton 200 in 1971, followed by a more robust schedule in 1972 under the banner “ABC’s Championship Racing“. Speedway management still resisted allowing the “500” to go live, citing concerns about gate attendance. The disastrous 1973 race, which was delayed by rain for two days, and suffered two serious crashes, also likely reinforced the hesitation to go live – underlining the unpredictability of auto racing on live television. As such, a rumor about the Indy 500 going live in 1974 went nowhere.

Nevertheless, ABC attempted to air the NASCAR Daytona 500 live for the first time in 1974. Their broadcast was actually only partially live, however. The first half of the broadcast was taped, which included pre-race coverage, and footage of the start. Later, the race was joined-in-progress, and the last 50‒75 laps (out of 200) were shown live. This format was used by ABC at Daytona through 1978, at which time CBS expressed interest in taking over the rights. In 1979, in a landmark telecast, CBS Sports carried the Daytona 500 live for the first time. The format was nicknamed “flag-to-flag” coverage, so named as it covered the race from the green flag (start) to the checkered flag (finish). Despite being considered an unproven, and perhaps ‘risky‘ telecast, the race ended up being an instant-classic, and is regarded as one of the greatest and most important races in NASCAR history. A huge snowstorm along the east coast (the Presidents Day Snowstorm of 1979) trapped many Americans in their homes for several days, and helped deliver impressive television ratings, a 10.5 with a 29 share. The telecast peaked at a 13.5/32 in the final half hour. his highly-successful venture cemented auto racing’s credibility as a live television sport in the U.S., and helped usher in a new era. At the same time, the burgeoning cable TV industry was interested in filling their schedules with live sports. With the higher-profile leagues (NFL, MLB, etc.) still under contract with the over-the-air networks, cable networks in the late 1970s and early 1980s (ESPN, TNN, USA, and others) saw auto racing as a ripe property well-suited (at least in the meantime) to fill their weekend afternoon lineups. Throughout the 1980s, more and more races (Indy cars, NASCAR, IMSA, and others) were being shown on television, much of them live.

During the first open-wheel “Split” (which took place in 1979), NBC signed a television deal with the upstart Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). While the Indy 500 and some USAC-sanctioned events remained on ABC, NBC would cover multiple CART races each year, including the other “triple crown” events – the Michigan 500 and the Pocono 500 – during most of the 1980s. Paul Page, the Voice of the 500 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network since 1977, was NBC’s lead anchor at the onset. ESPN also started airing live CART series races. The 1981 Michigan 500 on NBC would be the first 500-mile Indy car race shown live “flag-to-flag” on network television. Even though the race was originally rained out (it was postponed until the following Saturday), experienced a terrible pit fire, and suffered heavy attrition, it was considered a success. The NBC production crew was said to be self-motivated to ‘show ABC how it’s done‘, a thinly-veiled jab at ABC’s resistance (and moreover, their contractual inability) to broadcast the Indy 500 live.

ABC-TV and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway signed a six-year contract extension in early 1980. ABC would maintain their rights to the “500” from 1981 through 1985, and continue to air it on same-day tape delay. However, the contract was said to include a clause that both parties were to explore the options of a live telecast. During the negotiations in late-1979 and early-1980, ABC representatives proposed a live joined-in-progress format for the Indy 500 (like their previous Daytona 500 presentations), but it was rejected by the Speedway. The plan was to come on air and show the pre-race and early portions of the race in a taped/edited format. This would encompass approximately the first hour of an expected three-hour telecast window. When the race reached the halfway point (in real time), the coverage would switch (as seamlessly as possible) to live coverage. This would take up roughly the final two hours of the telecast, and also include the winner’s post-race interview in victory lane. In order to better accommodate this ‘half-live’ broadcast, ABC wanted the Speedway to push the start time of the race later than its traditional 11:00 a.m. (EST). In return, the Speedway wanted compensation from ABC for the potential loss of ticket sales. In the end, they stuck with the same-day tape delay.

By no later than 1981, ABC in particular was anxious to abandon the tape delay format and go live for their coverage of the Indy 500. Director Chet Forte was quoted as early as 1979 his personal desire to be allowed to cover the race live. ABC executives were also willing to pay a higher rights fee to do so. Numerous factors were cited, including sagging ratings, high cost, exceedingly long hours, and the sheer difficulty to produce the tape-delayed telecast. The benefits of tape delay – such as being able to control the content by eliminating perceived “boring” segments, the promise of higher ratings in prime time, and no chance of exciting action occurring while they were away at a commercial break – were now far outweighed by the costs and the evolving preferences of the viewers.

In the waning years of tape delay on ABC, the IMS Radio Network – which carried the race live on radio – was at its all-time peak as far as affiliate count (over 1,200 radio stations), and was still hugely popular, drawing more listeners than the ABC was viewers. It was another indication that fans preferred to experience the race live. Plenty of people who listened to the live radio broadcast (or otherwise heard who had won the race on the news) elected not to watch the race on television, since they already knew the outcome. Others may have decided not to try to experience the race twice in one day (live on the radio then taped on TV), potentially an 8-hour commitment. Once the radio broadcast concluded, some people elected to move on to other activities (picnics, etc.) since it was a holiday weekend.

As monumental the task was going to be, most at ABC believed it would actually be easier to cover the race live. The marathon 18-hour days needed to produce the tape delay broadcast were difficult and taxing. The crew for the most part believed it would be easier – like other sports – (in a simplistic but amusing perspective) to ‘turn the cameras on at 11 a.m., show the race, and when it’s over, turn the cameras off, pack up and go home’. ABC had already been covering Time Trials live (or plausibly live) for many years, although the action on those days was much simpler. CBS’s successes with live Daytona 500 telecasts, NBC’s live Michigan 500 telecasts, and the numerous other races live on CBS, ABC, and ESPN proved that audiences preferred live coverage, and would not be ‘bored’ by an over four-hour broadcast. In addition, by the mid-1980s, the Speedway was reporting that grandstand tickets for the “500” were being sold out months in advance, reducing concerns that live TV would negatively affect ticket sales and hurt gate attendance. Furthermore, after going live in 1979, officials at Daytona International Speedway affirmed that the live Daytona 500 coverage on CBS (which was blacked out for a time in the state of Florida and other parts of the southeast) was not hurting their ticket sales either. The Daytona 500 was still selling out weeks and even months in advance.

When ABC’s contract expired after the 1985 Indianapolis 500, ABC entered an exclusive negotiations window. It was reported that both NBC and CBS, and even ESPN, were interested in the broadcast rights. But ABC was determined to keep the “500” as part of their prestigious sports portfolio, and once and for all move it to a live broadcast. The Speedway and the network negotiated for many weeks over the summer of 1985. On August 19, 1985, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ABC Sports signed a landmark deal to carry the Indianapolis 500 live, flag-to-flag, for the first time on network television in the United States beginning in 1986.

Time Trials

ABC had been reporting on Indianapolis 500 Time Trials on ABC’s Wide World of Sports in most years dating back to 1961 (See Part 1 and Part 2 for more information). These however, were usually only brief reports consisting of highlights and interviews, with very little track action shown. In some years, highlights of time trials were simply packaged into the race day episode of Wide World of Sports. The coverage generally lacked much depth beyond the drivers of the front row and a handful of others. After their success with the tape delay race broadcast in 1971, ABC Sports signed an exclusive network television contract to carry Time Trials in a more thorough fashion beginning in 1972. During the 1970s and 1980s (except for 1974), qualifying was scheduled for four days: the Saturday‒Sunday two weeks before the race, and the Saturday‒Sunday one week before the race. ABC focused mostly on Pole Day (first day) and Bump Day (fourth day), the two days that typically saw the most action and heightened interest. Sometimes brief updates and special reports were delivered on WWOS during the Second Day and Third Day of qualifying, but seldom were there dedicated episodes scheduled for those middle days.

Time Trials coverage was usually live, or semi-live, with a mix of live segments interspersed with pre-taped highlights. In most years, ABC came on-air late in the afternoon on Pole Day, by which time (unless rain had interfered) the majority of qualifying runs by the top teams had been completed. At the time, qualifying was normally scheduled to open at 11 a.m., and most of the top drivers prefer to go out early in the day (to take advantage of the cooler track conditions). The  battle for the pole position was often already settled once ABC started their telecast. The drivers tentatively on the front row were usually interviewed, with a replay of their qualifying attempt shown. Once in a while some top names (A.J. Foyt, for instance) would pull out of line and wait until the final hour (when shadows are typically cast over the frontstretch) in order to qualify in better conditions. In those instances, ABC had the opportunity to show some meaningful live track action. On Bump Day, ABC started a custom of carrying the final hour of qualifying. The drama of drivers bumping into the field before the 6 o’clock gun was exciting and often registered a good rating. ABC would carry this “Final Hour” broadcast through 1986.

Due to their broadcast rights to the Monaco Grand Prix (which take places around the same time of year as Indy), ABC often had to utilize split-crews to cover both events. In 1974, 1976, and 1979, the Indy 500 (race day) and Monaco were run on the same day. Two separate announcing crews were needed in those instances. In other years, Monaco fell on the same weekend as Indy 500 Time Trials. In those years, some on-air crew members might temporarily depart Indy to cover Monaco, and substitute announcers would fill in for them at Indy during qualifying only. After Monaco, they would return to Indy in time for race day.

Local coverage

Once a staple of the Indianapolis-area television stations, local television coverage of the month of May at Indy began a slow but noticeable decline during the 1970s and 1980s. WFBM channel 6 (which changed its call letters to WRTV in 1972 after new ownership) continued to be the leader in local television coverage of the Indianapolis 500. WISH (channel 8), WLWI/WTHR (channel 13), and WTTV (channel 4) also covered the race, but to a lesser extent, even compared to WFBM/WRTV’s reduced efforts. In at least some cases, WTTV’s coverage was simply a repackaging of the video footage produced and provided by WRTV (under the banner Indianapolis Motor Speedway Television Network). Live local coverage of Time Trials continued through the 1970s and into the early 1980s, but started to disappear in favor of nighttime wrap-up/highlight shows.

By the 1980s, WRTV’s longtime daily wrap-up show “Trackside” was no longer being produced as a standalone program. Though the station typically assigned a reporter(s) and maintained cameras at the track each day during the month of May, the “Trackside” reports were simply being aired as a segment during the normal midday and evening news. Longer reports would still air on qualifying days and on race day, and it became a custom to have an active driver as part of the reporting team (“driver expert”).

The reduced coverage on local television coincided with the timeframe which saw substantially increased race coverage on the radio. Though WFBM radio (1260 AM) had been a leader in radio coverage of the “500” for years, by the 1970s, they were now being rivaled by 1070-AM WIBC. According to Donald Davidson, after new management at WIBC, the station substantially increased their race coverage beginning in 1971. Lou Palmer became synonymous with the daily trackside reports, and Davidson himself became famous for “The Talk of Gasoline Alley“. Radio had an advantage over television, as it was much easier and cheaper to produce, and had much greater flexibility with respect to the schedule (WIBC would broadcast hourly updates on practice days, and usually had all-day coverage on qualifying days and race day). Above all, radio could be heard by the fans that went to the track. Many fans brought their battery-operated radios with them to the track in order to listen to the live radio reports – something practically impossible to do with television at the time. Whether intentionally or coincidentally, the local TV stations shifted their coverage little by little to evening and nighttime wrap-up/highlight shows. An advantage to this style of coverage was that it allowed fans who were at the track to see the day’s video highlights when they returned home.

1971

Broadcast Details: Billed as “An Exclusive Presentation of ABC Sports”, the 1971 telecast featured 12 or 14 cameras and an 80-person crew. The opening featured animated text (“THE INDIANAPOLIS 500”) circling like a globe, giving the impression of “speed”, followed by waving checkered flags, with voice-over by Jim McKay. One camera (“crane cam”) was positioned on a platform suspended from a crane in the north short chute. The “crane cam” had a nearly unobstructed view of the entire circuit, and was occasionally used for isolated shots. The soon-to-be familiar “speed shot” camera was set up in the exit of turn four, while the most iconic camera position – looking up the mainstretch – was prominently featured. On-screen graphics were simple, with the top-five standings flashed at regular intervals. Lap counts were not given, ostensibly to keep the viewers from noticing large skips in the race coverage, and due to limitations in official timing and scoring reports of the day.

For 1971, a new race schedule was adopted. Prior to 1971, Memorial Day was a fixed date holiday (May 30). The race was scheduled for May 30 regardless of the day of the week. If May 30 fell on a Sunday, the race would be scheduled for Monday May 31 (the date in which federal holiday was observed). Starting in 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, and the Memorial Day holiday was moved to the last Monday in May. For 1971 and 1972, the race was scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. As such the 1971 race fell on Saturday May 29. Going into the race, it was announced that Sunday May 30 would be reserved as a rain date. If the race were to be rained out Saturday, ABC cleared Sunday from 6‒8 p.m. (eastern) for the same-day coverage.

On-Air Crew: ABC increased the size of their on-air crew for 1971. For the first same-day tape delay broadcast, Chris Schenkel was scheduled to serve as host and play-by-play anchor. It was to be Schenkel’s second appearance at Indy – he had previously hosted and anchored the 1966 “500” telecast on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Schenkel rode in and reported from the pace car at the start of the race. Eldon Palmer drove the pace car, with Tony Hulman, John Glenn, and Schenkel as passengers. As the field came to take the green flag, the pace car crashed into a photography stand at the south end of the pits. None of the occupants of the pace car were seriously injured, but Schenkel decided to sit out the rest of the broadcast. During a brief interview afterwards, Schenkel reiterated that he was uninjured, but was still rather shaken and was not going to do any further commentary.

Jim McKay (anchor of ABC’s Wide World of Sports) and Formula One World Champion Jackie Stewart were scheduled to be booth analysts. This would be McKay’s fifth appearance at Indy – he anchored the WWOS telecasts in 1967‒1970. Stewart was making his second television appearance at Indy, and his first with ABC-TV. Stewart was previously an analyst on the MCA Closed Circuit telecast in 1970. McKay was set to call the start, then was expected to hand over some of the play-by-play duties to Chris Schenkel once Schenkel returned from riding in the pace car. (This exchange – ostensibly to be handled during post-production anyway, was at best a formality). However, after the pace car crash, McKay was thrust into full-time duty and was promptly elevated [permanently] to the sole play-by-play position.

Chris Economaki was assigned to the pit area and Keith Jackson was assigned to the garage area. Economaki, the editor of National Speed Sport News, and a veteran of both the MCA-TV and WWOS broadcasts of the “500”, conducted interviews in pit lane throughout the race. Jackson was stationed on a platform near Gasoline Alley. His job was primarily to interview drivers that had dropped out of the race.

For the 1971 broadcast only, ABC-TV also employed four local television reporters, one each stationed in the infield of the four turns. Their duties were to serve as roving reporters, and interview any drivers who dropped out. Back in that era, it was commonplace that when a car broke down, drivers would simply pull off the track and park it in the infield grass. This was a preferred action because it did not require a tow truck to come out (and cause a caution period). The driver would simply park it, climb out, and walk back to the pits, while the race went on without interruption. As long as the car was not in a dangerous spot (or on fire), it would be left there until the race was over. The roving reporters were basically tasked with chasing down the driver as they walked back to the pits, to hopefully get a few comments. Only one of the four reporters was called on during the telecast. David Letterman, at the time a reporter for WLWI (now WTHR), famously interviewed Mario Andretti in turn four. Bill Flemming hosted a history segment which aired on Wide World of Sports during the afternoon, then called the race on Canadian television. Flemming may have also been one of the four aforementioned turn reporters, but this has yet to be confirmed. Flemming did not appear on-camera during the ABC race broadcast, and the other reporters hired by ABC that day have never been positively identified.

At the conclusion of the race, as was the case during much of the WWOS era, the victory lane celebration was not shown, and the winner was not interviewed by ABC in victory lane. Instead, Chris Economaki’s interview with race winner Al Unser Sr. took place some time afterwards, back near the garage area. Unser was alone, without any well-wishers, without the traditional victory wreath, but was still wearing his drivers uniform.

Pre-Taped Features: During the tape delay era, in an effort to appeal to casual viewers, to break up the perceived monotony of the less-eventful portions of the race, and to provide segues between the edited segments, several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals. In 1971, with the telecast only two hours in length (including commercials), there were only three pre-taped features.

• Pole-sitter Peter Revson described a lap of the Speedway.
• Pit stop demonstration with the A.J. Foyt team.
• Interview with driver Lloyd Ruby, and a recounting of Ruby’s “hard luck” over the years at the Indy 500.

Ratings: The television ratings for the 1971 Indy 500 in prime time were satisfactory. The telecast scored a preliminary 10.8 rating, initially seen as a bit of a disappointment. The number was revised up to a 15.5, tentatively ranking 30th for the week. However, when the Final ratings were tabulated, the results were much better. The two-hour broadcast earned a 17.4 rating and 34 share. According to Nielsen, it was seen in 10,460,000 households with a total of 32 million viewers. The first hour was the strongest, while the second hour seemingly lost some viewers to CBS. Jim Spence, vice-president in charge of sports planning for ABC called the ratings “outstanding” and claimed that they ‘far exceeded their estimates’. The “500” telecast pre-empted ABC’s regular Saturday night lineup, which since it was after “Sweeps Week”, was consisting of mostly reruns and movies.

Broadcast Critique: ABC’s first attempt at a same-day tape delay broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 was for the most part a success. A herculean effort in itself, the ABC production crew seemingly “pulled out all the stops” to make the broadcast appealing to a broad audience. They had a large production crew, a larger on-air crew than previous years, and enough cameras to sufficiently cover the entire circuit. Still afraid that a 500-mile car race would be considered too “boring” to a casual audience, their two-hour broadcast included enough features (but not too many) to keep viewers from changing the channel. ABC’s cameramen also did a good job of capturing nearly all of the accidents. But in period style, ABC focused almost exclusively on a small handful of top drivers, making little effort to pay attention to other drivers in the starting field. As commonly observed from this timeframe, the IMS Radio Network crew was reporting on and talking to drivers the ABC-TV viewers may not have even known were in the race. This would be an ongoing theme during the tape delay era.

Lastly, it was past due for ABC to start showing the victory lane celebration. Lou Palmer (on the IMS Radio Network) customarily had first access to the race winner as he pulled into victory lane and climbed from his car. Palmer would conduct his interview with the winner, surrounded by his crew, describing the scene in splendid color capturing the excitement and emotion of the moment. ABC was still conducting their interview with the winner well after the fact, and somewhere else, in this case back near Gasoline Alley. By the time the television interview was taped (which easily could have been 30‒60 minutes after the race), the immediate excitement of the moment had clearly passed. The interview was dull, and an obvious oversight by the production crew. This was magnified by the fact that in 1971, the Speedway constructed a new victory lane, relocating it to the “horseshoe” area in front of the Master Control Tower. Victory lane was now in the full view of a much greater number of spectators in the grandstands. This would be one of the last times ABC conducted their winner’s interview not in victory lane.

Broadcast Disposition: The first same-day tape delay broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 has been preserved and restored in its entirety. In February 2000, ESPN Classic showed a rerun of the race, believed to be the first time the 1971 race telecast had been seen since the day it originally aired. The ESPN Classic version (minus commercials) totaled just under 90 minutes. Approximately 10 to 12 minutes of footage (including but not limited to, the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana” and the closing credits) were edited out. This version of the broadcast would be rerun on ESPN Classic many times (ESPN Classic officially shuttered in 2021), and in some years also appeared on ESPN’s On-Demand channel. On May 13, 2021, celebrating fifty years since the telecast, the entire unedited broadcast (running approximately 102 minutes) was restored and uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1971 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked out in the greater Indianapolis area. In its place, local ABC affiliate WLWI (channel 13) aired a syndicated episode of The King Family Show titled “The King Family in San Francisco” followed by a rerun of the show The Immortal (“The Legacy”). After nearly the entire the state of Indiana was barred from showing the MCA-TV closed circuit broadcasts (1965‒1970), for 1971 several of the other ABC affiliates around state lobbied to carry the ABC television broadcast. The Speedway agreed, and affiliates in Evansville (WTVT), South Bend, Ft. Wayne, and elsewhere were permitted to carry the telecast.

1971 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (Pits) Keith Jackson (Garages) Bill Flemming (Turn ?) David Letterman (Turn 4)	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Larry Kaam (Second Unit)
Broadcast Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Saturday May 29, 1971 Time: 8:30 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: 17.4 Share: 34 Households: 10.46 million Viewers: 32 million	Official channel Unofficial (ESPN Classic) Unofficial (ESPN Classic)

Jim McKay: “…And here they are, poised for the start of the Indianapolis 500 1971. That orange car on the inside, on the pole, of Peter Revson. The blue car next to him is Mark Donohue, and Bobby Unser on the outside. The green flag is out! They’re underway! Going into turn one. Ah..look…the p-….my God the pace has crashed into a photographers’ stand! Mark Donohue has taken the lead. We’re…we’re on the race. You can’t see what has happened down there. The pace car, out of control crashed into a photographers’ stand, people fell out as if a corn crib had been opened and just tumbling down to the track. Chris Schenkel is in the car…Tony Hulman is in it…J-…there’s the scene…astronaut John Glenn is in that car with Chris and Tony Hulman. A man named Eldon Palmer…a local automobile dealer…was driving the car. Not a professional race driver.”

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Time Trials

Time Trials was scheduled for four days (May 15‒16 & May 22‒23). ABC’s Wide World of Sports was on hand to cover the NASCAR Rebel 500 (held May 2), and it aired on Saturday May 15. Therefore, ABC did not schedule any time trials coverage for Pole Day weekend. However, some local coverage aired in some markets.

On Saturday May 22, ABC’s Wide World of Sports carried highlights of Time Trials with Keith Jackson and Chris Economaki reporting. The broadcast (5:00 p.m. eastern) also featured the U.S. Air Force Fighter Interceptor Rocketry Meeting from Tyndall Air Force Base, and a feature on Joe Namath training for the upcoming football season.

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Local coverage

WFBM-TV channel 6 had extensive local coverage of practice, time trials, and other events leading up to the race. Tom Carnegie, John Totten, Len Sutton, and Dave Piontek, anchored the coverage, which included the daily show “Trackside”, all four days of Time Trials, as well as highlight films, profile features, the Queen’s Ball, the Celebrity Party, the “500” Festival Parade, and the Victory Dinner.

1972

Broadcast Details: ABC returned for their second same-day tape delay broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. The production utilized 13 cameras, including the “crane cam” in the north short chute once again. If the race were to be rained out on Saturday, Sunday was going to be used as a rain date. In such a case, ABC was planning to air the rain-delayed telecast Sunday night at 8 p.m. However, the race was not affected by rain. The 1972 race has two historical distinctions. It was the first year that Jim Nabors performed “Back Home Again in Indiana” during the pre-race ceremonies (which was shown by ABC), and it marked the first Indy 500 win by car owner Roger Penske.

On-Air Crew: Most of the crew was the same from 1971. Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart served as booth announcers, with Chris Schenkel as host. Chris Economaki reported from the pit area, and interviewed race winner Mark Donohue in victory lane. Bill Flemming was also on-hand, but it is not confirmed if Flemming served on the ABC prime time telecast. Flemming reported on the pageantry and pre-race ceremonies during Saturday afternoon’s Wide World of Sports telecast, then hosted a 30-minute pre-race show with Stu Nahan which was available to some viewers on the west coast.

Ratings: No television ratings information has been found for the 1972 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC. This is because the race fell during a “dark week” for the A.C. Nielsen Co. According to Ratings Ryan, through 1973 there were four or five weeks during the year in which ratings were not measured at all. So-called “sweeps week” in mid-May was over, and no network television ratings were tabulated during the last week of May 1972. The “500” telecast pre-empted the regularly scheduled ABC [Saturday] Movie of the Week.

Broadcast Critique: Since the entire race broadcast is not available to review, contemporary articles are the only source of critical commentary. In the second year of the same-day tape delay format, once again some observers expressed dissatisfaction about already knowing the outcome of the race (from listening to the live radio broadcast) before it was aired on TV. Either that, or the need to avoid all radio and news contact before turning on the television. Nevertheless, the production itself received positive reviews from most columnists.

Broadcast Disposition: Counting all of ABC-TV’s race day telecasts (1965 through 2018), including those aired on Wide World of Sports, same-day tape delay, as well as live, the broadcast of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 is the only one considered “lost” (as of 2023). Home video cassette recorder systems were still in their infancy, and did not start entering the consumer market until about 1975. It is unlikely that any off-the-air recordings were made (much less survived), leaving only network masters, affiliate recordings, and kinescopes as the only potential surviving copies.

According to IndyCar.com, in early 2016, an attempt was made to restore the 1972 broadcast and preserve it digitally. However, about halfway through the conversion process the “tape cut out” and the project had to be put on hold. As a substitute, a copy of one of the 1972 highlight films was posted. While no complete copies of the 1972 ABC-TV broadcast are known to exist, numerous clips and partial segments have surfaced:

• During the 1987 Indianapolis 500 Pole Day telecast on ABC (5/9/1987), a 20-second clip of the start of the 1972 race was shown during a commercial bumper. (LINK; begins at the 44:38 mark)
• During the 1989 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC (5/28/1989), a 15-second clip of Gary Bettenhausen slowing down while leading the 1972 race was shown during a pre-taped, pre-race segment profiling the Bettenhausen family. (LINK; begins at the 24:55 mark)
• During the 1981 Indianapolis 500 telecast, a brief clip of Mike Mosley’s crash was included as part of a featurette with Jackie Stewart.
  (LINK; begins at the 42:40 mark). The same clip was also shown in a similar featurette in 1980.
• During the 1984 Indianapolis 500 telecast, a brief clip of Jerry Grant’s controversial final pit stop was included as part of a featurette on pit stops. (LINK; begins at the 28:20 mark)
• Brief clips from the 1972 ABC telecast appears in “A Tribute to Jim Nabors” from 2015. (LINK)
• Brief clips from the 1972 ABC telecast appear in a WRTV “Road to 100” video. (LINK)
• Around 2018, a roughly twenty minute long kinescope of the ABC broadcast (from French television) surfaced. About 4 minutes of the footage, which covers the start (surviving only in black & white) was synced up the the IMS Radio Network audio by Eric Paddon and made available on YouTube (LINK)
• A brief clip of Mark Donohue’s 1972 victory lane interview on ABC appears in a 2022 Team Penske video. (LINK)

Blackout: The 1972 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blackout out in the Indianapolis area. Locally, WLWI (channel 13) aired a movie (Our Man Flint) in its place. For the first time, however, WLWI aired the ABC telecast for the local audience later in the summer. The Speedway, ABC, and WLWI decided that on or around July 4th weekend was a long enough wait to avoid affecting gate attendance. The race telecast was aired on channel 13 on Tuesday July 4 at 3:30 p.m.

1972 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (Pits) Bill Flemming (Pre-race)	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Don Ohlmeyer
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Saturday May 27, 1972 Time: 8:30 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: N/A	None

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Time Trials

In the spring of 1972, ABC Sports signed an exclusive contract to carry Indianapolis 500 Time Trials on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. For 1972, qualifying was scheduled for four days (May 13‒14 & 20‒21). Dennis Lewin was the producer for time trials coverage.

• Saturday May 13: ABC was scheduled to air coverage of Pole Day Time Trials on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reporting. Most of the day was rained out, however, and no cars were able to complete a qualifying attempt. The World Weightlifting Championships from Lima, Peru was also part of the episode.
• Sunday May 14: No coverage was scheduled.
• Saturday May 20: ABC was back for the third day of time trials. The coverage was part of an afternoon doubleheader, with taped coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix immediately after.
• Sunday May 21: Keith Jackson (back from his duties in Monaco) and Chris Economki hosted a Indy 500 preview show on ABC, wrapping up the final day of time trials and looking ahead to the race. Jackie Stewart also offered commentary, and driver Bobby Unser was profiled.

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Local coverage

WFBM-TV channel 6 was the leader in local coverage, led by Tom Carnegie. WLWI‘s coverage featured Don Hein and Sid Collins, and WISH had Guy Johnson, Jim Wilson, and Rodger Ward. Along with practice and qualifying, numerous specials also aired during the month across the Indianapolis area stations.

1973

Broadcast Details: The 1973 Indianapolis 500 was scheduled for Monday May 28. It would mark the third year for ABC’s same-day tape delay coverage. The race had been scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in both 1971 and 1972. Then for 1973 it was scheduled for Monday – the Memorial Day holiday itself. ABC planned to air the race on Monday night from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. eastern. Rain delayed the start of the race until after 3 o’clock local time. A huge crash at the start involving Salt Walther and at least ten other cars immediately put out the red flag. Walther was critically injured, the catch fencing was damaged, and several spectators were injured. Before the crash could be cleaned up and repairs could be made, it began to rain again. The rest of the day was washed out and the race was postponed until Tuesday.

ABC reportedly came on-air as scheduled Monday night for ten minutes, and showed brief replays of the Walther crash. Since news outlets had been reporting on the crash all afternoon and evening, ABC executives decided it was their obligation to come on air and update viewers of the situation. It is believed that ABC filled the remainder of the Monday night timeslot with a rerun of a movie, and announced that they would air the rescheduled “500” on Tuesday night from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. (eastern). Initially, ABC executives did not immediately commit to airing the race on Tuesday night. There was some early speculation that it would not be aired until Saturday afternoon. Their scheduled Tuesday night lineup consisted of a sitcom (Temperatures Rising) and a movie (“Five Desperate Women“). By late Monday evening, the decision was made and it was officially announced that ABC would pre-empt their Tuesday night lineup to show the race. The announcement was made in enough time to appear in newspaper listings in Tuesday morning’s papers across the country.

Tuesday came and went without a start. The race was planned for 9:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning, but persistent showers pushed any attempt at a start out until after 10:15 a.m. The cars got out onto the track for a parade lap, but on the pace lap, rain started again. The cars were halted on the mainstretch to wait out the shower. Eventually the cars were pushed back to the garage area, and the rest of the day was washed out. ABC did not show any race coverage on Tuesday night, but may have aired a brief report informing viewers that the event was postponed yet again.

Chris Economaki: “This 500 has been jinxed from the start.”

Network officials cleared the Wednesday night lineup, and ABC prepared to show the race broadcast Wednesday night at 8 p.m. eastern – that is, IF it actually ran. It was now day three, and rain was threatening to wash out the race yet again. The mood was glum. Crews were exhausted, and drivers were apprehensive. Most of the fans had departed, and after two days of rainy revelry, the infield of track (particularly the infamous “Snake Pit”) had become a disgusting bog of mud and garbage. Television camera operators and production crew members were also tired and drenched, and some were supposed to have already departed for other assignments. The skies finally cleared up around 2:00 p.m. local time, and the race finally got underway. ABC’s tape delayed telecast came on-air at 8 p.m. eastern.

The telecast opened with the same “circling globe” animation from 1971, followed by Jim Nabors’ rendition of “Back Home Again in Indiana” (which had been performed on Monday). After a brief introduction by Jim McKay (which was undoubtedly taped sometime Wednesday afternoon), the aborted Monday start, the Salt Walther crash, and the immediate aftermath was shown. Short clips and analysis from Tuesday, including a report by Dave Diles on the Tuesday morning drivers’ meeting (described as a “stormy meeting of gigantic proportions”), were then shown. By that point, about a half hour into the broadcast, the race coverage from Wednesday afternoon began. The start, and the early laps were mostly uneventful, but there was considerable attrition. The race (and the broadcast) appeared to be settling into a state of normalcy. This was short-lived, however. The terrible crash of Swede Savage on lap 58 (approximately one hour into the telecast) put out the red flag. Crew member Armando Terran was hit by a fire truck in the pits, and was fatally injured.  ABC showed replays of Savage’s crash, along with the aftermath of Teran’s accident.

In real time, the race resumed a little over an hour later, after a lengthy cleanup. ABC showed some additional replays and analysis, conducted some interviews, then inserted a pre-taped feature on safety. After a commercial break, the race was shown returning to green flag conditions. Rain stopped the race on lap 133, and Gordon Johncock was declared the winner. ABC showed a brief interview with the race winner, then signed off after what appears to have been a roughly 2 hour and 10 minute telecast.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart were scheduled to be the booth announcers for 1973. Dave Diles and Don Hein covered the pits. Stewart was still a full-time competitor on the Formula One circuit, and was going to be able to attend the race during a Formula One off-week. Stewart had just won the Grand Prix of Belgium on May 20, and arrived at Indy in time for Monday’s scheduled start. However, rain along with the Salt Walther crash, delayed and ultimately postponed the race. Stewart was on-hand on Tuesday and recorded some commentary and analysis, but the race never got started. Rained washed out any chance to run the race Tuesday, at which time Stewart departed to go to the Monaco Grand Prix. For Wednesday, Stewart was replaced in the booth by analyst Chris Economaki, although some of Stewart’s pre-taped features were interspersed with the Wednesday coverage. When the red flag came out on lap 133 to end the race, Dave Diles interviewed winning co-owner Andy Granatelli in the pit lane, then interviewed Gordon Johncock as he climbed from his car. Moments later, the car was pushed to victory lane for an abbreviated and mostly muted celebration.
Pre-Taped Features: A small number of pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals. Due to the rain delay, crash replays and analysis, along with numerous pit interviews, the broadcast probably did not need to rely on as much filler material as originally planned.

• Pit stop demonstration by Jackie Stewart with the Gary Bettenhausen team.
• Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart discussing the increasing speeds along with the evolution in tires and downforce.
• Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart discussing drafting
• Jackie Stewart discussing safety improvements and the emergency crews.

Ratings: The ABC telecast of the 1973 Indianapolis 500, which aired on the night of Wednesday May 30, registered a 16.5 rating and 30 share. For the week ending June 3, 1973, the “500” did not make the top twenty. Since the 1972 race was not metered, and the 1971 race aired on a Saturday, a direct comparison in the ratings is not exactly possible. However, head-to-head, the 1973 race technically was down from 1971. Though ABC reportedly finished first overall for the week, it is unclear how ABC finished for the night (Wednesday). The Wednesday broadcast pre-empted The Paul Lynde Show and the ABC Wednesday Night Movie (“Curse of the Fly“). The offerings on CBS and NBC that aired opposite the “500” also did not crack the top twenty, making a direct comparison not possible (per the information available).

Broadcast Critique: As the tragic nature of the race unfolded on television, anchor Jim McKay for the most part handled it with experience and professionalism. Just one year prior, at the 1972 Summer Olympics, McKay famously reported on the Munich massacre for ABC Sports. The on-air crew interviewed numerous participants (some made it on-air some did not) in the aftermath of the Salt Walther crash. Numerous drivers were displeased with the start, and expressed concerns about safety. Sensing a growing apprehension amongst the competitors, ABC began focusing heavily on the crash, and it monopolized the first half hour of the broadcast. When the race finally got started, the coverage eventually settled into a more ordinary fashion. However, when Swede Savage’s crash happened on lap 59, the mood in the booth turned. Both McKay and Economaki were noticeably shaken and – much like Sid Collins over on the radio broadcast – seemed ready to just end the race. Economaki proclaimed the race was “jinxed from the start”.

Pit reporter Dave Diles, however, when interviewing Andy Granatelli (co-owner of the winning team), seems not to have noticed right away the lack of enthusiasm Granatelli (and others) had over winning the tragic event. Granatelli was very subdued and instead his thoughts were with Swede Savage and Armando Teran (both would succumb to their injuries). The same went for his relatively brief interview with Johncock and George Bignotti. Overall, ABC executed their responsibility of covering the race, despite the rain and the tragic circumstances. Like most of the participants and attendees, ABC was probably content with simply getting the broadcast over with and trying to forget about what would go down as the worst “500” in history.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1973 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. With consumer VCR’s not available at the time, original recordings of the complete 1973 race are considered rare. Numerous brief clips (namely of the start, the Salt Walther crash, and the Swede Savage crash) survived as part of news reports. Clips of the start were also shown by ABC during classic highlight segments, including the pre-race rain delay coverage in 1991. In May 2011,  ESPN Classic aired a batch of restored ABC telecasts celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”, but the 1973 race was left out. Later that year, on August 12, 2011, a restored, nearly-complete version of the 1973 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic. It was edited from the original 2-hour duration omitting the intro and some scenes in the immediate aftermath of the Swede Savage crash. This version re-ran multiple times on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, including on its 40th anniversary (May 30, 2013). More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. On April 11, 2023 (marking its upcoming 50th anniversary), a complete restored copy of the original broadcast, including commercials, (running approximately 131 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1973 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blackout out in the Indianapolis area. Locally, WLWI (channel 13) scheduled a movie (Fathom) in its place for Monday night (originally scheduled race day). On Wednesday night, when the rest of the country saw the race telecast, WLWI aired reruns of a movie and another program. A final decision on if and when the Indianapolis market would get to see the race broadcast was put off for a week or so.

Due to rain, the race did not get started until mid-afternoon on Wednesday May 30. Some people complained that the Speedway did not give fans adequate notice that the race was starting, and the grandstands were only partially filled when the green flag dropped. Others felt that the Speedway should have lifted the local television blackout since many fans with tickets were unable to attend. Al Bloemker, the Speedway Public Relations Director, however, explained that lifting the blackout would have been unfair to the other stations, which were permitted to show locally-produced highlight packages during the timeslot. Come the end of June, there were still “no plans” to air the broadcast locally. It does not appear that WLWI aired the taped ABC-TV broadcast at any time during the summer, likely due to the tragic nature of the event.

1973 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart (Mon. & Tues.) Analyst: Chris Economaki (Wed.)	Dave Diles Don Hein	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Don Ohlmeyer
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Wednesday May 30, 1973 Time: 8:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: 16.5 Share: 30 Viewers: 17 million	Official Channel Unofficial

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Time Trials

Time Trials was scheduled for four days (May 12‒13 & May 19‒20). On Saturday May 12 ABC’s Wide World of Sports carried time trials (alongside the wrist wrestling championships). Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, Chris Economaki, and Dave Diles were on hand for pole day.

On Sunday May 20, ABC aired a one-hour special at 6 p.m. (EDT) covering Bump Day time trials. The final hour was shown, anchored by Chris Schenkel and Roger Penske along with Chris Economaki and Dave Diles. On Saturday May 27, ABC aired a special feature profiling Mario Andretti, Joe Leonard, and Al Unser.

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Local coverage

WRTV’s coverage on “Trackside” and qualifications coverage was anchored by Tom Carnegie, John Totten, and Johnny Rutherford. WISH covered the race on Speedway Wrap-Up with Jim Wilson and Rodger Ward.

1974

Broadcast Details: ABC’s same-day tape delay coverage of the 1974 Indy 500 moved to a 9:00 p.m. (eastern) start time, and ran for a two-hour broadcast window. The telecast opened with the same “globe” animation from 1971‒1973 and included a feature on A.J. Foyt. Billed as an “Exclusive Presentation of ABC Sports”, it was the first time that the Indy 500 was shown on Sunday night in prime time. After being scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in 1971‒1972, and being scheduled for the Monday holiday itself in 1973 (but rained out until Wednesday), the 1974 race was scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The move to Sunday was permanent from 1974 on.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay returned as play-by-play anchor, with Chris Schenkel as host. For the first time since going to the tape delay format, the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix fell on the same day (Sunday May 26). Initially, driver analyst Jackie Stewart was slated to do “double duty” and cover both events for ABC. According to Sam Posey, producers were going to arrange for a helicopter and an airplane to transport Stewart from Monaco as soon as the Formula One race was over. He was expected to arrive at Indianapolis in the evening, in enough time to perform the post-production booth commentary for the “500”. However, at some point during the month, Stewart and the producers changed their minds due to logistics. Stewart was at Indy for Time Trials only, and departed to cover Monaco for ABC on race day. Sam Posey, who had driven in the race in 1972, joined the crew for the first time as color commentator. He served as a guest commentator during qualifying, which was essentially an audition for analyst on race day. Posey won the role, and began what would be an over twenty-year career with ABC Sports. At the start of the race, Chris Schenkel rode in and reported from the pace car, while McKay started the race with his famous “…and they’re racing at Indianapolis!” line.

During the post-race, Chris Economaki was seen in victory lane, but Lou Palmer with the IMS Radio Network got the first interview with race winner Johnny Rutherford. Economaki later interviewed Rutherford, but the interview that actually aired appears to have been conducted on the mainstretch (after the winner’s victory lap in the pace car).

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Track tour with Sam Posey.
• Pit stop demonstration by Sam Posey with the Mike Hiss team.
• Jackie Stewart going over safety changes at the track, along with an interview with new chief steward Tom Binford.
• Snake Pit montage
• Chris Economaki summarizing rule changes including wing sizes and fuel restrictions; tires through the years.
• Jackie Stewart reports from the Monaco Grand Prix.

Music: The song “Stuck In The Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel accompanied the Snake Pit montage.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co, the 1974 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC ranked 16th overall for the week ending May 26, 1974. For the night, ABC probably finished second, behind CBS. The final numbers came in with a rating of 16.4 and a share of 34. For the first Indy 500 broadcast on a Sunday night in prime time, both the rating and share were about even from 1973 (which aired on a Wednesday), but down from 1971 (which aired on a Saturday). The “500” telecast pre-empted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Jim McKay: “Pat Vidan on the tower, on the left part…side…of your picture. No green flag yet. He’s holding them right to the last minute. There’s the green flag! They’re racing…at Indianapolis!”

Broadcast Critique: The 1974 race was clean and relatively safe, a sharp contrast from the tragic, rain-shortened 1973 race. As such, some found the race a little “boring”, but it was a welcome sight and the race was entertaining. Sam Posey’s performance was given positive marks by one account, while some of the other commentators could have “done a little more more homework”. Again it was pointed out that most people who were interested in the race result already knew who won by the time it aired.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1974 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. With consumer VCR’s not widely available at the time, original recordings of the complete 1974 race are considered rare. In May 2011,  the 1974 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1974 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original two-hour duration down to a two-hour (or one-hour) cable broadcast window. Unofficial versions began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In 2019, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 101 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1974 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blackout out in the Indianapolis area. Locally, WLWI (channel 13) aired a movie (Our Man Flint) in its place. The race was aired on channel 13 on Sunday July 7 at 3 p.m.

1974 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Don Ohlmeyer
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 26, 1974 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: 16.4 Share: 31	Official Channel Unofficial (ESPN Classic)

McKay: “Here he comes, Johnny Rutherford. The man with the Lone Star of Texas on his helmet, from Fort Worth. He’ll take the checkered flag…and win the Indianapolis 500 on his eleventh try!”
Posey: “Terrific! Terrific!”

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Time Trials

In 1974, due to the ongoing energy crisis, schedule changes were made. Time Trials were reduced from four days down to two days (May 11 & May 18). ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered Pole Day qualifying (Saturday May 11) with Jim McKay, Chris Schenkel, and Chris Economaki reporting. Jackie Stewart would be on hand for qualifying only (he was scheduled to cover the Monaco Grand Prix). Sam Posey was added to the crew as guest analyst during qualifying and booth analyst for race day.

On Saturday May 18, ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered the second (and final) day of time trials with Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, Chris Schenkel, Bill Flemming, and Chris Economki on hand.

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Local coverage

WRTV’s local coverage on “Trackside” was anchored by Tom Carnegie, John Totten, and Johnny Rutherford.

1975

Broadcast Details: ABC’s fifth same-day tape delay broadcast came in 1975. It would be the final year the telecast was exactly two hours in duration. In subsequent years, the broadcast would be expanded with an extra ten minutes, then to a full three hours. On lap 125, ABC’s “crane cam” (positioned in the south short chute, across the street) captured a spectacular shot of Tom Sneva’s fiery crash in turn two. Sneva touched wheels with Eldon Rasmussen, and flipped into the catch fence near the Turn Two Suites. A.J. Foyt slipped by the scene, while Sneva’s engine was ripped off the chassis in a huge fire flash. ABC’s cameras showed showed the safety crews tending to the scene, and Sneva climbing from the car. He suffered only minor injuries and relatively minor burns.

Chris Economaki interviewed race winner Bobby Unser in Victory Lane. Unlike most previous years, when only the radio crew conducted a winner’s interview in Victory Lane, it appears that ABC was able to interview the race winner immediately after Lou Palmer’s radio interview. Economaki needed stitches on his forehead after suffering an injury in the pits. He returned to the track after the race with a report on Tom Sneva’s injuries, which was taped in post-production.

Jackson: “Now here we come down with A.J. Foyt beginning to move through traffic, and he’s running in behind…uh…Tom Sneva. Eldon Rassmussen…number fifty-eight is in the yellow car coming around turn number two. And…ohh…we got an acc-….Sneva is on the wall! He goes into a terrible flip and we have a fire. The engine is ripped off the back of the car, and comes tumbling across. A.J. Foyt was right behind him, he able to avoid it somehow. But Tom Sneva is in the car, he’s moving around, he’s trying to get out. An incredible accident on car number sixty-eight Tom Sneva. There is fire! Sneva can’t seen to get outta the car. The fireman is there…spaying it down. Question is…is there fire in the cockpit? But what a spectacular flip, and the fire crews hopefully protect young Tom Sneva as he struggles to get outta the car. And Jackie, it appears that he is trapped in that car.”

Stewart: “Yeah he is, but he’s got a lot of help there, dousing the fire, you can’t see the alcohol flame of course, but he looks as if he’s ok. He’s certainly moving around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a driver move so easily after such a terrible accident. That’s one of the most horrifying crashes I’ve ever seen. To have a driver come out of that even moving the way he is.”

On-Air Crew: There was a bit of a shake-up in the on-air crew for 1975. Jim McKay, the anchor for Indy on ABC since 1967, sat out the broadcast. McKay was attending his daughter’s graduation at Manhattanville College that same day. McKay was put on other assignments for the 1975 season, including the Monaco Grand Prix (held May 11), and USAC sprints at Terre Haute. Over the years, erroneous reports as to why McKay was off the 1975 telecast have circulated, none of which appear to be true. Some said McKay was “disillusioned” with auto racing after the tragic 1973 race; and that in 1974 he was constantly pestered with questions about the crashes and the dangers of racing, such that he took a voluntary sabbatical. This seems unlikely, as he was assigned to multiple other races outside of Indy during 1975. Another rumor was that McKay was simply ill on race day; another implausible situation, as his replacement was named weeks earlier. The fact remains that McKay simply had personal commitments, and ABC executives obliged his “vacation” request.

Keith Jackson, the veteran of college football, Monday Night Football, and various other assignments at ABC, made his first and only appearance as the booth announcer at Indy. Jackson had done some other auto racing with ABC, namely the Monaco Grand Prix, as well as serving as a pit/garage reporter for the “500”. Jackie Stewart, after a one-year absence, returned as color commentator. Sam Posey was moved to the pits/garage area, joining Chris Economaki. Chris Schenkel served as host once again.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jackie Stewart narrating a pit stop demonstration with Tom Sneva’s pit crew.
• Jackie Stewart discussing two-way radios and pit sign boards.
• Chris Economaki explaining fire-resistant racing suits and equipment.
• Jackie Stewart conducted interviews with A.J. Foyt, Salt Walther, and Johnny Rutherford.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1975 Indianapolis 500 ranked 29th overall for the week ending May 25. The final numbers came in with a 14.9 rating, and a 30 share, down from the previous year. With respect to the night, it appears that the “500” finished second, behind a rerun of the NBC Mystery Movie (“McMillan & Wife – Buried Alive”). The “500” telecast pre-empted regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Broadcast Critique: Despite minimal experience in auto racing, Keith Jackson filled the role of anchor seamlessly. However, the absence of Jim McKay was nevertheless noticed, considering his longtime status and association with the race. ABC directors were lucky to get a live shot of Tom Sneva’s huge crash, although it was probably only a coincidence. The “crane cam” which caught the accident was likely being used as an isolated cam on A.J. Foyt – who just happened to be following the cars of Sneva and Eldon Rassmussen when they touched wheels, triggering the wreck. Late in the race, when rain was fast approaching, the editing was noticeably choppy. It appears that Jackson and Stewart may have been rushed into the commentary booth around lap 174 to call the sudden downpour and the subsequent red/checkered flag giving Bobby Unser the victory. Post-production editing and commentary, for the segment just moments prior, seems slightly inconsistent, and about a lap or so is missing from the sequence. Sam Posey, drenched from the rain, still managed a spirited interview with winning car owner Dan Gurney in the pit lane, and the visuals of the heavy rain (bringing visibility to near-zero) were spectacular for the moment. Even though ABC had started hit their stride with the tape delay format, many were continuing to ask “why not live?”

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1975 Indy 500 telecast is presumed to have been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. Rumors have persisted for many years that an original off-the-air recording – on Beta – exists, but never really circulated in trading circles. In May 2011, the 1975 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1975 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original two-hour duration down to a two-hour (or one-hour) cable broadcast window. Unofficial versions (ESPN Classic airings) began showing up on YouTube in the 2010s. As of 2023, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast has not been posted on an official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1975 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area. The blackout extended for a roughly 75-mile radius, primarily affecting WLWI (channel 13). In its place, WLWI aired a movie (“Ambush Bay“). The ABC broadcast was available on WIIL (Terre Haute), WSJV (Elkhart), and others. Originally, WLWI had ‘no plans‘ to air the race at a later date. However, that decision must have been reversed. On Sunday July 6, channel 13 aired the broadcast locally at 1:30 p.m. It was the third time in four years that the race was shown locally on July 4th weekend.

1975 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Keith Jackson Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Sam Posey	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Don Ohlmeyer
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 25, 1975 Time: 8:30 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: 14.9 Share: 30	Unofficial (ESPN Classic)

Jackson: “There is that rain!”
Stewart: “Oh, and it’s very heavy Keith. It’s almost thunder rain. It’s going to absolutely flood the race track. Look at everybody running. But look how heavy the rain is. What are these race cars going to do in this sort of rain?”
Jackson: “They’re gonna start slipping and sliding. It is a cloudburst! An old fashioned Midwest thunderstorm has hit with fury here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!”

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Time Trials

For 1975, time trials was scheduled for four days (May 10‒11 & May 17‒18). After only two days were utilized in 1974, the traditional four days returned for 1975.

• Saturday May 10: ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered Pole Day time trials along with the International Professional Track and Field Championships. The episode aired from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (eastern). ABC came back to Indy at 6:55 p.m. for a five-minute live update, just before the track closed for the day. On hand were Keith Jackson, Sam Posey, and Chris Economaki.
• Sunday May 11: No coverage scheduled.
• Saturday May 17: ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered the third day of time trials with Keith Jackson, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki.
• Sunday May 18: ABC Sports covered the final hour of Bump Day time trials with Keith Jackson, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki.

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Local coverage

WRTV’s local coverage was anchored by Tom Carnegie.

1976

Broadcast Details: The 1976 Indianapolis 500 telecast was the sixth year for the same-day tape delay format, and the third year on a Sunday. ABC used 14 color cameras, two hand-held cameras, 12 microphones, and two remote mobile units. It marked the third time in four years rain affected the race. The race started on time at 11:00 a.m., but rain put out the red flag on lap 103. The race had made it beyond lap 101, which made it official. But since it was only about 12:45 p.m. local time, USAC officials chose not to call the race prematurely, and elected to wait out the showers. About two and a half hours later, the track had dried, and the field was preparing for a restart. Moments later, rain started falling again, and officials decided to call the race at that point. Scoring was reverted to the completion of lap 102, and Johnny Rutherford was declared the winner. Polesitter A.J. Foyt – still looking for a fourth Indy win – finished second.

For the first time since going to a same-day tape delay format, ABC planned to lengthen their broadcast. Previously the telecast was exactly two hours in duration, but for 1976, it was supposed to be expanded to 2 hours and 10 minutes. The broadcast came on-air at 9 o’clock (eastern), meaning the additional ten minutes was simply to be tacked on to the end. Local news, which typically followed at 11 p.m., would have been delayed to an 11:10 p.m. start time. However, due to the rain-shortened nature of the event, it appears that ABC scrapped that idea and instead signed off at 11 p.m.

The telecast opened with the rendition of “Back Home Again in Indiana” by Jim Nabors, followed by opening credits. A brief recap of practice and time trials was followed by a couple pre-taped features. The starting lineup was presented, however, they only profiled the first three rows (9 of the 33 starters). Former winners Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser, as well as other popular veterans were omitted. Nearly 30 minutes elapsed into the telecast until the green flag dropped.

In what was barely more than a ‘half’ an Indy 500, ABC had considerably less camera footage to work with to fill their two hour broadcast. Only one major crash occurred, and 27 of the 33 cars were still running when the race was halted. Nevertheless, relatively little race action was shown. Pre-taped features took up a considerable amount of airtime, and when the red flag was displayed (lap 103 in real time), only 20 minutes were left in the broadcast. Some brief interviews were conducted, then ABC used a commercial break to essentially skip over the 2-1/2 hour rain delay. A topic of attention during the rain delay involved A.J. Foyt (sitting in second position) and Pancho Carter threatening to protest Johnny Rutherford allegedly gaining track position illegally during one of the PACER yellow light periods. Not mentioned was the fact that his Foyt’s crew discovered a broken anti-roll bar linkage, and they were able to make repairs under the red. Foyt was expected to improve his handling, and was anxious to return to the race and challenge for the lead.

With the field lined up in the pit lane preparing for a restart, the drivers were shown in the cars. However, rain started to fall again. While focused on Foyt, ABC picked up Tom Carnegie’s announcement over the public address system that the race had been called. A disgusted Foyt was interviewed by Chris Economaki; then Econoaki moved to victory lane to interview winner Johnny Rutherford – who had famously walked to victory lane.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay returned to the anchor position for 1976 after a one-year absence. Sam Posey served as color commentator for the second time. He was used in that role in 1974, then shifted to the pits for 1975. Bill Flemming and Chris Economaki covered the pits/garages, a role that both men had accomplished in the past. Meanwhile, Keith Jackson and Jackie Stewart (the booth announcers for 1975) were on-hand to cover the Monaco Grand Prix for ABC’s Wide World World of Sports. Monaco was held the same day as Indy, which explains Stewart’s second absence at Indy on race day (he was also absent in 1974 for the same reason). Stewart, however, sent a telegram which McKay read out loud on-air and Stewart appeared on the broadcast during several pre-taped features, which were recorded during time trials. Numerous wire reports listed him among the announcers despite his race day absence. Chris Schenkel served as host, and reported from inside the pace car at the start of the race. Schenkel’s duties during the race were limited to periodic updates on the cars and drivers that had dropped out of the race.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Recap of practice and time trials, including Janet Guthrie trying to become the first female driver to qualify for the “500”
• Track description by Sam Posey.
• Sam Posey narrating a pit stop demonstration with Tom Sneva’s pit crew.
• Jackie Stewart interviewing A.J. Foyt about racing budgets.
• A report by Sal Marciano from the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway; including an update on Janet Guthrie’s performance in the early parts of the race.
• Interview with Roger Penske discussing pneumatic jacks installed in his race cars.
• Jackie Stewart interview with Betty Rutherford (wife of Johnny)
• Comparison of a 1911 race car versus a 1974 race car.
• Jackie Stewart interviewing A.J. Foyt about participating in other races outside of Indy.
• A visit to the brand new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
• Jackie Stewart interview with Johnny Rutherford about marriage.
• Tyler Alexander of McLaren discusses the use of two-way radios in the race cars. Includes clips from the 1974 Pocono 500.
• A second report by Sal Marciano on the conclusion of the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway; including an update on Janet Guthrie finishing 15th.

Music: The song “Heavy Action” by Johnny Pearson (best-remembered as the theme from ABC’s Monday Night Football) accompanied the opening credits for the first time.

Ratings: The ABC telecast for the 1976 Indianapolis 500 ranked 16th overall for the week ending May 30. The final numbers came in with a 17.9 rating, and a 34 share, both up from the previous year. The 17.9 ratings still stands (as of 2024) as the all-time TV ratings record for an Indy 500 broadcast. The 1976 “500” ranked as the second-best sporting event for the week, behind the Muhammad Ali vs. Richard Dunn boxing match aired on NBC on Monday May 24 (the fight was the number one prime time program overall for the week). With respect to the night, it appears that the “500” finished second, behind a rerun of the NBC Mystery Movie (“McMillan & Wife – Requiem for a Bride”). The “500” telecast pre-empted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Broadcast Critique: I was given the opportunity to view the entire 1976 Indianapolis 500 telecast for critiquing purposes. Not counting 1972 (which is considered “lost”), the 1976 Indy 500 is noticeably ABC’s worst effort of the decade by nearly every measure. Even though it ranked as the highest-rated of the tape-delay era, it falls short in both quality and quantity. The telecast overall feels disjointed, unorganized, and had in inordinate number of commercial breaks. It is possible that since the race was red-flagged due to rain, the directors and producers were unexpectedly short on available race footage. During the tape delay era, the post-production crew was usually divided into two teams – one to edit together the first hour of the broadcast, and the other to edit together the second hour. With no second half, the post-production crew appears to have resorted to filling the airtime with extra pre-taped features. In retrospect, it also appears that they were dragging out the final 15–20 laps that were run – between the time that Johnny Rutherford took the lead for the final time and the red flag coming out.

As was the case in several 1970s telecasts, ABC zeroed in on only a handful of drivers in the 33-car field. For 1976, that attention focused exceedingly on A.J. Foyt. While Foyt was still at the peak of his career, and getting ever so close to his record fourth Indy victory, the attention still seemed rather excessive. Some attention was given to Mario Andretti (he ended up not being a factor), but little was given to polesitter Johnny Rutherford (at least in the early parts of the telecast), and practically none was given to defending winner Bobby Unser. The starting lineup only included the first three rows, and the other 24 drivers hardly got a single mention – unless they dropped out.

The final 20 minutes of the telecast were also disappointing. After the drivers climbed from their cars, a minor controversy brewed as A.J. Foyt and others complained that Johnny Rutherford was abusing the PACER yellow light system. This angle was pushed heavily by ABC, but was largely moot as the field was going to line up in single-file, nose-to-tail anyway if the race were to get going again. Any track position Rutherford had gained was already erased. No mention was made of Foyt’s crew repairing the broken sway-bar, nor were viewers apprized of the fact that the sway bar was what was causing Foyt’s handling problems. Furthermore, Foyt’s visible anger and frustration was fueled by the fact that he knew his car was now fixed and he felt strongly he could win the race once it restarted. Mentioning the sway bar would have explained Foyt’s behavior. Apropos of that, McKay’s observations during the rain delay, calling Foyt “a man caged by fate” while pacing up and down the pit lane, was colorful and compelling.

Critiques from contemporary accounts also were generally negative. According to Ralph Morrow of the The Dayton Daily News, ABC-TV’s telecast was noticeably inferior to the IMS Radio Network live broadcast. He said while the radio crew kept listeners informed of the entire field of drivers, ABC focused on Johnny Rutherford, A.J. Foyt, and only a few others. It was also noted that while Sid Collins and the radio crew tended to avoid controversy, Jim McKay and ABC often put controversy at the forefront.

Lastly, ABC’s reporting on rookie Janet Guthrie was arguably misogynistic and seemingly less than complementary. Guthrie became the first female driver to enter the “500” and passed her rookie test during the month. However, she was unable to make a qualifying attempt. Instead, she was invited to race at the NASCAR World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (she finished 15th). ABC’s telecast included a couple taped reports from Charlotte, and rather than simply spotlight her historic accomplishments, they instead focused on whether or not she could compete in the race physically. Sal Marciano seemingly tried to stir up controversy, asking “could she ensure the stress” of racing of 600 miles, and claimed that every time she made a pit stop, the crowd wondered “would she return [to the race]?” He even made it sound surprising that Guthrie did not want nor need a relief driver. Since the World 600 was a day race at the time, the final results would have already been known by many viewers. ABC’s attempt to create a “cliffhanger” during one of their reports as the whether Guthrie would finish the 600 was rather gratuitous.

Broadcast Disposition: The 1976 Indy 500 ABC-TV telecast has been restored and digitized, but (as of early 2025) has not been made available to the public. Rumors have persisted for many years that one original off-the-air recording – on Beta – exists, but never managed to circulate in trading circles. While no complete copies of the 1976 ABC-TV broadcast are confirmed to exist (outside of the embargoed master), multiple clips have surfaced:

• • Brief clips from the 1976 ABC telecast appears on the DVD “Indianapolis 500: The 70s” from 2004. (LINK)
  • Brief clips from the 1976 ABC telecast appears on an 2009 Centennial Era video. (LINK)
  • A clip of the opening credits from the 1976 ABC telecast was posted on Facebook Watch by the IMS Museum. (LINK)
  • A very brief snippet of A.J. Foyt in the pit lane was part of the “My Way” montage from the 1982 ABC telecast. (LINK; begins at the 1:18:20 mark)
  • Brief clips from the 1976 ABC telecast have been posted on the IMS Museum’s Instagram page. (LINK)

Blackout: The 1976 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area (WLWI channel 13). In its place, WLWI aired a movie (“Run Wild, Run Free“). Like the previous two years, other ABC affiliates within the state were permitted to show the race. WLWI aired the race on Saturday July 3 at 2 p.m. It was the third consecutive year, and fourth overall, that the race was aired for the local audience on July 4th weekend. But instead of Sunday afternoon, the broadcast was moved up to Saturday. This is mostly likely due to the fact that Sunday (July 4th, 1976) was the U.S. Bicentennial, and the day was filled with special programming for the holiday. Incidentally, the Saturday afternoon airing overlapped with coverage of the Pocono 500 on CBS (WISH channel 8).

1976 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey	Bill Flemming Chris Economaki	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Larry Kamm Director: Don Ohlmeyer
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 30, 1976 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours	Rating: 17.9 Share: 34 Households: 12.46 million	None

McKay: “It’s raining very hard now. It looks like A.J. Foyt really has very little hope. Let’s listen [to] the announcement.”
Tom Carnegie: “…from the chief steward Tom Binford. Because it’s raining very heavily right now. More rains are expected. And there is simply no way that we can dry this track and keep it dry for the next two or three hours, so the 1976 winner is Johnny Rutherford in the Hy-Gain McLaren!”
McKay: “It’s all over! A.J. Foyt literally…like…a man caged by fate right now. Walking up and down. No idea where he’s going. Johnny Rutherford being escorted by the press, by the photographers. Headed towards victory lane with his wife Betty. What a strange, bizarre finish to the 1976 Indianapolis 500.”

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 15: Pole Day time trials were shown on ABC’s Wide World of Sports along with the International Cliff Diving Championships. The episode aired from 5‒6:30 pm. Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reported, and came back at 6:55 p.m. for a live update just before the track closed for the day.
• Sunday May 16: No coverage scheduled.
• Saturday May 22: Third Day Time Trials were shown on ABC’s Wide World of Sports along with track and field and figure skating.
• Sunday May 23: ABC Sports showed the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials at 6 p.m. (EDT). Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reported. Stewart was scheduled to take one of A.J. Foyt’s cars for some demonstration laps.

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Local coverage

WRTV’s local coverage was anchored by Tom Carnegie and Craig Roberts. Roberts (WRTV), Don Hein (WTHR), and Chet Coppock (WISH) hosted the post-race highlight shows on Sunday night.

1977

Broadcast Details: The 1977 Indianapolis 500 was one of the most historically significant editions of the race. During Time Trials, Tom Sneva became the first driver to break the 200 mph barrier at Indy, and Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to qualify for the race. The month culminated with A.J. Foyt becoming the first four-time winner of the Indy 500. On the broadcasting side, the 1977 race was also notable. Sid Collins, the longtime radio “Voice of the 500” was gone from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. Collins had committed suicide on May 2 after learning that he had contracted ALS. Paul Page, whom Collins had been grooming to take over the role, was introduced as the new “Voice of the 500”. According to Page, Collins had initially planned to call the first half of the race, then ‘pass the torch’ to Page at the halfway point. In any case, a new era had arrived at Indy, with Page serving as the radio anchor of the “500” until he switched to the television side in 1988.

On the television front, the ABC telecast of the 1977 “500” took place during a strike by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET). None of the on-air talent were part of the strike, nor were any of the managerial staff, but the technical crew was replaced mostly by inexperienced help and by what McKay described as “management personnel”. A total of 13 cameras were used (down from previous years), and the production crew was made up of roughly 80 people. Due to the strike, the over 200-foot high “crane cam” outside of turn one had no one to man it. It was abandoned and ABC instead put a camera in the Goodyear Blimp to offer aerial views.

Also gone for 1977 was producer Don Ohlmeyer, who departed ABC Sports to take the position of Executive Director of NBC Sports. He would hold that position until 1982. Ohlmeyer would then start his own production company, Ohlmeyer Communications Company (OCC). He would return to Indy in 1988, as OCC would be involved in producing numerous Indy car race telecasts, namely on ABC and ESPN.

In victory lane, Bill Flemming got the first words, albeit brief, from race winner A.J. Foyt. In most cases during the tape delay era, the radio network would get the first interview with the winner. At the end of the telecast, Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart conducted a live (or plausibly live) sit-down interview with Foyt. It is believed to be first time in the tape delay era that a separate nighttime segment was inserted into the broadcast. Given the historical circumstances of Foyt winning his fourth “500”, and the fairly short victory lane interview from the afternoon, it was appropriate to revisit with Foyt.

McKay: “Standing by for the white flag.”
Stewart: “Well, I recon he’s pussy-footing that throttle pretty well…and there’s the white flag by Pat Vidan being held out. I’ll bet you anything he’s driving with more economy than any Scotsman would economize with right now. I bet he’s not giving it all it can give it right down…that throttle, that great big turbocharged engine that he himself has put together. The man is a constructer, a designer, he seems to run the operation, he seems to be the mechanics, he seems to be everybody else. Now and look at…Jim Gilmore and the rest of the team…they’re even getting ready for it…and A.J.’s father to the left of the screen.”
McKay: “Coming down towards turn three it’s the final lap of the Indianapolis 500. A.J. Foyt is going to make motor racing history. The first man ever to the win this great race four times. It started in nineteen-hundred and eleven. This is the 61st race and no one has ever achieved this before. Stand by for the checkered flag. The black and white checkered flag…and in the pits the red and white checkered shirts of the Gilmore-Foyt team. It’s all over! A.J. has done it. He has won his fourth Indianapolis 500!”

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart returned to the broadcast booth, with Bill Flemming and Chris Economaki covering the pits. Sam Posey was part of Time Trials coverage, but he was not part of the crew on race day. Posey would return a year later. Chris Schenkel’s role as host was relatively small, as he appeared only two times during the race to update on cars that had dropped out, and once at the end to quickly rundown the final standings.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jackie Stewart narrating a pit stop demonstration with Tom Sneva’s pit crew.
• Jackie Stewart discussing turbocharger “boost”.
• Following Mario Andretti during the month profiling his participation at both Monaco and Indianapolis.
• Jackie Stewart touring the Speedway grounds on foot early in the morning.
• Chris Economaki discussing drivers’ safety equipment.

Music: For the second year in a row, the song “Heavy Action” (best-remembered as the Monday Night Football theme) by Johnny Pearson accompanied the opening credits.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1977 Indianapolis 500 ranked 18th overall for the week ending May 29. The final numbers came in with a 15.6 rating, and a 32 share, down from the previous year’s record. With respect to the night, it appears that the “500” finished second, behind NBC (“Benny & Barney”). The “500” telecast pre-empted regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Broadcast Critique: The difficulty behind-the-scenes of covering the race in the midst of a technicians’ strike excuses any quality deficiencies for 1977. The broadcast was noticeably more “choppy” in its editing, but all of the key moments in the race were covered effectively. The cameras were focused perfectly on Gordon Johncock when he blew his engine handing the lead (and the win) to A.J. Foyt. During the final ten laps, Foyt held a large lead over second place Tom Sneva. This made it both both exciting and anti-climactic, but the call by McKay was well-received. Given the historical significance of the race, and the news spreading that the popular Foyt had won, it was probably a disappointment that the ratings were actually down from the previous year.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1977 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. Since VCRs were available to consumers in the late-1970s, some off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In the 2000s, the 1977 race was planned to air on ESPN Classic, but a complete version was said to be unavailable. In May 2011,  a partial version the 1977 telecast (second half only) aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1977 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original 2-hour/10-minute duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In 2019, a mostly complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 83 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1977 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area on WTHR channel 13 (note that WLWI had changed call letters to WTHR in early 1976). Channel 13 aired a movie (“Citizen Kane“) during the timeslot. On Saturday July 2, WTHR aired the ABC broadcast for the local audience, starting at 2 p.m. It marked the fourth straight year, and fifth overall, that the race was shown locally on July 4th weekend.

1977 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Director: Chet Forte Director: Larry Kamm
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 29, 1977 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes	Rating: 15.6 Share: 32 Viewers: unknwn.	Official Channel Official Channel Unofficial

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 14: Pole Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reporting. It was a historic day as Tom Sneva became the first driver to break the 200 mph barrier in qualifying at Indianapolis.
• Sunday May 15: No national network coverage was scheduled.
• Saturday May 21: Third Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports along with gymnastics and surfing. Following coverage of the Preakness, ABC returned for an additional update. Keith Jackson, Sam Posey, and Chris Economaki were on hand. Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart were both absent, with McKay covering the Preakness and Stewart at the Monaco Grand Prix.
• Sunday May 22: ABC Sports carried the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials.

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Local coverage

• WRTV’s coverage featured Tom Carnegie, Craig Roberts, and Tom Sneva.
• WISH’s coverage featured Chet Coppock, Salt Walther, Scott Starks, and Bill Puterbaugh.
• WTHR’s coverage featured Don Hein.

1978

Broadcast Details: ABC’s eighth year of tape delay coverage was familiar territory. In a race which had only one crash, and star drivers A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti not in contention, it was nevertheless made entertaining as possible. The production crew utilized the turn one crane cam as an isolated camera following Foyt and Andretti for a time, in the hopes that they would charge through the field. Andretti dropped out, and Foyt was mostly an also-ran. Once again at 2 hours and 10 minutes, but this time the extra ten minutes were added to the front, instead of tacked on to the end. The broadcast came on at the unusual time of 8:50 p.m. (eastern) and opened with “Back Home Again in Indiana” followed by the starting command during pre-race coverage. Lap counts were never given, but standings were given at regular intervals. Perhaps the more memorable moment of the broadcast was a heated interview with a furious Salt Walther. Bill Flemming approached Walther after he dropped out on lap 24, at which time Walther ranted his frustration with chief mechanic Tommy Smith.

At the conclusion of the race, Chris Economaki interviewed race winner Al Unser in victory lane. ABC showed Unser pulling into victory lane and climbing from his car – something they were now showing more and more of each year. However, through some quick and clever editing, the footage clearly skips ahead. It was Lou Palmer (with the IMS Radio Network) that was initially moving in on Unser, with Unser wearing a “Goodyear” hat. But after a quick cut to a brief overhead shot, it was now Economaki with the microphone. Unser was wearing a “Gabriel” hat instead, with the Borg-Warner Trophy now behind him (it was not there seconds earlier). In any case, ABC did their best to present victory lane better that had been doing before.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart returned as play-by-play and analyst, respectively. Chris Economaki covered the pits, with Bill Flemming also working the pits and serving as roving reporter. Sam Posey was part of the crew, but only appeared once, during the post-race.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jackie Stewart discussing the PACER caution light system.
• Pit stop demonstration with Mario Andretti’s Penske crew.
• Chris Economaki discussing fuel.
• Profile of Danny Ongais
• Profile of A.J. Foyt
• Tribute to the late Tony Hulman
• Profile of Bobby and Al Unser (a visit to their homes in New Mexico)

Music: The opening for the broadcast was accompanied by the song “African Symphony” by Saint Tropez.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1978 Indianapolis 500 ranked 31st overall for the week ending May 28, 1978. The final numbers came in with a 13.4 rating, and a 32 share, down significantly from the previous two years. The ratings peaked in the final half hour (10:30‒11:00 p.m.) with a 14.2/27 (10.35 million households). With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast, finished third out of the “big three” networks. NBC easily won the night with the made-for-TV movie Police Story (“A Chance to Live”) which incidentally ranked an outstanding 5th overall for the week. CBS finished second in the 9 o’clock hour with reruns of All in the Family (ranked 23rd) and Alice (15th). But the second hour of the “500” narrowly beat CBS’s 10 o’clock offering of “The Busters” (which ranked 33rd). The “500” telecast pre-empted regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie.

With each ratings point representing approximately 729,000 households during the 1977‒78 television season, the 1978 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 9,769,000 households. The average audience was 18,280,000 viewers (2+).

Broadcast Critique: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart, now in their fifth year together, had developed a good rapport by this time. Though some of the calls were obviously scripted, and some of the video edits were less-than-seamless, the broadcast was captivating. As was common at the time, attention was heavily focused on a few “name” drivers, including A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti (both of whom started near the back and were never contenders). Polesitter Tom Sneva and Danny Ongais received nearly all the focus of the first half, while eventual race winner Al Unser Sr. never got a single call until about the halfway point. It was mentioned that Unser hit a spare wheel on his final pit stop, damaging his front wing. But almost no mention was made subsequently that Sneva (who was running second) was dramatically cutting into the deficit in the waning laps. Unser’s 30-second lead over Sneva dwindled to only 8.09 seconds at the checkered flag. Perhaps the most awkward aspect of the telecast was that pit reporter Sam Posey (who had been part of the broadcast in 1974‒1976) was never called upon until after the race was over. He interviewed Janet Guthrie after her 9th place finish (the best finish by a female driver to that point), and notably broke the story that Guthrie drove the race with a fractured wrist. Two days before the race, Guthrie had suffered the injury during a charity tennis match, and kept it secret from the officials and media; she feared they might force her to withdraw.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1978 Indy 500 has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. Since VCRs were available to consumers by the late-1970s, some off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In May 2011, the 1978 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1978 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original 2-hour/10-minute duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In 2018, a a complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 102 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1978 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WTHR channel 13. Channel 13 aired a movie (“On the Waterfront“) during the timeslot. On Saturday July 1, WTHR aired the ABC broadcast for the local audience, from 1:50 p.m. to 4 p.m. It marked the fifth straight year, and sixth overall, that the race was shown locally on July 4th weekend.

1978 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming Sam Posey	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Producer: Bob Goodrich Director: Chet Forte Director: Roger Goodman
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 28, 1978 Time: 8:50 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes	Rating: 13.4 Share: 26 Viewers: 18.28 million	Official Channel Unofficial

Jim McKay: “The checkered flag will be waved by Pat Vidan for Al Unser…of Albuquerque. He has won his third Indianapolis 500! Joining the names of Louie Meyer, of Wilbur Shaw, of Mauri Rose, and A.J. Foyt as the only men who have won this race three times. A.J. of course has won it four with his victory last year.”

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Time Trials

Time Trials were scheduled for four days (May 13‒14 & May 20‒21) but rain washed out the entire first weekend. Pole qualifying was shifted to the third day.

• Saturday May 13: Time Trials were scheduled to be carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing. Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reported. However, the first weekend of qualifying was rained out.
• Sunday May 14: Time Trials were scheduled to be carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing. However, the first weekend of qualifying was rained out.
• Saturday May 20: The Third Day of Time Trials was carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside The Harlem Globetrotters. Bill Flemming, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki reported. Jim McKay was absent, as he was covering the Preakness on Saturday.
• Sunday May 21: Reports from Bump Day Time Trials aired during ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The final hour of Bump Day was carried later on ABC Sports. Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, Chris Economaki, and Bill Flemming reported. The episode earned a rating of 7.7/22 (5,610,000 households with 9.67 million viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

• WFBM’s daily coverage on “Trackside” was hosted by Tom Carnegie, Craig Roberts, and Tom Sneva.
• WISH’s coverage featured Chet Coppock and Sam Hanks.
• WTHR’s coverage featured Paul Page and Fred Agabashian.

1979

Broadcast Details: The 1979 Indianapolis 500 was carried by ABC with 19 cameras, the most ever used (at the time) for an auto race. The production was divided into two teams, with ten cameras positioned around the track, and eight covering the pits, garage area, and for roving reports. The last camera was mounted in the pace car. Improved graphics debuted in 1979, which would be the last year before it expanded to a three-hour telecast in 1980. A lot of attention was expected to be on ABC, as just three months earlier, CBS delivered impressive ratings for their first-ever live coverage of the Daytona 500. With Indy and most other races at the time still shown tape-delayed, the sports world was still buzzing over CBS’s accomplishment. And with IMS and ABC in the final year of their current TV contract, there was speculation as to whether 1979 could be the final tape-delayed Indy 500.

The 1979 month of May was controversial on and off the track. The first USAC/CART “Split” took place during the offseason. Several top teams in Indy car racing broke from USAC and formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), a new sanctioning body, and effectively, a competing series. CART put together a 13-race slate for its inaugural season, while USAC had an 8-race season for 1979 (including the Indianapolis 500). CART signed a new multi-year TV deal with NBC, but the rights to the Indy 500 and some other USAC-sanctioned races were still owned by ABC. Most of the CART teams boycotted the USAC events, with the exception of Indianapolis. USAC initially denied the entries of several top CART teams to the 1979 Indy 500, stating their actions (i.e., forming CART) were “harmful to racing” and that they were “not in good standing with USAC”. But after a court injunction, they were eventually allowed to compete. A second unrelated controversy erupted during time trials, regarding the technical regulations of the turbocharger wastegate pipes. ABC touched on the two controversies, but for the most part, pushed them aside come race day.

Unlike most previous years, ABC cut to commercial after race winner Rick Mears took the checkered flag. They showed Mears pulling into victory lane, but took a station break before they showed Chris Economaki’s winner’s interview. After host Chris Schenkel completed his full-field rundown, and brief race recap, ABC cut to a live shot of the mainstretch. Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart offered closing remarks as the famous pylon was shown lit up in the night.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart called the race once again, and Stewart was selected to drive the Ford Mustang pace car at the start of the race. Stewart carried a microphone and reported live from the pace car during the parade and pace laps. An on-board television camera was mounted in the rear of the pace car, and its footage was shown – however, the footage may have been taped and inserted during post-production rather than procured “live” (on-board cameras would not appear at Indy until 1983). Sam Posey missed the broadcast, instead assigned to ABC’s coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix (held the same day). Jackie Stewart was at Monaco as late as Friday, taping some feature pieces, but flew to Indianapolis in time for the race on Sunday.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Pit stop demonstration with the Rick Mears and the Penske Team
• Profile of Al Unser Sr. and family
• Cockpit demonstration with Jackie Stewart
• Profile of Rick Mears
• “Sights and Sounds of Indy” montage
• ABC Sports special report from the Grand Prix of Monaco (Keith Jackson, Sam Posey, and Sterling Moss)

Music: The song “Spring Rain” by Bebu Silvetti was played during the “Sights and Sounds of Indy” montage.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1979 Indianapolis 500 ranked 39th overall for the week ending May 27, 1979. The final numbers came in with a 13.5 rating, and a 24 share, about even with the year before. The final half hour peaked at 14.6/25. Even though the viewership was probably up a tick, various critics considered the result “poor” and noted that the race’s ratings over a multi-year stretch were “slipping“. The “500” failed to crack the top twenty for the week, even though ABC had otherwise notched eight of the top ten shows, and had ranked first in the ratings race for 19 straight weeks.

With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast, once again finished third out of the “big three” networks for Sunday in primetime. CBS (“Dummy“) and NBC (“The Best Place to Be“) both aired made-for-TV movies, and both placed in the top twenty. With each ratings point representing approximately 745,000 households during the 1978‒79 television season, the 1979 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 10,058,000 households. The average audience was 18,450,000 viewers (2+).

Broadcast Critique: It was the last year during the tape delay era for a two-hour (or 2 hour and 10 minute) broadcast, and it was clear by this time that the broadcast window was too short. With pre-race coverage, pre-taped features, and post-race coverage, the short amount of actual race footage was no longer acceptable. It was time to go to a live broadcast (CBS had proven it was possible at Daytona), but that would have to wait. At the very least, it was time to give the race a three-hour prime time window – which would happen in 1980.

During the pre-race, Jim McKay tried to make mention of the two major controversies that surrounded the 1979 month of May. However, to suggest that “for much of this month we…weren’t really sure there was going to be a 500-mile race in 1979”  was an exaggeration, or the very least, a melodramatic misrepresentation of the circumstances.

The increasing number and length of pre-taped features was also bogging down the telecast. The choppy editing was beginning to become more noticeable, as was the abrupt transition from scripted to live commentary. In the final segment, in what appears to be ‘live’ commentary, McKay and Stewart seem surprised about the race going back to green. And over the final four laps, they give probably too much attention to second place A.J. Foyt (who was mired deep in traffic) rather than winner Rick Mears. After Mears took the checkered flag, Foyt’s engine quit coming out of turn four, and he coasted across the finish line. ABC seemingly got their desire, as Foyt was again the center of attention for a few moments, even as young Rick Mears (a soon to be Indy legend, and future four-time Indy winner) was headed towards victory lane.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1979 Indy 500 telecast is presumed to have been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. Since VCRs were available to consumers by the late-1970s, some off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In May 2011, the 1979 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1979 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original 2-hour/10-minute duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. As of 2023 (the original publishing of this article), a complete restored copy of the original broadcast had not been posted on an official YouTube channel. However, in March 2024, an copy was uploaded to the official Indianapolis Motor Speedway YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1979 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WTHR channel 13, which was in the final days of being an ABC-TV network affiliate. Channel 13 instead aired tape-delayed coverage of the “500” Festival Parade, hosted by Bob Barker and Jo Hauck. Keeping with the custom of airing the race locally on or around July 4th weekend, WRTV-6 (newly switched over to become the Indianapolis-area ABC-TV affiliate), showed the race on Saturday July 1 at 1:30 p.m. Since the original ABC broadcast totaled 2 hours and 10 minutes, it appears that the WRTV replay was edited down to a two-hour window.

1979 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Dave Diles	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Producer: Bob Goodrich Director: Chet Forte Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production)
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 27, 1979 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes	Rating: 13.5 Share: 24 Viewers: 18.45 million	Official channel Unofficial Unofficial Unofficial

Jim McKay: “Here comes the checkered flag awaiting young Rick Mears. At age 27, he has won the Indianapolis 500 for 1979!”

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 12: Pole Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing and surfing.
• Sunday May 13: Second Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside gymnastics and table tennis.
• Saturday May 19: Third Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing.
• Sunday May 20: Reports from Bump Day Time Trials aired during ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The final hour of Bump Day was carried later on ABC Sports. The episode earned a rating of 9.7/25 (7,230,000 households with 11,670,000 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

WRTV’s local coverage was anchored by Tom Carnegie, Craig Roberts, and Tom Sneva.

1980

Broadcast Details: On March 26, 1980, ABC Sports signed a new six-year contract with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to carry the Indianapolis 500 on same-day tape delay from 1980 through 1985. After having starting the tape delay broadcasts in 1971, this new contract would effectively extend ABC’s tape delay coverage at Indy to 15 years. The deal called for a three-hour telecast (up from 2 hours or 2:10 from 1971 to 1979) and also included an agreement to explore the possibility of covering the race live as early as 1981.

A total of 24 cameras were used, another increase over previous races. Again a camera was mounted in the pace car, and ABC’s Chris Schenkel rode in one of the pace cars during the parade lap. At the close of the broadcast, co-hosts Chris Schenkel and Dave Diles went over the final standings in front of a backdrop of nighttime upon the Speedway (the famous pylon still lit up), and also provided a late update, showing a post-race interview with Pancho Carter, who was going to be penalized for allegedly passing cars under the yellow during the race.

On-Air Crew: The announcing crew remained mostly the same from the previous few years. Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart called the race, with Bill Flemming and Chris Economaki covering the pits. Sam Posey returned, assigned primarily to the garages and track hospital. Economaki’s duties leaned more towards the pre-taped features, with Flemming doing most of the pit reports, including the winner’s interview in victory lane. For the host duties, Dave Diles joined Chris Schenkel as co-host, and this would be Schenkel’s final “500”.

Pre-Taped Features: Several pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jackie Stewart discussing safety features and emergency crews
• Pit stop demonstration with the Penske Team
• Profile of Mario Andretti
• Interview with Tim Richmond
• Interview with Johnny Rutherford
• Chris Economaki discussing fuel cells
• Interview with Rick Mears
• Chris Economaki discussing the finances and the cost of racing

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1980 Indianapolis 500 failed to rank in the top twenty for the week ending May 25, 1980. The final numbers came in with a 13.8 rating, and a 27 share, up slightly up from the year before. ABC expanded to a three-hour telecast – possibly more attractive to fans – which could explain the increase in ratings. The telecast peaked at a 14.4/26 from 10:00‒10:30 p.m.

With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast – once again finished last out of the “big three” networks for Sunday in primetime. CBS won the timeslot with reruns of Alice (12th), The Jeffersons (8th), and Trapper John M.D. (15th). NBC finished second, airing a made-for-TV movie titled “The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story (Part 1)”, which ranked 16th for the week. With each ratings point representing approximately 763,000 households during the 1979‒80 television season, the 1980 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 10,529,000 households. The average audience was 19,440,000 viewers (2+).

Broadcast Critique: The first three-hour “500” telecast on ABC was a welcome improvement over the previous two-hour telecasts. They were able to show considerably more of the race action and the production began to resemble more of a dedicated sports telecast versus a highlight style show ala Wide World of Sports. The extra hour was fortuitous, as the 1980 race had 13 yellows due to several incidents/crashes (though none serious). The directors had a lot of action that could not fall to the cutting room floor. With Johnny Rutherford leading 138 of the 200 laps, the crew did the best they could to make the second half exciting. Perhaps the most questionable aspect of the broadcast was the on-air time. Despite expanding to three hours, the telecast still began at 9 p.m. EDT. Even though the next day was a holiday, the race would not be over until midnight on the east coast. It would have been better for viewers (especially those on the east coast) to start the telecast at 8 p.m. eastern and run until eleven.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1980 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the early-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In May 2011, the 1980 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1980 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each heavily edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. On December 25, 2020, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 135 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1980 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WRTV channel 6, which instead aired a movie (“For Pete’s Sake“) during the first two hours. ABC extended their telecast to three hours for 1980, and WRTV aired local taped highlights during the third hour. Once again maintaining the policy of airing the race locally on or around July 4th weekend, WRTV-6 showed the race Sunday July 6 at 12 p.m. It appears that all three hours were shown.

1980 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Chris Schenkel Host: Dave Diles Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming Sam Posey	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Producer: Bob Goodrich Director: Chet Forte Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production) Director: Larry Kamm (Post production)
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 25, 1980 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 13.8 Share: 27 Viewers: 19.44 million	Unofficial Official Channel Unofficial

Stewart: “…there’s a man who’s very happy. Hand in the air. Johnny Rutherford waving to everyone…already seems to have taken his driving gloves off. And look at this! That is young…Tim…yes!”
McKay: “Tim Richmond.”
Stewart: “Tim Richmond is stopped…”
McKay: “Rutherford stopping! Apparently…he can’t be stopping for Richmond.”
Stewart: “He’s in fact…gonna give him a ride back…he’s waving to him. We’ve been talking about…you know…A.J. Foyt was talking about a taxi service.”
McKay: “Yeah!”
Stewart: “There’s the most expensive one you could find.”
McKay: “It’s a Yellow Cab! [laughter] So Tim Richmond, you know, who just has a way of getting in the spotlight…he may be the oncoming A.J. Foyt in that way. All the month of May, this rookie at age 24, he’s always in the picture. He has a fine finish here. We will imagine he’ll be the rookie of the year.”
Stewart: “Well, he’s finished ninth, and this may be one way getting into victory circle prematurely!”

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 10: Pole Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside weightlifting and surfing.
• Sunday May 11: Second Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing.
• Saturday May 17: Third Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside boxing and the Preakness. However, the third day of qualifying was rained out.
• Sunday May 18: ABC Sports covered the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials. The episode earned a rating of 7.8/18 (5,950,000 households with 10,787,000 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

Live local coverage of time trials was carried on WRTV-6.

1981

Broadcast Details: For the second year, ABC’s same-day tape delay telecast utilized a three-hour format. The production crew consisted of 180 people, including 22 cameramen. The work began roughly two months prior to race day, as producer Chuck Howard and his crew filmed as many as thirty pre-taped features, many of which made it to air (or aired during time trial broadcasts). The 1981 Indianapolis 500 went down in history as one of the most controversial races in Indy history, and was also one of the more eventful and tumultuous races ABC ever carried. The story of the day was a controversy that erupted between race winner Bobby Unser (Penske Racing) and second place Mario Andretti (Patrick Racing). On lap 149, Unser and Andretti made pit stops during a yellow caution flag period. As he exited the pits, Unser was observed passing several cars (the consensus was eight or nine) while driving below the white line (warm-up apron) prior to blending (merging) into the field behind the pace car.

Bobby Unser would go on to win the race. He took the checkered flag by 5 seconds over Andretti, and celebrated in victory lane, his third career Indy triumph. However, after the race rumors of a possible protest quickly began to spread around the garage area. Patrick Racing and others alleged that Unser illegally passed cars under the caution while exiting the pits on lap 150. The next morning, when official results were posted at 8:00 a.m., USAC officials penalized Unser for the infraction, stripping him of victory and elevated Mario Andretti from second to first place. Andretti was declared the winner, for the moment, his second Indy victory. A firestorm of controversy followed, with Penske Racing immediately filing an official protest, followed by a lengthy appeals process. The case dragged out over the summer, and on October 9 of that year, a USAC appeals board voted to re-instate the victory to Unser.

The 1981 race had eleven cautions for a then-race high 69 laps. There were five big crashes and four other yellows for stalled cars (big names such as Johnny Rutherford and A.J. Foyt both stalled on the track at different times). Rick Mears had a terrifying pit fire, and Danny Ongais suffered critical injuries in a devastating crash in turn three. Coupled with the Unser‒Andretti controversy, ABC had a lot to cover and cram into their telecast. With just under two hours of airtime available for actual race footage, it was likely one of the toughest assignments for the post-production team.

ABC’s cameras were able to capture most of the fire which engulfed the Penske pit of Rick Mears. For many moments, the terrifying images of Mears and some of his crew members on fire was both incredible and dramatic. Since methanol fuel burns nearly invisible, viewers could not see any flames, but could clearly see that people on the scene were in panic and on fire. At least one cameraman was stationed near the Mears pit, and while most people fled in the scene, he bravely moved in and was able to show the audience Mears being tended to by his father and his wife, and the moment they pulled his helmet off to see that Mears had suffered only relatively minor burns. At least six members of the Penske team suffered burns, but none were injured critically.

ABC was not able to get a good shot of what caused the crash of Danny Ongais in turn three. Their cameras only picked it up after impact and during the aftermath. The visual of Ongais slumped in the cockpit – the car’s front nose ripped off and his legs exposed – was even more stunning than the Mears pit fire. Local channel WRTV-6 was able to capture the crash as it happened with their own cameras, but that footage was not made available to ABC in enough time to make it on the telecast.

With so many crashes to cover, including those of Josele Garza and Gordon Smiley, ABC had to skip a good portion of the racing action. Several scenes were choppy edits, and the commentary was very obviously scripted at times. Multiple reports from the track hospital, along with pre-taped segments (more than one dealing with safety) were used to skip ahead. After Bobby Unser was shown passing the cars under yellow, the race went back to green and eventually settled into a three-way battle to the finish between Unser, Gordon Johncock, and Andretti. Johncock led briefly, but ultimately dropped out with a blown engine inside ten laps to go. Unser then pulled out to a comfortable lead. ABC did a fairly good job presenting the finish – Unser seemingly could pull away at will, but Andretti and Johncock at least for a time, were shown battling for second. The ending was mostly anti-climactic, with Unser winning by over 5 seconds. ABC cut to commercial shortly after Bobby Unser crossed the finish line. They came back from break with a very brief (and rather muted) victory lane interview by Chris Economaki. At that point, the broadcast switched to a rare live segment with Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart interviewing Mario Andretti. They discussing the growing controversy, and the Patrick Team’s plans to protest the results. Chris Economaki spoke with chief steward Tom Binford, then Bill Flemming delivered a report from Methodist Hospital. He interviewed Dr. Terry Trammel on the condition of Danny Ongais, Rick Mears, and the other members of the Penske crew. Both Mears and Ongais would fully recover from their injuries.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart were the booth announcers. It would be their final time calling the race together. Chris Schenkel departed permanently and was replaced by Dave Diles in the host position – but only for this one year. Diles would be gone from the “500” by 1982. Sam Posey rode in the pace car at the start of the race and once again was assigned to the garage area and track hospital. With the many crashes and injuries suffered during the race, Posey was a busy man, interviewing Dr. Thomas Hanna (at the infield hospital) several times. It was Posey’s final “500” serving as a pit/garage reporter; Posey would move to the booth for good starting in 1982.

Pre-Taped Features: Numerous pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Sam Posey discussing ground effects.
• Track description with Dave Diles
• Jackie Stewart compares race cars of yesteryear to the race cars of the day
• Chris Economaki discussing fire resistant uniforms
• Interview with Bobby Unser
• Interview with Josele Garza
• Cockpit demonstration with Sam Posey
• Jackie Stewart discussing track emergency crews and safety equipment
• Profile of Mario Andretti
• Interview with A.J. Foyt

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1981 Indianapolis 500 ranked 45th for the week ending May 24, 1981. The final numbers came in with a 12.8 rating, and a 24 share, down from the previous year in ratings, share, and households. The telecast peaked from 10:30‒11:00 p.m. with a 15.1/28. With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast – once again finished last out of the “big three” networks for Sunday in primetime. CBS won the night with the #2 program for the week – a movie (“Silver Streak”) followed by a rerun of The Jeffersons (8th). NBC finished second with Disney’s Wonderful World (38th) followed by a special titled Men Who Rate a 10 (39th). With each ratings point representing approximately 778,000 households during the 1980‒81 television season, the 1981 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 9,959,000 households. The average audience was 19,153,000 viewers (2+).

Broadcast Critique: ABC’s coverage of the 1981 Indianapolis 500 has long been a source of contention within racing circles. As noted, the 1981 race is remembered for a major controversy involving race winner Bobby Unser and second place Mario Andretti. Unser took the checkered flag, and celebrated in victory lane. But when official results were posted the next morning, USAC officials penalized Unser for passing cars under the yellow on lap 149. Unser was stripped of victory, and Mario Andretti was declared the winner.

ABC’s role in the Unser‒Andretti controversy in 1981 stemmed from the use of scripted commentary. Generally speaking, at the time, only the start and finish featured “live” commentary, while most of the rest of the booth commentary was recorded after the race during post-production. The commentary used during the incident in question was recorded after the race – at a time of day when both Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart were aware of the growing controversy, and working with the knowledge that a protest was already in the works. Many observers (including Bobby Unser himself) believed that McKay and Stewart sensationalized the incident by pointing it out excitingly even though few had noticed it at the time it was happening. At the end of the race, Andretti was interviewed during a live segment, announcing his intentions to protest the race. McKay claimed they were unable to get in touch with Bobby Unser to hear his side of the story. Unser called that a “blatant lie“, claiming he was in his motel room the whole time, and that his phone number was listed. According to longtime Indianapolis Star journalist Robin Miller, everyone in the news media and in broadcasting covering the race was well aware that “Uncle Bobby” stayed down the street at the Howard Johnson’s on High School Road, because he was a ‘cheapskate‘. And driving for Penske Racing, it should have been very easy to obtain his telephone number from a representative on the team.

McKay: “Bobby, out again…and Bobby, going out, very…[he] passed a car…What’s he doing? He…oh look at that! He’s passed about half a dozen cars.”
Stewart: “Oh, James, that’s a…”
McKay: “Under the yellow. You can’t do that!”
Stewart: “That is a no-no! He has accelerated probably in the haste of leaving the pit lane, he’s certainly overtaken these other cars. I’m not sure why he did that. I know that you’re certainly not supposed to do it. The regulations say that under yellow flag conditions you must not pass any other cars. And that certainly has been the case here; he certainly passed other cars. Right now of course they’re under the yellow; there you see him in the blue and red [sic] car there…blue and yellow car.”
McKay: “But you’re supposed to blend into the traffic, right? Let’s see if he did that at all.”
Stewart: “Yes, you are supposed to leave that pit lane, and if you have to pass a car for other reasons as for blending purposes, but certainly he has accelerated all the way down below the double yellow line there, and simply overtaken a lot of cars there.  I’m sure Bobby must know the regulations, I’m sure he knew what he was doing, whether his mind was somewhere else I can’t say obviously, but he shouldn’t in my opinion have passed these other cars, Jim.”
McKay: “OK, well. Three-hundred and seventy miles have gone by of the scheduled five-hundred miles for this race. The yellow flag still out at Indianapolis. And that may not be the last we’ll hear about that. However, we’ll try to straightening things out when we come back.”

The live radio network broadcast made no mention of Unser passing the cars exiting the pits. Mario Andretti and his Patrick Racing teammate Gordon Johncock both reportedly radioed their respective pit crews, telling them that Unser had passed several cars. The crew informed the officials, and made note of the infraction in case they needed to file a protest later on. As was customary at the time, USAC observers stationed in the turns were tasked with witnessing infractions, recording them, and relaying the information to the chief steward (Tom Binford). The chief steward could act upon the infraction immediately, or file it for further evaluation during the post-race/overnight scoring audit. Testimony later revealed that the USAC observers stationed in turn one and/or turn two inexcusably missed the entire incident. A complaint was supposedly filed to Binford at some point, but with no corroborating witness, it would have to wait until they could review the tapes afterwards. ABC arguably made it look like all parties involved immediately noticed Unser passing the cars in the moment, and particularly singled out Unser for definitively violating the blend line rule. In reality, Unser believed he was simply exploiting a so-called “gray area” in the rather vague rules with respect to “blending”. During the remainder of ABC’s race broadcast, only one additional time was the incident brought up before the checkered flag was shown. In the post-race segment, the pending protest was a hot topic. The next day, on Monday night, ABC News Nightline reported from the Victory Banquet and focused on the race’s controversy.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1981 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the early-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In the early 2000s, the 1981 telecast has aired on ESPN Classic. Multiple versions of the 1981 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each heavily edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window (roughly 90 minutes of content). In 2003, as part of ESPN Classic’s “Big Ticket” series, the 1981 race was shown along with a combined interview (hosted by Jack Arute) with Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti discussing the controversy. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In 2018, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 144 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1981 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WRTV channel 6, which instead aired a movie (“The Reivers“) during the first two hours, and local taped highlights during the third hour. For the final time, the local replay would be aired on or around July 4th weekend. On Sunday July 5, WRTV aired a 30-minute special at 12:30 p.m. titled “500 Update” hosted by Tom Carnegie and Chris Allen. They discussed the ongoing Bobby Unser/Mario Andretti controversy, gave an update on Danny Ongais’ condition, and discussed the pit fire. Immediately afterwards, the entire three-hour ABC telecast was shown, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

1981 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Host: Dave Diles Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming Sam Posey	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Producer: Bob Goodrich Director: Chet Forte Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production) Director: Larry Kamm (Post production)
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 24, 1981 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 12.8 Share: 24 Viewers: 19.15 million	Unofficial Official Channel

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 9: Pole Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports alongside rugby. Due to rain, only nine cars completed runs on Saturday. On hand were Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki. Frank Gifford was serving as WWOS studio host in New York.
• Sunday May 10: The second day of time trials was rained out, but no coverage on ABC was scheduled.
• Saturday May 16: Third Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Since the pole day was interrupted by rain the previous weekend, the conclusion of the pole qualifying was held on May 16. On hand for a couple live update reports were Bill Flemming, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Economaki. Jim McKay was away, reporting from the Preakness Stakes.
• Sunday May 17: ABC Sports covered the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials with Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, Chris Economaki, and Bill Flemming. The episode earned a rating of 8.4/19 (6,540,000 households with 11,321,000 viewers 2+). Frank Gifford was serving as WWOS studio host in New York, and gave an update on the Belgian Grand Prix (a race which Mario Andretti was competing in).

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Local coverage

WFTV‘s local practice and qualifying coverage was hosted by Tom Carnegie. Specials aired during the month, including “Chaparral: The Finish Line Design“, a profile on Johnny Rutherford’s win in 1980, and “Bettenhausen“, a profile of Gary, which aired on aired on May 10.

1982

Broadcast Details: A production crew of 160 people used 11 trailers, 28 cameras, 18 tape machines, and over 10 miles of cable to broadcast the 66th Indianapolis 500. The 1982 Indy 500 on ABC Sports went on to win four Sports Emmy awards for the 1981‒82 television season. It was named the “Best Edited Sports Special”, and also won for its associate directors, editing & technical directors, camerapersons, and senior video operators. It was the 12th year for ABC’s same-day tape delay format, and third year as a three-hour telecast. A number of improvements were made to the broadcast, including new on-air talent, a new mobile studio and host, new theme music, new graphics, and an abundance of featurettes. The post-production producers and directors had over 30 pre-taped features, 50 interviews, and 250 hours of historical tapes at their disposal.

At the top of the broadcast, pre-race coverage including “Back Home Again in Indiana” was shown, along with a full-field rundown of the starting grid. Extensive coverage was devoted to the Kevin Cogan crash, its aftermath, and subsequent replays and analysis. The crash was followed in real time by a red flag, which ABC used for interviews and reactions. At least a half hour of the broadcast had gone by before the actual start of the race was aired, and eventually the race settled into a more normal tone. As the conclusion of the race approached, and it became clear that it would be a two-man battle to the finish between Gordon Johncock and Rick Mears, nearly uninterrupted footage of the two leaders dominated the third hour. With high attrition and most of the other cars running several laps down, ABC was also fortunate in that the final 40 laps (100 miles) were run caution-free. They were able focus entirely on the developing battle, without much distraction.

Jim McKay and Sam Posey called the historic finish, by far ABC’s most exciting “500” since they first covered the event in 1965. At the checkered flag, the director broke from ABC’s familiar custom of showing the winner from turn one. In most years during this era, the winner was shown crossing the finish line from the camera looking north up the mainstretch (the car coming towards the viewer, with the flagstand on the left side of the screen). With the battle between Johncock and Mears, the “head-on” shot was discarded in favor of the side shot (from the camera in the Master Control Tower aligned with the start/finish line).

Just moments after the checkered flag, Bill Flemming was in the pit of Rick Mears, able to get the first words from the runner-up. It was a somewhat unusual situation where the second place driver was interviewed prior to the winner. Mears was still in the cockpit, surrounded by a sea of people, including crew members, photographers, and reporters. It was a brief, but excellent interview, capturing Mears’ excitement, even in defeat. Over in victory lane, bedlam ensued, as the ecstatic Patrick Racing crew waited to swarm the car of race winner Gordon Johncock. Lou Palmer on the IMS Radio Network described the scene as chaotic, as Johncock had taken an extra victory lap, and when he arrived, they could barely get the car rolled up the ramps and into position due to the people gathered. Palmer got the first words from the winner, while TV waited at least a few minutes. By the time Chris Economaki had moved in to tape his ABC interview, the scene had calmed down quite a bit. The viewers saw only a small tease of the tremendous excitement in victory lane.

After the victory lane interview was shown, in the final minutes of the broadcast, as the clock was approaching midnight eastern, ABC came on for a live segment with race winner Gordon Johncock. Jim McKay and Sam Posey then offered closing remarks before the credits rolled.

On-Air Crew: Jim McKay and Sam Posey served as booth play-by-play and analyst, respectively. It was McKay’s 15th year as anchor, and Posey’s second as analyst (1974 was his first). Posey had also served as a pit/garage reporter multiple times, and as booth analyst during Time Trials broadcasts. Former hosts Chris Schenkel and Dave Diles both departed permanently. Longtime analyst Jackie Stewart was moved out of the commentary booth for race day, and instead took over the host position in “ABC Sports Race Central” (a new temporary studio set up inside one of the production trucks). His location resembled that of an evening news desk. Stewart would come on air at various intervals, offering commentary and analysis. Stewart, however, did do some booth commentary during Time Trials broadcasts. Some believe that Stewart was in fact ‘demoted’ to the host position after the controversy stemming from the 1981 telecast. While others suggested it may have been merely an attempt to better utilize Stewart’s style of expertise and likewise allow the up-and-coming Sam Posey to provide a fresh perspective to the commentary track. Clyde Lee, local anchorman of WRTV-6, was added to cover the garage area and track hospital, while veteran sportscaster Jack Whittaker was brought in for in-depth features and remarks. Whittaker rode in the pace car at the start of the race, and later visited one of the Turn Two hospitality suites.

Pre-Taped Features: Numerous pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Pit stop demonstration with Jackie Stewart. Compares an Indy pit stop to a passenger car being serviced at a gas station.
• Interview with Rick Mears.
• Chris Economaki discussing safety improvements in the pit area involving refueling and fire prevention.
• A replay of Tom Sneva’s 1975 crash.
• Jack Whittaker visits one of the Turn Two suites and interviewed John Mecom Jr., then-owner of the New Orleans Saints and former racing team owner.
• Profile of Al Unser Jr. (one year away from his first “500”)
• A.J. Foyt montage set to to the song “My Way”. This aired moments after Foyt was shown dropping out of the race (and famously taking a hammer and a screwdriver to pound at the transmission linkage).
• Jackie Stewart discussing oversteer and understeer.
• Profile of numerous pit crew members.
• Jack Whittaker visits the balloon tent, showing the crew filling and preparing for the annual balloon spectacle.
• Chris Economaki discussing nosecone design.
• Multiple historical trivia pieces were used as commercial bumpers.

Music: In 1982, ABC introduced new theme music for their Indy 500 broadcasts. This “Indianapolis 500 Theme” would be utilized from 1982 through 1987. The song ‘s chorus, bridge, and refrain were each used for different aspects of the telecast. The second half of the song was an instrumental arrangement of “Back Home Again in Indiana”, sometimes used for the closing credits.

The song “Leader of the Band” by Dan Fogelberg played during the Al Unser Jr. profile and the song “My Way” by Frank Sinatra played during the A.J. Foyt montage.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1982 Indianapolis 500 ranked 41st for the week ending May 30, 1982. The final numbers came in with a 12.5 rating, and a 25 share, a tiny increase from the previous year. The telecast peaked from 11:30‒11:45 p.m. (the finish) with a 14.3/36 quarter-hour rating/share. With respect to the night, ABC – leading in with a movie (The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training) and anchored by their “500” telecast – once again finished last out of the “big three” networks for Sunday in primetime. CBS averaged a narrow victory for the night, with a slate of sitcom reruns. NBC finished a close second, but had the best single overall program, a movie titled The Legends of Walks Far Woman, which also won the head-to-head 9 o’clock timeslot. With each ratings point representing approximately 815,000 households during the 1981‒82 television season, the 1982 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 10,020,000 households. The “500” preempted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie. It is possible that news of the exciting finish (the closest finish in Indy history to that point) and word of mouth as the day went on could have been responsible for the slight uptick in ratings for 1982.

Broadcast Critique: The 1982 Indianapolis 500 is widely considered one of the best editions of  the “500” and one of the great Indy car races of all time. The battle between Gordon Johncock and Rick Mears over the final 40 laps culminated in the closest finish in Indy history (to that point). The shocking crash at the start, triggered by Kevin Cogan, is still discussed and debated in racing circles over four decades later. The ABC crew covered the race magnificently, describing the important aspects of the race in great detail. Since the two most exciting moments of the race (the crash at the start and the close finish) occurred while the commentators were known to be (and believed to be) recording their commentary live in real-time, the spontaneity and true excitement of the calls was noticeably better than most other moments which had semi-scripted, taped commentary. It made those segments more captivating to the viewers, and made for a better telecast.

McKay: “Now…our reporters are fanning out, trying to get the principals. Bill Flemming is with Mario Andretti right now…OK…alright Bill.”
Andretti: [inaudible]
Flemming: “One more time Mario, I couldn’t hear what you said.”
Andretti: “I said this is what happens when you have children doing a man’s job up front. That’s what happens.”
Flemming: “Somebody cut right across in front of you?”
Andretti: “Yeah, Cogan, ah…you know, just…I guess, messed up and he’s sideways in front of me. And I just had no choice but T-bone him.”

Perhaps the only lapse in ABC’s award-winning 1982 telecast was the near-miss of Gordon Johncock’s winning move going into turn one on the final lap. As Mears dramatically closed the deficit on Johncock, ABC started showing shots of Mears’ wife Dina cheering him on the pit lane. Wives in the pits were still a relatively new concept at Indy, as women were not even allowed in the pit area in the first place until 1971. In 1974, Johnny Rutherford’s wife Betty famously scored for her husband, sitting on the pit stand in the McLaren pit area. And while she was not the first woman ever to do so, she gained subtle notoriety for doing so, especially as Rutherford drove to victory that day. In what was a more privative era, each team was required to employ a hand scorer to record laps completed, lap times, and provide redundant records in case of scoring disputes, etc. It was not uncommon for the driver’s spouse/girlfriend to be assigned the job of scorer, and Dina Mears (then-wife of Rick Mears), was scoring, sitting alongside Kathy Penske (wife of Roger). In an effort to capture the perceived drama of the moment, ABC had a tendency to show the spouses in the pits, sometimes derisively referred to as the “Wife Cam”. These shots captured the excitement, emotion, disappointment, and sometimes outright hysteria of those people personally close to the drivers, cheering them on from the sidelines. ABC started focusing heavily on Dina, even bringing a hand-held camera to the pit stall to capture the raw emotion up close. However, this almost backfired. Mears pulled alongside Johncock as the two drivers took the white flag to start the final lap. With the huge crowd of fans screaming in a frenzy (Jim McKay’s famous observation “Over the roar of the engines you can hear the 400,000 people!”), ABC cut away from the frontstretch battle and zoomed to Dina cheering Mears into turn one. Only they cut away at perhaps the most inopportune moment. Johncock, the 1973 winner and experienced veteran, held the outside lane. Mears, the 1979 winner, but still rather young in his career, held the inside and was charging. Johncock, despite suffering from handling problems, refused to back off, and chopped Mears off going into turn one in a bold and aggressive move. With ABC cut away to Dina, viewers missed most of Johncock’s gutsy defense, seeing only the aftermath. It would be the first of several controversial “Wife Cam” moments.

McKay: “Alright, well there’s A.J. Foyt. He was just talking to Cogan for a moment. Had some choice words for him, no doubt. Now, Economaki…Chris Economaki…moving in on A.J.”
Economaki: “A.J., how’d that start?”
Foyt: “Well I don’t know. He ran right square into my [expletive] left front.”
Economaki: “Who are you talking about?”
Foyt: “Cooogin.”
Economaki: “Cogan…[oh]…A.J. Foyt blames it on Kevin Cogan. Back to you Jim.”

With Jackie Stewart ‘demoted’ to the host position, Sam Posey returned to the commentary booth as analyst, a position he would hold for 14 years. Posey, a former racing driver (he finished 5th in the 1972 Indy 500), was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and was an accomplished painter, architect, and essayist. Over his tenure at ABC, he was a popular, but sometime polarizing figure. He gained the nickname “Motor Mouth“, which Posey himself admitted was “not an inaccurate appellation”. While educated, modest, knowledgeable, and articulate, occasionally he was seen as rather eccentric and somewhat aloof. Though Posey had been with ABC (covering various other races and events) and a part of the “500” crew on-and-off dating back to 1974, the 1982 race marked his permanent promotion, and the point at which his association with the race became most remembered. McKay and Posey did an excellent job calling the finish – ostensibly made exceedingly better due to the fact that they were actually calling the final 8 laps “live”, and not in post-production. Had they called that segment with the knowledge already of who had won, the call would not have been quite as intriguing. Nevertheless, the IMS Radio Network’s legendary call of the 1982 finish still ranks higher in critical acclaim.

It should be noted, however, that Posey may have inadvertently stirred up some controversy while analyzing the Kevin Cogan crash at the start. When McKay asked “How in the world could this have happened?” Posey responded “Absolutely no idea, Jim”. He then said there was seemingly “no explanation” and “it’s as if he turned the wheel intentionally”. These seemingly innocuous remarks made in the heat of the moment could have been misinterpreted by many viewers as placing blame squarely on Cogan. It also reflected upon Posey’s perceived lack of mechanical knowledge. Over on the IMS Radio Network broadcast, analyst Rodger Ward immediately opined that the rear wheels may have locked up, either due to a broken halfshaft, a broken CV joint, or from riding the brakes in order to engage the turbocharger. Johnny Rutherford, in an interview on the radio, said he thought the polesitter (Mears) took the field down too slow, and that opinion was echoed by both Gordon Johncock and Bobby Unser, in their interviews on TV. In any case, the cause of the Cogan crash has never been fully explained. It a source of controversy and debate to this day.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1982 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the early-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. As early as 2000, the 1982 telecast was aired on ESPN Classic. Multiple versions of the 1982 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each heavily edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour cable broadcast window (roughly 90 minutes of content). In 2004, as part of ESPN Classic’s “Big Ticket” series, the 1982 race was shown along with a combined interview (hosted by Gary Miller) with Gordon Johncock and Rick Mears. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. On December 25, 2015, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast (running approximately 147 minutes) was uploaded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1982 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WRTV channel 6. The rules were changed slightly regarding local embargoes of race video footage. The three local Indianapolis stations (WRTV-6, WISH-8, and WTHR-13) were each allowed to show locally-produced highlight packages during ABC’s national broadcast window (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST). Stations outside the Indianapolis area were not permitted to show local video highlights until the ABC telecast was over. WRTV aired local highlights at 8 p.m., then a made-for-TV movie (“Shirts/Skins”) from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

After many years of the Speedway requiring the local affiliate to wait for over a month to air the ABC broadcast locally, starting in 1982, the blackout period was reduced to only one or two weeks. However, it appears that was part of a compromise; the broadcast would have to air late at night. WRTV showed the 1982 Indy 500 telecast on Sunday June 6, starting at 10:30 p.m.

1982 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
ABC Race Central: Jackie Stewart Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey Features: Jack Whittaker	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming Clyde Lee	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Bob Goodrich Producer: Mike Pearl Director: Larry Kamm Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production)
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 30, 1982 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 12.5 Share: 25 Viewers: 20.78 million	Official Channel Unofficial

McKay: “He may do it!”
Posey: “Yeah! He may, he’s that close, look at that! Shallow, shallow, [aye]!”
McKay: “They’re gonna get the white flag, they’ll be one lap to go!
Posey: “Alright!”
McKay: “As he moves along[side], frontst-…not! Is he gonna do it? The white flag out. This is the final lap!”
Posey: “Going down into the first turn. But!…No! Gordon held him off there going into that first turn.”
McKay: “Over the roar of the engines you can hear the 400,000 people…throwing force. No one has ever seen this before at Indianapolis!”
Posey: “This is the backstraight Jim, it’s just two turns to go now. Mears…Mears behind, and he’s again trying to slipstream him.”
McKay: “Johncock did a good job of staying ahead of him in turn one when he made that move there.”
Posey: “Good. That was brilliant.”
McKay: “That may be enough. Not quite over, Johncock still with the lead.”
Posey: “Here it comes again!”
McKay: “Headed to the finish line…he’s still closing. That’s his wife.”
Posey: “It’s too late now, you only got to pray…look at that!”
McKay: “There you see them. Mears…Can he make a move at the finish? He’s making a move!…No!”
Posey: “No!”
McKay: “No! Not quite! Gordon Johncock has won the Indianapolis 500. He won it by less than car length! Less than a car length after 500 miles. The disapointed wife of Rick Mears there. The jubilation in the pits, the Pat Patrick pits. Gordon Johncock has won it. He held on in the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500. Sixty-six races, never anything like this.”

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 15: Pole Day Time Trials were carried on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The first segment was scheduled for 4 p.m. (eastern), alongside boxing. ABC switched to coverage of the Preakness, then came back for a second segment at Indy at 6 p.m. Al Michaels, Jackie Stewart, Chris Economaki, and Sam Posey were on hand. During the early segment, the death of Gordon Smiley was reported, along with highlights from earlier in the day. Later, ABC came back to show some live runs, and additional highlights and interviews.
• Sunday May 16: No network coverage was scheduled on ABC.
• Saturday May 22: A report on time trials was scheduled to air during ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
• Sunday May 23: ABC Sports covered the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials. Jim McKay, Sam Posey, Bill Flemming, and Chris Economaki were on hand for the live broadcast. No cars elected to make a qualifying attempt during the final hour, and the broadcast was forced to be filled with interviews, highlights, and other features. The telecast earned a 6.5/14 (5,300,000 households with 8,962,300 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

WFTV‘s local practice and qualifying coverage was hosted by Tom Carnegie, with Chris Allen, Ken Double, Brian Hammonds and driver Josele Garza. A special titled “From Baja to the Brickyard“, a profile on Rick Mears, aired May 21.

1983

Broadcast Details: For 1983, about 100 technicians produced footage from 32 cameras, and generated 30 hours of film to edit down to three hours for the ABC telecast. The broadcast was seen in 18 countries including Japan for the first time. The telecast opened with a quick shot of Mary F. Hulman reciting the famous starting command (akin to a “cold open”), then a replay of the exciting finish of the 1982 race. That led into a more traditional intro segment, which included graphical elements from the 1982 intro package, with some minor updates. Unlike the previous year, however, a live wrap-up segment was not featured at the close of the broadcast; nor was the brief “live” welcome, which had been used before, and would be part of future telecasts.

The most notable innovation of 1983 was the introduction of the RaceCam to the Indianapolis 500 telecast. On-board television cameras had been used in NASCAR network telecasts as early as 1979. But unlike the boxy interiors of the NASCAR stock cars – which could easily accommodate a bulky camera and its peripherals, the open-wheel Indy cars required a streamlined version of the system. The camera assembly, which weighed about 10 pounds, was installed in an external pod mounted to the side of the car, in what was sometimes referred to as the “over-the-shoulder” location. The camera would be on the right side of the car (the opposite side of the fueling buckeye), below the roll bar, about eye-level with the driver. It provided a forward-facing view, peering over the driver’s right shoulder.

Penske Racing teammates Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. carried RaceCams in the 1983 race, with Mears’ the first one shown on lap 4. The general way it worked was that the camera was connected to a small microwave transmitter inside the car; it would beam a live signal up to a helicopter that was hovering over the track. The signal was then relayed back to down the production truck in the infield where it could be viewed and inserted into the telecast. The system required as many as five dedicated technicians, not including additional support staff as well as the helicopter pilot. The signal appeared very weak, grainy, and both cameras failed during the race. Ultimately, the RaceCam experiment at Indy was shelved for a few additional years. The technology was expensive, producers were unsatisfied with its performance, and further development was needed. The teams were also hesitant to carry the cameras, as they were heavy, and created an aerodynamic disadvantage. The cameras would not return to Indianapolis until 1986.

 

Another improvement for 1983 was the decision to display the lap counts with the race standings. Previously, lap counts were never shown on the “Current Standings” graphics, ostensibly to obscure the fact that significant portions of the race had been skipped. It may have also been due to general limitations in the timing and scoring data of the day. Not giving laps counts also was a means of keeping casual viewers tuned in. Some viewers may chose to change the channel if they saw that the race was still in the first half. They might only be interested in tuning in towards the end to see the finish. In 1983, the DataSpeed timing and scoring system was employed for the first time, allowing faster and more up-to-the-minute scoring data to be produced. Now that more of the race footage was being aired (and less of it was being edited out), giving the lap counts was not something producers felt needed to be avoided anymore. Gaps in the coverage were much less obvious, plus showing lap counts made the broadcast more informative, and closer to what would be expected in a “live” coverage format.

On-Air Crew: A couple new faces joined the ABC crew for 1983. Jim Lampley, who had joined ABC Sports in the mid-1970s, made his first appearance at Indianapolis. Lampley served as a roving reporter, covering the garage area and track hospital. Lampley would later be elevated to play-by-play announcer for the race in 1986‒1987. Anne Simon became ABC’s first female reporter at Indy. Simon had been working as a sideline reporter for college football on ABC (perhaps best-remembered for an infamous interview with Paul “Bear” Bryant). Her duties were to act as a roving reporter, taking in the sights and sounds, and social happenings of the event. Once again, Jackie Stewart served in the host position in “ABC Sports Race Central”, offering commentary and analysis throughout the race. Bill Flemming conducted the winner’s interview in victory lane.

Pre-Taped Features: Numerous pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• A replay of the 1982 finish between Gordon Johncock and Rick Mears.
• Profile of Teo Fabi.
• Pit stop demonstration with the ABC crew (Bill Flemming, Jim McKay, Anne Simon, Sam Posey, and Chris Economaki) servicing the Patrick Racing car in a mock pit stop.
• Interview with Tom Sneva.
• Speed demonstration with Sam Posey. Illustrating what driving 200 mph on a highway may look like.
• A look at the race with Anne Simon: “A child’s view of the  Indianapolis 500”.
• Interview with Bobby Rahal.
• Jackie Stewart discussing safety improvements.
• Profile of Paul Newman.
• Chris Economaki discussing tire stagger.
• Anne Simon visits one of the suites, the describes the party scene in the infield.
• Profile of Al Unser Jr.

Music: “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King played during the Anne Simon infield segment.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1983 Indianapolis 500 ranked 27st for the week ending May 29, 1983. The final numbers came in with a 14.1 rating, and a 27 share, the biggest one-year increase since 1976. The telecast peaked in the final 15 minutes (the finish) with a 14.6 quarter-hour rating. With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast – finished second out of the “big three” networks for Sunday in primetime. CBS won handily, with a slate of sitcom reruns. NBC finished a distant third, airing Big Bird in China followed by a re-air of The Legends of Walks Far Woman (which they aired on race night in 1982). With each ratings point representing approximately 833,000 households during the 1982‒83 television season, the 1983 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 11,745,300 households. The “500” preempted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie. An explanation for the ratings increase could be the exciting finish of 1982 still fresh in many viewers minds. Following concerns about recent sagging ratings, 1983 brought some relief to concerned network executives. Unfortunately, the rise would be short-lived,. The 1983 telecast was the last decently rated primetime “500”.

Broadcast Critique: After their award-winning 1982 telecast, ABC’s 1983 effort was a modest follow up. While it should be acknowledged that they made some major efforts to improve the production – introducing on-board cameras, showing lap counts with their standings – it was still not as polished as the previous year. Most noticeably, the pre-race coverage was aired strangely and rather awkwardly out of order. Even the casual viewers might question how the events shown could have possibly occurred in the order and over the plausible timespan which they were shown. The top of the telecast featured a “cold open” of Mary F. Hulman delivering the starting command, and the 33 cars on the mainstretch warming up their engines. That immediately led into a replay of the 1982 finish. After a commercial break, Jim Nabors was shown singing “Back Home Again in Indiana”, followed by opening remarks by Jim McKay and Sam Posey on the mainstretch. No cars were heard warming up in the background, nor were people scurrying to clear off the track and off the pit lane – as was happening in the previous shot. In reality, the remarks were taped as much as an hour (or more) prior to the official pre-race ceremonies. “Back Home Again in Indiana” occurs before the starting command, and cars warm up on the frontstretch for only about a minute before pulling away for the parade and pace laps.

After introducing the other members of the ABC crew, the starting lineup (a pre-taped feature) was shown. Even to the untrained eye, one can tell these pieces were taped well before the command to start engines was given. Everything was out of order. Finally after more than 11 minutes, the cars were shown on the parade lap. This was a chronological failure, given ABC’s recent efforts to make the broadcast seem more realistic (“plausibly live”) rather than pre-packaged and heavily edited.

Sports Illustrated criticized ABC’s production, calling it “theatrics”, “staged”, and basically accused them of “faking” their coverage. McKay and Posey’s rather dramatic reaction to Mario Andretti’s crash with Johnny Parsons was singled out – when they knew very well by that time of day that Andretti was not seriously injured.

Posey: “But…He’s not moving!…Jim…that’s…Mario…he’s…not…his head isn’t moving!”
McKay: “No.”
Posey: “There’s Johnny Parsons, he’s at least conscious and ok.”
McKay: “Well Parsons, started the incident. Unaccountably spinning there. Just seemed to have lost it going into turn one. He’s ok…at least he’s moving and getting out of the car. But Mario…appeared to be perhaps unconscious…certainly not moving.”
Posey: “Boy, I hope not.”
McKay: “Perhaps…hope his legs are not pinned in the car.”

While they acknowledged that a lot of sports telecasts at the time were also faked (a derogatory way of saying, pre-taped, heavily edited, and packaged with scripted/semi-scripted commentary), they countered by praising the IMS Radio Network’s live coverage for being “genuine” and advocated that there is “no substitute for authenticity”.

Neil Amdur of The New York Times also criticized ABC for trying to artificially “pump interest and excitement into the relatively safe and uneventful race”. He also scorned the outdated tape delay format, pointing out that other sports were experiencing much success going live. He felt too many taped features were shown, and that many or most viewers probably already knew the outcome before watching. The best part of the race – the closing laps in which Al Unser Jr. was allegedly ‘blocking’ Tom Sneva to aid his father Al Unser Sr. – was interrupted by a commercial break. He contrasted that with the Daytona 500 on CBS (in February); at one point, they went 22 minutes without a commercial, during a critical moment in the race.

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1983 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the mid-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In May 2011, the 1983 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1983 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each heavily edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. As of 2023, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast has not been posted on an official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1983 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. This included WRTV channel 6. The three local Indianapolis stations (WRTV-6, WISH-8, and WTHR-13) were each allowed to show locally-produced highlight packages during ABC’s national broadcast window (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST/CDT). Stations outside the Indianapolis area were not permitted to show local video highlights until the ABC telecast was over. WRTV aired local highlights at 8 p.m., then an episode of In Search Of… at 8:30 p.m. followed by Country Giants at 9 p.m. WRTV showed the 1983 Indy 500 telecast on Sunday June 12, starting at 10:30 p.m.

1983 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
ABC Race Central: Jackie Stewart Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey Features: Anne Simon	Chris Economaki Bill Flemming Jim Lampley	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Chuck Howard Producer: Bob Goodrich Director: Larry Kamm Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production)
Broadcast Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 29, 1983 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 14.1 Share: 27 Viewers: 22.66 million	Unofficial Unofficial

Jim McKay: “Look at this, the crowd waving to him. And you can hear their cheers above the roar of the engines. Because the checkered flag is out…and Tom Sneva at long last has won the Indianapolis 500!”

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Time Trials

Time trials was scheduled for four days (May 14‒15 & May 21‒22). However, the first weekend was rained out. Coverage was supposed to air on ABC’s Wide World of Sports on Saturday May 14, but since there was no track activity, any reports that aired were probably brief.

On Saturday May 21, ABC Sports aired a special report with Bill Flemming and Sam Posey, recapping pole day qualifying – which had been pushed to the third day of time trials. The coverage would have been only a brief segment, as ABC was covering the Preakness on the same afternoon. On Sunday May 22, ABC Sports had live coverage of the final hour of Bump Day Time Trials. Jackie Stewart and Sam Posey hosted the broadcast from “ABC Sports Race Central”, with Chris Economki and Bill Flemming covering the pit area. A rain shower put a halt to qualifying about 45 minutes prior to airtime, and as a result, no live track activity was shown. The broadcast was filled with highlights from earlier in the afternoon, interviews, analysis, and pre-taped features. The telecast earned a 5.8/14 (4,830,000 households with 6,679,890 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

WRTV-6 aired Trackside aired weekdays during the 5 p.m. news. Tom Carnegie, Chris Allen, Ken Double, Brian Hammons reported from the track. Josele Garza joined the crew as driver expert. WRTV carried live coverage of Time Trials, while WTTV (4), WISH (8), and WTHR (13) aired evening highlights.

1984

Broadcast Details: The 1984 Indy 500 telecast signed on with a live shot of the mainstretch, with Jim McKay welcoming viewers, and sunset falling upon the Speedway. Rain had been falling off and on since the end of the race, but the race was not affected and was run to completion. For 1984, the booth announcing crew moved from a trailer in the infield to a newer booth that had been appropriated in the Paddock Press Penthouse (suspended below the Paddock Penthouse grandstands). This booth had been used by ABC during live Time Trials broadcasts in 1982‒1983, but is not believed to have been used on race day until 1984. This newer booth, while primitive and crammed, offered a fresh view for the crew. They could see the track from the commentary booth, and could do on-camera reports with the track in the background rather than a “green screen” with a static image. ABC brought more than 200 people: 60 production people, 100 technicians, 50 carpenters, spotters, and general staff. Over ten miles of cable were laid, connecting to twelve trailers and two mobile units, plus there were six trucks, and two support vehicles. The crew utilized twelve video tape recorders, eight video cassette recorders, and 250 tapes worth of historical footage. The team was divided into two units. The A Unit had 18 cameras to cover the track action, and the B Unit had eleven cameras to cover the pits, garages, track hospital, and for roving reports.

During the first half of the race, Sam Posey had the opportunity to interview driver Gordon Johncock during a yellow flag period. Though the audio from the two-way radio was rough and full of static, it was one of the first times the television crew could talk to a driver live during the race. Later, they were able to listen in to a conversation between Rick Mears and his pit crew chief Tyler Alexander (a very early example of listening to the scanner traffic). Another new feature was a camera mounted to the top of the starter’s stand at the start/finish line. This allowed a unobstructed view of the green flag (and checkered flag) being waved by flagman Duane Sweeney. It also gave a first-person perspective of what the race starter and officials in the control booth above were seeing. A similar camera had been employed in 1982 – but that one hung below the starter’s stand and did not offer a view of the flags being waved. This camera above the flagman would become a staple of future broadcasts, but would famously draw controversy in 1992.

The broadcast concluded with another live segment with Jim McKay on the mainstretch. McKay conducted a brief interview with race winner Rick Mears. Larry Number delivered a live report from Methodist Hospital, updating viewers on the condition of Patrick Bedard (who had suffered a serious crash during the race), as well as Gordon Johncock, who suffered a fractured ankle.

On-Air Crew: Perhaps the biggest change for 1984 was the departure of longtime pit reporter Chris Economaki. During the offseason, Economaki signed a three-year contract with CBS. He became the lead pit reporter for CBS’s coverage of the Daytona 500, and a few other NASCAR races which they covered. Economaki did for a time, however, continue to cover the Indy 500 for Canadian television. For the third and final year, Jackie Stewart served in the host position, offering commentary and analysis throughout the race, as well as updating the standings and cars that had dropped out. The production crew, however, eliminated the “ABC Sports Race Central” studio (used in 1982‒1983) and Stewart instead reported from the newer ABC Sports booth set up in the Paddock Press Penthouse. It would be Stewart’s last year with ABC Sports at Indianapolis. For the third year in a row, a roving reporter was part of the broadcast, coving the social scene. This time it was Ray Gandolf, who previously worked on Sunday Morning on CBS, and would later host Our World on ABC.

Making his debut at Indy also in 1984 was pit reporter Jack Arute. Known sometimes as “Jackie” Arute, he had worked in the racing business for several years; his family owned Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut (where he once did announcing work). He also worked for Motor Racing Network (MRN), the radio network founded in 1970 by Bill France Sr. and Ken Squire which covered NASCAR and other races on the radio. Arute worked for Charlotte Motor Speedway, then joined ABC Sports in 1984. Arute’s career saw him work for ABC, ESPN/ESPN2, Speedvision, Fox Sports Net, and Versus, primarily covering auto racing. He also worked as a sideline reporter for college football on ABC Sports. Arute would become a fixture at the Indy 500, covering the race on television nearly every year from 1984 to 2009. He served as lead pit reporter, and many times conducted the winner’s interview in victory lane.

Pre-Taped Features: Numerous pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jackie Stewart narrates a feature on pit stops.
• Profile of Mario Andretti and Michael Andretti.
• Presentation on seat belt safety with Jackie Stewart.
• Interview with Tom Sneva
• Speed demonstration of an Indy car with an NFL football field (100 yards) superimposed on the screen. Cars are shown driving the length of the football field plus endzones in just over 1 second. Tony Dorsett’s NFL record 99-yard touchdown run from Monday Night Football was shown for comparison.
• Ray Gandolf feature on children racing bicycles and tricycles.
• Interview with Rick Mears
• Sam Posey narrating a feature on an Indy mechanic (Dennis McCormack) ‘working with his hands’. His trade is compared to that of a pianist and a sculptor.
• Profile of Paul Newman.
• Ray Gandolph describes the fans and the party scene in the infield.
• An examination of an Indy car cockpit and dashboard with Jackie Stewart.
• Profile of Rick Mears and the Mears family (the “Mears Gang”)

Music: The song “Heavy Action” by Johnny Pearson (best-remembered as the theme from ABC’s Monday Night Football) was heard during the football field speed demonstration feature.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1984 Indianapolis 500 ranked 23rd for the week ending May 27, 1984. The final numbers came in with a 12.9 rating, and a 29 share, down from the previous year. The telecast peaked from 10:00‒10:15 p.m. with a 13.8 quarter-hour rating. With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast – finished second in the timeslot, but ended up last out of the “big three” networks for Sunday overall in primetime (largely due to weak lead-in programming). NBC won the night, featuring a movie titled No Man’s Land. CBS finished second with a slate of reruns. With each ratings point representing approximately 838,000 households during the 1983‒84 television season, the 1984 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 10,810,000 households. The “500” preempted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie. Although the ratings were down compared the 1983, the telecast ranked higher for the respective week. Each 30-second commercial was priced at approximately $100,000.

Broadcast Critique: Moving the announcing crew to the newer booth on the outside of the track seemed to improve the tone of the broadcast. Instead of nearly all commentary being taped in a trailer during post-production, there appeared to be a little bit more commentary being performed live in real time, and more attention being given to the race as it was going on – as compared to the race being called by the crew in what was obviously in the past tense and sometimes dull. Jackie Stewart’s role as host was being further diminished (he would not return in 1985) and noticeably less informative. But moving him out of the dark and uninviting “ABC Sports Race Central” temporary studio – and into the well-lit trackside booth (with the actual track in the background) – was an improvement visually.

One lasting legacy of the 1984 race broadcast was Sam Posey’s infamous “prediction” that race rookie Al Holbert would finish 4th. This prediction is unusually specific and a little suspect. Holbert was an accomplished sports car racer (he was an IMSA champion and had won the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans), but he was in only his third ever Indy car race, and first Indy 500. Jim McKay even rehashed the prediction – seemingly teasing Posey about it – more than once later in the telecast. Since still a good amount of commentary and on-camera analysis was taped during post-production, many believe that Posey taped that predictive statement after the race with the foreknowledge that Holbert had indeed placed 4th. Examining the video is inconclusive, as the grandstands in the background are only partially filled – indicating it was either before the start or after the finish. In any case, it can be seen at the very least as a commentating faux pas. Posey had several years of experience with tape-delayed broadcasts (and the necessary “acting” that sometimes went along with performing taped commentary). If it was an intentional remark, he should have known better than to let slip such information, and if he wanted to make a bold prediction, he could have at least been less specific (he’ll finish in the “top five” rather than exactly “4th”).

McKay: “I’m in our ABC commentary booth with my colleague Sam Posey, a man who has driven at Indianapolis and Le Mans, for that matter, most of the important racing circuits in the world. Sam it seem to me that not only is this the fastest Indy field in history, but also there’s more quality, of drivers and cars, going all the way back through the rows.”
Posey: “That’s it. I mean, you can talk about the favorites in the front rows, but deep in the pack there are people that might bear watching. I want to give you an example. Danny Sullivan, a man about whom a great deal has been written lately. He’s a jetsetter, with what is said to be an insatiable fondness for women.”
McKay: “Oh.”
Posey: “He has a secret plan he hopes will win him this race. There’s Kevin Cogan, who is driving the only all-American car in this race. Most of the cars are English. Fittingly, it’s a Dan Gurney creation. That could be something very special. And lastly, a guy…you know, I don’t like to make predictions. But the man I’m about to mention I think is going to be fourth. I’m going to go out on that much of limb. Al Holbert. He, uhh…was the winner at Le Mans last year, and has has practiced for more laps here than anyone else, in this month. He’s done sixteen-hundred miles in practice. He is going to be fourth.”
McKay: “Well, you said it a couple of times.”

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1984 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the mid-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition), and they eventually began to be circulated within trading circles. In May 2011, the 1984 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, as part of a batch of numerous ABC telecasts that were restored and aired celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the “500”. Multiple versions of the 1984 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each heavily edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In January 2020, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast, sans commercials (approximately 139 minutes in duration) was posted on IMS’s official YouTube channel. A second nearly identical version was subsequently uploaded in March 2024.

Blackout: The 1984 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. The blackout included WRTV channel 6, although they were allowed to air live local updates during the running of the race. The three local Indianapolis stations (WRTV-6, WISH-8, and WTHR-13) were each allowed to show locally-produced highlight packages during ABC’s national broadcast window (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST/CDT). Stations outside the Indianapolis area were not permitted to show local video highlights until the ABC telecast was over. WRTV aired local highlights at 8 p.m., then an episode of “The Gatlin Brothers” at 9 p.m. followed by news at 10 p.m. WRTV showed the 1984 Indy 500 telecast on Sunday June 10, starting at 10:30 p.m.

1984 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
ABC Race Central: Jackie Stewart Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey Features: Ray Gandolf	Bill Flemming Jack Arute Larry Nuber	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Bob Goodrich Producer: Ben Harvey Director: Larry Kamm Director: Roger Goodman
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 27, 1984 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 12.9 Share: 25 Viewers: 21.12 million	Official Channel Official Channel Pole Day Bump Day

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 12: Pole Day Time Trials were covered on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Bill Flemming, Jackie Stewart, Jack Arute and Sam Posey reported.
• Sunday May 13: No network coverage scheduled on ABC.
• Saturday May 19: No network coverage scheduled on ABC.
• Sunday May 20: The final hour of Bump Day Time Trials was covered on ABC Sports. However, the last day of time trials was rained out. Bill Flemming, Jackie Stewart, Jack Arute and Sam Posey reported. The telecast was filled with interviews, highlights, and other pre-taped features. The telecast earned a 4.0/10 (3,350,000 households with 5,400,200 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

WRTV-6 celebrated their 35th year as the “Leader in 500 coverage”. Trackside aired weekdays during the 12 p.m. noon news and during the 5 p.m. news. Tom Carnegie, Ken Double, Brian Hammons, and driver Derek Daly reported from the track. On Friday May 19, WRTV aired a special profile on Tom Sneva, hosted by Tom Carnegie. Qualifying highlights and wrap-up shows were scheduled for all four qualifying days.

WTTV-4’s qualifying coverage was hosted by Gary Lee and Donald Davidson.

1985

Broadcast Details: The final tape delay broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 on ABC came in 1985. It was the 15th and final year for the format, and marked the end of an era. As of 2023, the 1985 race is the last Indy 500 not to be televised live (“flag-to-flag”) in the United States. It is also one of the last Indy car races (at any track) to not be televised live. NBC’s coverage of the Pocono 500 (until 1989) was tape delayed (and usually heavily edited), except for the 1985 race, which was postponed a week due to issues with the new radial tires, and ultimately was never aired. Not only was the 1985 Indy 500 the last taped “500”, but it was the final time legendary broadcaster Jim McKay served as the play-by-play anchor. In 1986‒1987, he was shifted over to the host position, and in 1988 he was removed from the broadcast entirely.

A crew of over 150 people used 27 cameras, including the 250-foot “crane cam” at the south end. A new camera, a very early version of the “sky-cam”, was situated along the outside of the mainstretch, near the start/finish line and Paddock grandstand.

McKay: “…And that lead is dwindling by the second. Scoreboard showing it at a half a second, but it certainly isn’t it’s nothing now. Eh…Danny Sullivan going down low! Can he make the move? Sullivan down low…side-by-side…Sullivan has the lead! Danny Sullivan of Louisville, Kentucky….”
Posey: “Oh no!”
McKay: “And…just a that moment, losing control of the car. Doing a magnificent job…”
Posey: “Yup”
McKay: “…of not hitting the wall….And continuing in the race!”
Posey: “Unbelievable!”
McKay: “It’s unbelievable!”
Posey: “The most incredible move maybe ever at Indianapolis…and Mario didn’t hit him! Jim, that’s even more incredible, Andretti suddenly moving to the side like a fighter, taking a punch but letting it slip by him. Sullivan, at 200 miles an hour recovering from that spin. You have to go back to Jim Clark…in nineteen sixty-four [or] five [sic], Jim, to get a move like that on this race track.”
McKay: “I’ve never seen anything like it on the Indianapolis race course!”

A special element to the broadcast for 1985 was the ability for the announcers to interview the drivers on their two-way radios. During cautions periods only, it allowed for a live interview to be conducted in-race, something that had been only experimented with on other telecasts in the past. It was used a few times during the 1985 race, with both Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan interviewed. Rahal was a pre-race favorite, and Sullivan was the eventual winner, which points to why they were targets. It is unclear if radio interviews other drivers were recorded for inventory, but simply not aired. These two-way radio interviews – an innovative and interactive feature, however, would draw controversy a year later in 1986, and were soon discontinued.

For the second year in a row, Jim McKay opened the broadcast with a live segment. After a pre-taped intro, McKay welcomed viewers live on the mainstretch – which was now mostly deserted and darkness was beginning to set in. The famous pylon was visible in the background, illuminated with the finishing positions for all 33 cars from earlier in the day. After the race footage was completed, McKay again was shown live on the mainstretch, briefly interviewing race winner Danny Sullivan before signing off.

On-Air Crew: The final tape delay broadcast on ABC saw some small changes to the crew. Longtime ABC analyst Jackie Stewart departed and switched over to Formula One coverage on ESPN. The host position, which Stewart had taken over for the previous three years, was eliminated for 1985. Anchor Jim McKay assumed a dual role of both host and play-by-play announcer, with his “host” duties minimal. Sam Posey was now firmly cemented into the role of booth analyst, with second-year member Jack Arute moving into the role of lead pit reporter. Future “500” anchor Jim Lampley was back for another year as pit reporter, and for 1985 he conducted television’s victory lane interview.

Pre-Taped Features: Numerous pre-taped features were inserted into the broadcast at various intervals.

• Jack Arute stars in a pit stop demonstration skit. Arute daydreams about an Indy pit crew servicing his personal car at a gas station.
• Profile of Mario Andretti.
• Profile of Al Unser Sr. and Al Unser Jr.
• Profile of Debi Rahal (then-wife of Bobby Rahal)
• Interview with Emerson Fittipaldi
• Interview with Danny Sullivan
• Profile of Danny Sullivan
• Sam Posey narrating a feature on the Gasoline Alley garage area. It was not mentioned that the garage area was already slated to be demolished after the 1985 race. Much of this same video footage would be recycled for a 1986 feature – also narrated by Posey – on the demolition and reconstruction of Gasoline Alley (that aired on Pole Day 5/10/1986).
• Jim Lampley interview with Roberto Guerrero & wife Katie Guerrero.
• Profile of former race car driver and crew member/chef Frank Mundy of Penske Racing.

Music: “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner played during the Roberto Guerrero featurette.

Ratings: According to A.C. Nielsen Co., the ABC telecast for the 1985 Indianapolis 500 ranked 43rd for the week ending May 26, 1985. The final numbers came in with a 9.7 rating, and an 18 share, a significant drop in both ratings and share from the previous year. The broadcast started out rather slow with only a 8.6/16 in the first half hour, but peaked in the 11:00‒11:30 p.m. segment with a 10.3/21. With respect to the night, ABC – anchored by their “500” telecast – finished last out of the “big three” networks in both the timeslot and for Sunday overall in primetime. NBC won the night, featuring a two-part movie titled Deceptions. CBS finished second with a slate of reruns. With each ratings point representing approximately 849,000 households during the 1984‒85 television season, the 1985 Indy 500 was seen in an estimated 8,240,000 households. The “500” preempted the regularly scheduled ABC Sunday Night Movie. Despite a classic race (the legendary “Spin and Win”), ratings were down sharply. In what would be the final primetime “500”, it was also the last straw in ratings failures.

Broadcast Critique: ABC’s final primetime “500” was also probably their best of the era. Improved video quality, better on-screen graphics (including actually showing lap counts), strong commentary, and seemingly more of the race shown made for an improved production. Camera operators should be commended for excellent captures of the Danny Sullivan spin (from multiple angles), quite possibly the most electrifying moment in Indy history. The two-way radio interviews with the drivers, however, felt staged and offered less insight than they were worth. The lack of on-board cameras – the devices were still in development after a plagued rollout in 1983 – once again represented a technological deficiency compared to CBS’s use of them at Daytona. Lastly, the continued dependency on inserting pre-taped features was disruptive, and served only to keep viewers away from the action. In particular, a pit stop demonstration with Jack Arute (where Arute daydreams of getting his personal car serviced at a gas station by an Indy pit crew) was corny and unsophisticated given the importance of the event. These increasingly dated featurettes were actually becoming more boring than the so-called “boring” segments of the race the directors and producers were trying to hide.

On the commentary side, anchor Jim McKay – in what would be his final race as play-by-play announcer, was noticeably approaching the twilight years of his legendary career. McKay had been a fixture at Indy dating back to 1967, and would return in 1986‒1987, but only as host. While he had many years at Indianapolis, his favorite sporting event to cover was said to be horse racing (particularly the Kentucky Derby). He continued with ABC in a limited role through about 2000, but did not cover the “500” again after 1987. McKay would make one final special guest appearance at Indy in 1993 as part of a Wide World of Sports retrospective special that aired on the second qualifying weekend. He interviewed A.J. Foyt, who was voted #1 in a list of top ten favorite moments, for his victory in 1967.

Analyst Sam Posey, once praised in the role, was criticized by some this time around for rambling, being too hyper, talking over McKay, and for his comments on the Danny Sullivan spin. Before watching the replay, Posey immediately conjectured the spin was caused by “rear guard aerodynamic effect[s]”, only to proclaim “…no, I’m dead wrong”. He corrected himself while watching the instant replay, attributing the spin to “tripping” over the white painted line which separates the track surface from the bumpy and flatter warm-up apron. The comments are interesting in that it appears (based on their context) that they may have been recorded live in real time. In the later years of the tape delay format, an increasing amount of commentary was being recorded in the afternoon as the race progressed. This was done to reduce the heavy work burden incurred during post-production in the evening – and gave them luxury to edit out “inconsequential remarks”. This basic ‘afternoon commentary’ track could be used in the final product, or scrapped and re-recorded in post-production. It is unconfirmed if the commentary by McKay and Posey of the Sullivan spin was recorded live, partially live, or completely scripted in post.

McKay: “Well that’ll cost him the lead, no question of it. But Danny Sullivan is back out on the race course! I have never seen a person take a…spin like that, and begin to slide towards the wall, and still recover. Let’s have another look at it…we’re gonna have slow-motion here in just a moment.”
Posey: “I’ll…I’ll tell you exactly what I think happened Jim, even before seeing it….aerodynamic effects. Watch what happens…I’ll bet you that as Sullivan gets in front of Mario….No I’m dead wrong! It’s running over that…uh…the white line. They very thing that he was doing that made him so fast I think tripped him in this once move. Yeah. Mario is too far back I think to had a…a rear-guard aerodynamic effect. But alright…now…Andretti, faced with the moment of his driving life…he can’t see where he’s going…fades slightly to the left by a miracle. Sullivan stays wide enough to the right, hits nothing, and we may have seen the most dramatic moment of racing…certainly that we’re going to see this year. Incredible!”
McKay: “Well there’s a long way to go Sam.”

Broadcast Disposition: The original 1985 Indy 500 telecast has been preserved (digitally) in its entirety. As there were an increasing number of consumers owned VCRs in the mid-1980s, many off-the-air recordings exist (of varying quality and condition, in both Beta and VHS), and they began circulating inside trading circles almost immediately. As early as 2000, the 1985 telecast aired on ESPN Classic, albeit in a heavily edited form. Multiple versions of the 1985 telecast appeared on ESPN Classic through the 2010s, each edited from the original three-hour duration down to a 2-hour (or 1-hour) cable broadcast window. More complete versions (unofficial) began showing up on YouTube in the early 2010s. In February 2019, a complete restored copy of the original broadcast, sans commercials (approximately 141 minutes in duration) was posted on IMS’s official YouTube channel.

Blackout: The 1985 Indianapolis 500 telecast on ABC was blacked-out in the Indianapolis area, officially inside a 35-mile radius. The blackout included WRTV channel 6, although central Indiana residents owning a satellite dish were able to pick up the raw feed from ABC. While the Indy 500 was blacked-out, rival station WISH (channel 8) was able to air the syndicated telecast (Jefferson Pilot Sports) of the NASCAR World 600 live from Charlotte. The three local Indianapolis stations (WRTV-6, WISH-8, and WTHR-13) were each allowed to show locally-produced highlight packages during ABC’s national broadcast window (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST). Stations outside the Indianapolis area were not permitted to show local video highlights until the ABC telecast was over. WRTV aired local highlights at 8 p.m., then a Soap Opera Special at 9 p.m. followed by news at 10 p.m. WRTV showed the 1985 Indy 500 telecast on Sunday June 9, starting at 10:30 p.m.

1985 Indianapolis 500 — ABC-TV
Booth Announcers	Pit Reporters	Staff/Crew
Announcer: Jim McKay Analyst: Sam Posey	Jack Arute Jim Lampley Bill Flemming	Executive Producer: Roone Arledge Producer: Bob Goodrich Producer: Mike Pearl Director: Larry Kamm Director: Roger Goodman Director: Jim Jennett (Post production)
Details	Ratings	YouTube Links
Date: Sunday May 26, 1985 Time: 9:00 p.m. EDT Network: ABC Format:: Same-day Tape delay Length: 3 hours	Rating: 9.7 Share: 18 Viewers: 12.18 million	Official Channel Unofficial

The final play-by-play call of Jim McKay’s illustrious ABC-TV career at Indianapolis came with the final lap of the 1985 Indianapolis 500.

McKay: “Here comes the white flag. One lap to go for the 35-year old…who…the point you make so well Sam. He is known as the swinging bachelor on the circuit. But he has paid his dues.”
Posey: “Yep”
McKay: “All the menial jobs he had. Thirteen years of racing behind him.”
Posey: “Yes he has. But for all of the things, I hoped and wished for Danny Sullivan…and I’m one of his greatest fans. This man…Mario Andretti…looks as if he’s headed for defeat today on the day he said he had the best chance ever in his twenty years to win the Indianapolis 500. I feel incredibly for Mario, who put so much work, and so much hope into this, and is coming up short, just a few seconds worth.”
McKay: “The old American hero will lose the race. The new American hero is Daniel John Sullivan the Third, of Louisville, Kentucky, who has won the Indianapolis 500! Mario Andretti finished in second. Roger Penske, the crew chief…now is the time to celebrate. They didn’t budge a muscle until he had crossed the start/finish line…that yard of bricks for the last time.”

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Time Trials

• Saturday May 11: Pole Day time trials were covered on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The episode earned a rating of 6.6/12 (3.23 million households and 5.6 million viewers 2+).
• Sunday May 12: No network coverage scheduled on ABC.
• Saturday May 18: No network coverage scheduled on ABC.
• Sunday May 19: ABC Sports aired the final hour of Bump Day time trials at 6 p.m. (eastern). The telecast earned a 2.8/7 (2,380,000 households with 4,179,280 viewers 2+).

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Local coverage

Longtime WRTV-6 (formerly WFBM) sports director Tom Carnegie (also the public address announcer at the Speedway) announced that he would retire from his position at WRTV after the month of May. A special on channel 6 titled “Setting the Record: Forty Years at the Speedway” was a profile of Carnegie that aired multiple times during the month.

Tom Carnegie also hosted a special weekly program titled “500 Magazine“, which reported on the events surrounding the race. Other various specials aired during the month, alongside the familiar qualifying reports and wrap-up shows. WRTV’s once daily program Trackside, however, appears to have been reduced to brief reports during the evening news. Driver Derek Daly was part of the WRTV reporting team.

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Announcer Summary (1971‒1985)

Year	Host	Play-By-Play	Analyst	Pits/Garages
1971	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming, Keith Jackson
1972	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming
1973	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart Chris Economaki	Chris Economaki, Dave Diles (V), Don Hein
1974	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Sam Posey	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming
1975	Chris Schenkel	Keith Jackson	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Sam Posey
1976	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki	Bill Flemming (V), Sam Posey
1977	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki, Bill Flemming (V)
1978	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming, Sam Posey
1979	Chris Schenkel	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Dave Diles
1980	Chris Schenkel Dave Diles	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki, Bill Flemming (V), Sam Posey
1981	Dave Diles	Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming, Sam Posey
1982	Jackie Stewart	Jim McKay	Sam Posey	Chris Economaki (V), Bill Flemming, Clyde Lee
1983	Jackie Stewart	Jim McKay	Sam Posey	Chris Economaki, Bill Flemming (V), Jim Lampley
1984	Jackie Stewart	Jim McKay	Sam Posey	Bill Flemming, Jack Arute (V), Larry Nuber
1985	None	Jim McKay	Sam Posey	Jack Arute, Bill Flemming, Jim Lampley (V)

(V)- conducted winner’s interview in Victory Lane

Indianapolis 500 on Television — Six-Part Series
Part 1 1949‒1963 Local Era	Part 2 1964‒1970 MCA/WWOS	Part 3 1971‒1985 Tape Delay	Part 4 1986‒2008 ABC Live Era	Part 5 2009‒2018 ABC/Versus	Part 6 2019-2024 NBC

Additional References and Works Cited

• • Indianapolis 500 television broadcast, 1965‒1970 (ABC’s Wide World of Sports)
  • Indianapolis 500 television broadcast, 1971‒2018 (ABC Sports)
  • Indianapolis 500 television broadcast, 2019‒2023 (NBC Sports)
  • Indianapolis 500 – Daily Trackside Reports (1967-2016)
  • The Indianapolis Star via Newspapers.com
  • The Indianapolis News via Newspapers.com
  • TrackForum – Classic Indy 500’s on ESPN Classic
  • ESPN Classic to Feature Indianapolis 500 Programming May 21-25
  • Audiovisual Identity Database
  • The 506 Archive
  • Rating Ryan
  • Photo archive from the Kenneth R. Johnson / Keith Johnson Collection unless otherwise noted.
  • Screenshots are copyright ABC Sports unless otherwise noted.

  

   

• EDIT: February 5, 2025: Revised section for 1976.