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"It&amp;#039;s about 45 minutes before the start of the Indianapolis 500 and we&amp;#039;re standing on the grid, back around row five, the race cars already in place. It&amp;#039;s difficult to believe that within the hour Indy cars will be rushing through here at more than 200 mph, because right now the front straight is almost shoulder to shoulder with people.   Crew members gather around the race cars, which are like little islands with humans flowing around them. You might see a movie star. A team owner like Chip Ganassi. Friends you&amp;#039;ve known after years of following all types of racing. Sponsor groups being ushered along.        Behind the Scenes at Indy    Gaze up to the stands, and though you know how packed they are, it&amp;#039;s startling. Look toward the first turn and scan back to the final corner...packed with spectators.   How many? The Speedway doesn&amp;#039;t announce attendance figures, but there are around 250,000 seats with perhaps as many as 100,000\u2013150,000 fans in the infield. This is the largest one-day, one-location spectator sports event in the U.S.   The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, is on hand to see how Speedway security so successfully handles such a large crowd.   Right now it appears to be a huge higgledy-piggledy gathering, but make no mistake, the 500 is one very well-organized event. Even the manner in which those multitudes were guided into the Speedway, whether in their cars or in bus-loads shepherded by motorcycle cops, reminds one of a well-honed military operation.        Behind the Scenes at Indy    Race day is, of course, the tip of the arrow, the result of planning that began the previous autumn. Shortly after the first of the year, written plans are created, schedules laid out, preparations begun.   Road &amp;amp;amp; Track got an inside look at how this transpires on race day through the eyes of Dan Edwards, the track racing operations manager. We met the affable retired fire chief of Anderson, Indiana, at the Speedway in 2010 when we did the Lotus 38 story with Dario Franchitti. After we&amp;#039;d commented on what an undertaking it must be to stage the 500, he said if we came back race day he&amp;#039;d give us an inside look.   So we did and he did.   Edwards&amp;#039; responsibility is the physical track and its surroundings. He has to worry about everything from making certain the 2.5-mile oval is in perfect condition to ensuring that when the anthem &amp;quot;Back Home in Indiana&amp;quot; ends, those thousands of balloons are released on time.        Dan Edwards (left), Indy&amp;#039;s racing operations manager, had a multitude of activities to coordinate on race day for the Centennial 500, and he managed them well.    He has several radios working at once, channels devoted to making certain everything is on schedule\u2014not easy in a place as huge as the Speedway.   It was a beautiful day, but while we lapped the track in Edwards&amp;#039; Chevy Suburban we asked about rain. Indy cars don&amp;#039;t race in the wet and more than once qualifying and the 500 have been plagued by storms blowing in from the west. So when is it dry enough to race on the 2.5-mile oval? We always figured there must be some device\u2014a Moist-O-Meter?\u2014used to measure the wetness of the surface.   Wrong. &amp;quot;You just know,&amp;quot; Edwards explains, and merely by the way he says it, you know there are years of experience behind that comment. He can check the effectiveness of the half-dozen jet dryers, note the color of the track...but he knows and makes the go/no-go decision.        Former race winner Mario Andretti took to the track in the Boyle Special.    Safety requires that there be no flexibility in that decision and there is a set schedule to the entire month of May, but Edwards has to be flexible. Things happen. Like a few vintage Indy cars that did laps, then mistakenly pull into what will soon be the hot pits, dripping oil. Quickly, he orders them out and ensures that the oil is soaked up so the pits are ready. Between Edwards and the well-trained crews it all gets handled quickly. They&amp;#039;ve done this before and are very good at it.        Former race winner Parnelli Jones took to the track in the Marmon Wasp, winner of the 1911 Indy 500.     Naturally the crowd is oblivious to these background efforts; the fans are just having a wonderful time. That&amp;#039;s a great thing about Indy. You might arrive at the track at 8 a.m., four hours before the start time, and yet there&amp;#039;s so much going on, such energy in the place, that the next thing you know it&amp;#039;s time for the green flag to fly.   For the hundreds of thousands of people at the Speedway, it can get surprisingly quiet and still just before the national anthem. The grid is cleared of everyone but essential personnel. Just up the track, the safety crews have parked their vehicles and stand at attention. There&amp;#039;s a businesslike, almost gladiatorial look to the Holmatro safety personnel in their orange-and-white fire suits. They have the demeanor of men who take their jobs very seriously...exactly what you&amp;#039;d want just after your race car smacks the wall at Indy.        The Holmatro safety crew takes a moment to pray before the big race    After the anthem, the safety crew gathers for what appears to be a short prayer.   A cynic might find this almost corny, but it&amp;#039;s enough to cause a lump in an Indy race fan&amp;#039;s throat.   The race starts and we&amp;#039;re in Edwards&amp;#039; Suburban just south of pit lane. To our immediate right is Johnny Rutherford in the Camaro pace car. We have a wonderful seat, the cars rocketing by ahead of us, a big video screen on the stands to our upper right playing out the race.        Keeping an eye on the action from the Suburban, Edwards sees Scott Dixon come to a stop, his Dallara out of fuel.    Bam. Yellow light. In an instant, Edwards gets out, checks with Rutherford and as soon as it&amp;#039;s safe he sends the 3-time 500 winner on-track to pick up the leader. Edwards comes back in the Suburban, intently listening to the radios. Unless there is physical damage to the track, he will stay in the pits. There isn&amp;#039;t damage, but he listens carefully to the communications. You get the sense it&amp;#039;s like military radio traffic. Nothing superfluous. Get the job done.   While we have these terrific seats, we&amp;#039;re almost too close to the action to see it unfold. As the 500 rushes to a finish\u2014just five laps to go\u2014Edwards passes on radio info: Franchitti seems to have it wrapped up.        Behind the Scenes at Indy    Then everything happens at once. Why is Dario exiting the pits in front of us? Where is Scott Dixon? Who is that sliding past us, right side wheels askew? Wasn&amp;#039;t that Dan Wheldon who just went past? Who won?   Edwards is out of the Chevy again, dealing with Dixon, who ran out of fuel and stopped near us, mad as a hornet. Out to the left, almost-winner J.R. Hildebrand&amp;#039;s wrecked car has slid to a stop, the Holmatro team already with him. Wheldon cruises to Victory Lane.        J.R. Hildebrand takes the white flag while leading, but he struck the wall in Turn 4 and handed the win to Dan Wheldon.    What an ending to the Centennial 500. The result could have been chaotic, but it wasn&amp;#039;t. Edwards and the hundreds of people who work the 500 have a system and a plan for the big race. It works beautifully.   Forty-five minutes after the finish, viewing the empty stands and vacant track, it&amp;#039;s difficult to believe that Indy cars were just rushing around here at more than 200 mph. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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