By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
While the action on the track may be too intense for words in this Sunday’s 102nd Indianapolis 500, these men will give it a try. And if history repeats itself on ABC, they will vocalize the danger, fear, triumph and prestige of the great racing event with relative ease.
And such ease can only come from experience in the broadcast booth. In their 54th and final broadcast of the Indy 500, ABC will have Allen Bestwick, Eddie Cheever Jr. and Scott Goodyear back to call the 200-lap race for the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Bestwick is the leader of the trio, holding the play-by-play announcing position for the fifth consecutive year in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. And though he only witnessed his first 500 in 2012, he’s no newbie to motorsports.
The Rhode Island native watched the 500-Mile Race growing up and went on to spend decades in the booth calling NASCAR races for ESPN, NBC and others until 2014. That same year, he got to call his first Indy 500, a day where he had one goal on target: respect the event.
“I’ve looked at things like this like you’re a caretaker of the event,” Bestwick told Kickin’ The Tires. “First of all, I’m a fan of racing, I have so much respect for the event itself, for everyone competing and the people who watch it. Second, I have so much respect for the people who came before me in broadcasting it. My job is to be the caretaker of this event who does it right and hands it onto the next generation.
“Those Sunday night telecasts from Indianapolis were a staple, a can’t-miss for me and very much a part of my childhood.”
The Indy 500 may have been new ground for Bestwick in 2014, but it came as second nature following his time in NASCAR, where he called numerous Brickyard 400s from Indianapolis.
The biggest difference? IndyCar is faster.
“I’ve done the Brickyard, the same booth, basically the same setup, you park your car in the same place, the TV trucks are in the same place. All of that was the same… but it’s faster,” he said. “And those fasters make a difference.”
For the 2018 edition of the race, Bestwick is even taking notice of the position of the start-finish line to prepare himself for that potential photo finish come lap 200.
“You just have to adapt to the speed a little bit,” he said. “Even this month, I will spend time studying the start-finish line. Just standing in the booth watching cars come to the start-finish line side-by-side to get my eye used to the speed in which that happens. If it’s close, I’ll be ready for it.”
Since Bestwick’s 2014 debut, he’s had plenty of help understanding not only the speed of the event, but the nature of it. Eddie Cheever Jr. has lived on that edge since the late 1970s, becoming the next American Formula 1 driver in 1978. He ended his driving career with more F1 starts than any American (132) before making his Indy 500 debut in 1990.
Cheever has been alongside Bestwick since the 2014 running and such time behind the wheel has solidified his understanding of motor racing. Especially at Indianapolis, where he first visited the track at a particularly young age.
“The first race I visited, I was in my mom’s belly,” Cheever told Kickin The Tires. “She was pregnant with me, so that was 1957.”
That was far from his last time he entered the gates of Indy. Cheever ran the Indy 500 a total of 14 times from 1990 to 2006, winning the race in 1998 as a driver/owner. Even before then, he visited the track during his days in European racing.
“When I was racing in Formula 1, I had some business to do in the late 1980s and I visited the Speedway once in the winter time,” he said. “But when you’re a driver, you have a view of everything where you don’t notice the spectators. Your job is to go as fast as you can and perform the best you can. You are kind of, or at least I was, oblivious to what is going on.”
This attitude morphed when he joined the broadcast booth, where he was challenged to, instead, take in every aspect that makes Indy a worldwide event. His interest in broadcasting started during his F1 career when he lived in Italy, getting a taste of the craft in the early 1980s. The opportunity returned years later when he was called by friends by ABC and ESPN to again enter the booth. He eventually called his first Indy 500 in 2008.
“I was intrigued by it more than interested,” he said of the offer. “I woke up yesterday and realized this is going to be my 11th Indy 500 that I’ve been sitting in the broadcast booth. It wasn’t something I had planned or something I strategically positioned myself to do. It just happened serendipitously.”
With a successful driving and ownership career, Cheever, 60, is thrilled to still have a position in motorsport.
“I really loved racing cars and the whole concept of racing. In my life, it became a lifestyle,” he said. “I would be lying to you if I told you that commentating is as fun as driving a racecar. But I have really enjoyed working with ABC.
“When you work with ABC, it’s kind of like working for Ferrari in Formula 1; they have such a large, intense history covering big sporting events. I was attracted to the fact I could still be involved in the Indianapolis 500 and I was going to be doing it with a company who has such a history like ABC has.”
Cheever is not alone in terms of driving experience in the booth. Scott Goodyear competed with and against Cheever throughout the 1990s, running the Indy 500 11 times from 1990 to 2001. The Canadian is a twice-runner-up of the race, finishing second in 1992 and ’97.
Apart from his on-track time in the 500, Goodyear will call his 17th Indy 500 on Sunday, breaking a record with Sam Posey for the most times calling the race as a past driver.
“For me as a driver, coming here all the time was the emotions of coming to this place first thing in the morning when there are 300,000 people here,” Goodyear said prior to the start of the 2017 Indy 500. “It really gets you going. It forces you to really want to drive hard.
“All the planning you have for this whole month goes away with the green flag.”
Such perspective comes with time. Cheever made his Indy 500 debut the same year as Goodyear in 1990 and the two first paired in the booth in 2008 for the 92nd running. The longstanding relationship has led to a strong bond on air, Cheever said.
“Scott and I started at IndyCar in the same year, so we crossed paths more than once on the racetrack and I wouldn’t say we were best of friends,” Cheever said. “But, I have really grown fond of Scott over the years working with him.
“Having somebody like that who you respect and understand in the booth, it’s easy to have an off-the-cuff conversation, which is what Scott and I do. All we do really is add a nuance to the amazing videography everybody gets to see when you watch car racing.”
Goodyear even got to drive for Cheever in the Indy 500 in 2001, and it was here where Cheever saw what both separated the two and brought them together all these years later.
“I always joked we had our racing clothes in a similar area,” Cheever said. “He would open his perfectly packed bag with his fireproof underwear for that day with a date on it, socks over there, gloves. My stuff was just thrown in a pile, didn’t know what was clean. But I would make it to the end of the day and he would make it to the end of the day, we would just come at life from other angles.”
Though the two may not agree on everything during the race call, their backgrounds have laid a mutual racer-to-racer respect, said Cheever.
“It’s priceless,” Cheever said. “I would say we agree less often [laughs] than we disagree. But it’s always a lively discussion. We look at racing from a different side.
“But I’m saying this officially: I think Scott is exceptional at what he does. He’s like a walking library, he knows every nuance, every rule of the Speedway. He’s very passionate at doing his work well, and he’s done it for a very long time.”
How does Allen Bestwick fit between this hardened pair? By experience in the booth. While others came from the cockpit, he came from the microphone, and he’s more than equipped to keep the conversation going between racers in the booth.
Bestwick worked alongside the late NASCAR champion Benny Parsons on NASCAR on NBC, who taught him a valuable lesson when they first paired in 2000.
“Many years ago, Benny Parsons called me up,” Bestwick said. “He said, ‘Allen, the best way this works is if you and I become best friends.’ And I couldn’t agree more. We traveled together in the car back and forth to the track, went to dinner every night on the race weekends and played golf together during the week when I lived in Charlotte.”
That lesson led Bestwick to a similar attitude when partnered with Cheever and Goodyear in 2014.
“When I went to work with Eddie and Scott, I said, ‘OK, we’re going to get to know each other and we’re going to become great friends.’ And we have,” he said. “Understanding their backgrounds and their knowledge, professionally analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, building that chemistry and making a team out of it, it’s important.
“And it’s important on a bigger basis with the crew, too. There are nearly 200 people on our crew and they all have to pull the rope in the same direction, and they do. Understanding that nobody makes TV alone is a really important part of doing this job right.”
When Bestwick entered the sport of IndyCar with this attitude, Cheever was pleasantly surprised. For him, that experience paid dividends in their relationship both on the air and off.
“It was really important we did that,” Cheever said. “When Allen arrived, because he came from NASCAR, I think it’s only natural that Scott and I looked at it as, ‘OK, you watched a lot of NASCAR, how are you going to fit into this?'”
Cheever’s skepticism quickly disappeared.
“Allen hit the ground running right from the beginning. His knowledge was superb,” Cheever said. “All three of us, we very rarely sat down and scripted a conversation. We all have our favorite drivers and who we think is going to do well.
“It’s always been fun. Allen’s key to all this is that is must be fun. If you’re not having fun doing this, then you shouldn’t be doing this.
“When he came over to IndyCar, he came with a lot of passion, a lot of professionalism. He definitely has his own way of running the booth. He is a traffic cop; in and out of advertisements, changing subject when we have to, directs the flow of conversation. He does it very well. He’s great to be around and a great leader in the booth.”
In a sport as edgy and complex as motor racing, a leader is what you’ll need for the toughest of occasions. For Sunday’s 500, the two popular flavors of the day are victory and danger. It’s written on the walls, it’s in the programs, it’s in the commercials… and it’s in the heads of this trio long before the sun rises raceday morning.
Bestwick never turned a lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but has witnessed injury and tragedy throughout his broadcast career. And though it’s not what he wants to see, Bestwick keeps it in mind before one of the world’s most dangerous races, as many do.
“Auto racing is and always will be a dangerous business. Indianapolis is one of the more edgy events in the world,” Bestwick said. “It’s a difficult, tough challenge and there are very few easy accidents. Understanding the sport, understanding the bigger picture of what can happen is important.
“We have our conversation in our crew before every race about… I call it the ‘Disaster Plan.’ Everybody knows what their job is in a bad situation. You have to be a reporter, a journalist, in my opinion, you also have to be respectful of family, mothers, brothers, children, who may be watching.
“We have a very thorough conversation about that and a very good plan for reacting to those occasions should unfortunately they happen. We discuss it and prepare for it. We have a responsibility in there to both report and respect.”
This is where Cheever and Goodyear come in. The two have survived vicious wrecks at the Speedway and Bestwick turns to them to relay that experience to the public.
“They know what it’s like to hit the wall at 240 mph and it’s an experience they don’t care to repeat or see anyone repeat,” Bestwick said. “Scott knows both what it’s like to race for the win at Indianapolis and have his heart broken… and he knows what it’s like to have his back broken in a crash.
“These guys have driven racecars at 240 mph and I haven’t. Drawing those experiences out of them and relying on that knowledge is part of it. It’s that experience and understanding that brings that emotion to the broadcast for them.”
Goodyear broke his back during an accident at the 2001 Indy 500. Cheever was involved in a horrific crash with the late Stan Fox in the 1995 running of the race. And though Cheever knows that Bestwick never had his life on the line at Indy, there is an “enormous” level of respect and excitement across the three during the race, said Cheever.
“Scott and I have both hit the wall very hard. Scott broke his back and I was very lucky to walk away alive from an accident,” Cheever said. “All three of us have an enormous respect for any driver who is willing to challenge themselves to the level that is required to be competitive at the Indianapolis 500.
“We start off the race with a very high level just hoping they make it through the first corner. We’re on the edge of our seats the whole time and most of the race, we’re standing up.”
Until the checkered flag waves, the fear is there. But when the flag drops and the engines lower to idle levels, that angst is replaced with joy and defeat. Life-changing joy for the winner, soul-crushing defeat in the 32 who lost.
“You have to dream about winning this race,” Goodyear said in 2017. “For me, the emotions of making sure I don’t make a mistake in the first turn or first lap is very, very important. Trusting your engineer — did he get all the settings right? Because the cars are going to be different than they were on the last practice day.”
While Goodyear suffered two near-wins in his career, Cheever knows both sides of this annual postrace environment, with his 1998 triumph giving him that special place in American history.
“What I remember most from winning the Indy 500 was the respect and affection you got from the American public having won as an American,” Cheever said. “I was happy I got to compete at the Indianapolis 500, I was happier more when I got to lead laps. I was elated when I got to win one. It was great when I saw Hunter-Reay, Rossi win the 500 because I knew what they were going to go through.”
The greatest thrill for Bestwick lies in the concept of seeing somebody’s life change for the better. At the end of Sunday’s 500-mile thriller, someone’s life will change forever, and that’s what Bestwick, as well as Goodyear and Cheever, anticipate more than anything.
“It’s life-changing. Winning the race and coming close to not winning the race is life-changing,” Bestwick said. “That’s a pretty big concept if you think about it. Life-changing… OK, someone’s life is going to change in a couple days on Sunday.
“It’s important to let that moment be about them… That’s the moment. Someone just held it all out there, worked their tail off and risked everything to win the Indianapolis 500 and their life has just changed by doing that.
“We always make sure the spotlight is theirs and it’s about them in that moment. It’s about the winner.”
