This being Memorial Day Weekend there’s going to be a spectacle – one of the world’s biggest sporting events in fact – set to take place in America’s midwest. That would be the Indianapolis 500. There’s different kinds of car nuts out there – there’s those who like to drive cars, those who like to wrench on cars, and those who like to race cars. Odds are that you check off one or more of those boxes on your car nut census form.
But that being said, watching Indy cars – especially on TV – doesn’t seem to be high on many Hoon’s to-do list. The Brickyard starts with the emphatic and historic Gentlemen, start your engines! and ends with a lusty gulp of cow juice, the traditional drink of the winner’s circle residents. And in between there’s racing, and that racing is sometimes interrupted by crashes or debris on the track each of which causes the unfurling of the yellow flag and the appearance of the pace car.
Being anointed the year’s pace car at Indy is an honor sought be many manufacturers, and achieved by Chevrolet for this year’s race. Over the years, Pace cars grew from simply the leader of the rolling start to a car maker’s opportunity to position a new performance model as connected to America’s race, as well as to sell some horribly marked-up pace car editions of said model. Sometimes the cars were appropriate and even despite the gaudy Indy Pacer graphic add-ons, were desirable, while others – seriously, Olds Bravada? – are simply head scratchers.
Many more are equally brow-furrowing in their selection, but others are not just logical, but damn desirable as well.  But which is the most so? This year is the centenary of the Indy pace car, giving you a butt-load from which to choose. Out of all those cars and trucks – remember that Bravada – which one gets your vote for best?
Image source: [Car and Driver]