The greatest weekend in motorsports showed exhilarating racing this past Sunday

If you by chance missed the three crown jewel races that happened all day this past Sunday, you missed one of the greatest weekends in all forms of motorsports. From 8 a.m. Sunday morning to 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR, all showed millions watching on TV what great racing these series' can produce. It all started bright and early Sunday morning as the Formula One raced the famous streets in Monaco for the 79th annual Grand Prix of Monaco. After an hour delay due to wet conditions, the race finally went underway as the hometown favorite Charles Leclerc led the field to the green flag lap along with the Spainyard Carlos Sainz Jr. starting in second.

Leclerc led the first 17 laps of the scheduled 77 laps, until Sainz Jr., took the lead away to lead two laps in the event. But the final lead change and the eventual winner of the 2022 Grand Prix of Monaco Sergio Perez from Mexico, then took the lead away until the race was officially declared over after the two hour time limit set in the event was surpassed. The race was only short by 13 laps, and Perez won his third Formula One race in his career, and his first at Monaco.

The next race that was up was probably the biggest race of all time, which was the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500. Over 300,000 people packed the largest spectator event in the world at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Ind., to watch 33 drivers battling it out to have their picture on the Borg-Warner Trophy. The race in total had 38 lead changes, as well as six cautions for 31 laps. Some that were involved in those cautions were Rinus VeeKay wrecking on lap 39 in turn two, former Formula One driver Roman Grosjean who was a favorite to run up front, crashed on lap 106, and seven time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who crashed on lap 193.

The caution that was caused by Johnson, set up a red flag situation to halt the race with just three laps to go, after the Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson had a four second lead over Pato O’Ward. The green flag flew for the final restart on lap 199 with just two laps to go, and Ericsson and O’Ward were battling hard for their first Indy 500 win of their careers. On the final lap while the two leaders were in turns three and four, the American Sage Karam crashed on the backstretch, ending the race under caution. Ericsson would cross the famous yard of bricks on the front stretch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway under caution to win the 106th running of the Indy 500.

The final race of the day was held at the famous Charlotte Motor Speedway for the longest race of the year, the 63rd annual Coca-Cola 600. The green flag flew around 5 p.m. Central time with Denny Hamlin starting on the pole for a race that would last over five hours. In those five hours, there were 18 cautions for 90 of the 400 laps around the 1.5 mile racetrack in Charlotte N.C., and even a wreck that caused a flip by Chris Buescher. The flip caused a red flag that lasted around 11 minutes.

The average speed of the race was 118.703 mph, and had 31 lead changes with Ross Chastain, who looked like the favorite coming in the weekend with two wins already, leading 151 laps before losing the lead. At the end of the race, with two overtime restarts and chaos around the speedway, Hamlin would end up winning his first Coca-Cola 600, after starting in first. The race ran 17 extra miles in the race after wrecks caused the race to be extended, which meant that this past weekend in Charlotte was the longest (in the term on miles) NASCAR race in its history.

Although Memorial Day weekend is to remember the fallen soldiers who died protecting our country and our freedoms, it’s great that we have these three events to show our pride and patriotism. Because without the men and women who have died protecting us from evil and terror, we wouldn’t be able to cherish these events.