The following story is the kick-off of Race Chaser Online’s annual ‘Month of May’ series, which both builds up to Memorial Day weekend’s runnings of the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 and pays tribute to several special dates during the month along the way.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Column by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Walter Kuhn photo —

It’s finally here.

With a flip of the calendar yesterday at 12:01 a.m., the grandest 31-day stretch in auto racing has officially returned for another year.

The month of May phenomenon began as the Indianapolis 500 was becoming a rising power in national motorsports, growing exponentially from the time the race returned following World War II in 1946 with its now-traditional two week format for qualifying and the race.

It grew with the addition of the Monaco Grand Prix to the inaugural Formula One World Championship schedule four years later, slotting the week before the 500 in 1950 and hovering either before or after the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ for most of its history until finding its present-day Memorial weekend Sunday slot in the last five years — though it fell as such for the first time as early as 1965, when Jim Clark skipped Monaco to win the 500 and still came back to win the F1 title.

But May became a power trifecta in 1961, when the second-year Charlotte Motor Speedway moved its hallmark 600-mile stock car race (the longest race in NASCAR premier series competition) to Memorial Day weekend in order to compete with the Indy 500.

13 years later, when the two races finally lined up on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend for the first time (as Indianapolis finally ended its longstanding “Never on a Sunday” policy), tradition was born.

Nowadays, the month of May signals the start and the countdown to what many call the greatest weekend in racing across the globe, and it often comes accompanied with big news, big stars and big action.

2016 was no different.

Over the last 36 hours, a bang and a whimper combined to give race fans their “big news” at the start of the month, as fans begin preparations for the historic 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29 … and all of the rowdy talk only means one thing.

The best is yet to come.

Read on to see the two biggest news items on my mind with the Month of May officially opening for business…

BANG: Talladega Brings Carnage & Safety Questions in its Wake

The GEICO 500 on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway may not be one of the hallmark races of the ‘Month of May’, but it certainly left a lasting impression befitting of one of the Big Three in its aftermath.

While Brad Keselowski outwitted, outplayed and outlasted his competitors — surviving for his fourth-career checkered flag at NASCAR’s longest track — 33 of the 39 other cars in the field were torn to shreds in the process of 188 laps.

It was a junkyard combined with a demolition derby that appeared to visibly rattle several drivers (notably Kurt and Kyle Busch) despite their top 10 results; after vicious crashes saw Chris Buescher and Matt Kenseth flip wildly; Michael Annett and Danica Patrick smash the inside wall with huge velocity; and two double-digit crashes decimate the field in the final 75 miles, including one in the tri-oval coming to the checkered flag.

The high amount of attrition has sent NASCAR looking for answers, and left drivers having to answer the questions of what can be done to solve the problem and why groups of NASCAR fans seem to find entertainment value in seeing such crashes play out.

Austin Dillon — who went into the catchfence at Talladega’s sister track, Daytona International Speedway, last July — spoke on both subjects after finishing third on Sunday.

” I’ve been asked a couple times already what I think they should do,” Dillon admitted. “I’m not an aero guy. But I know with the smart people we have in NASCAR, all the companies, that we can probably do something to figure it out.  We need to. I went flying last year at Daytona, and that’s not fun. For guys that haven’t done it, it’s just not a fun thing to be a part of. I don’t know how to fix it personally, but I do have total faith that NASCAR will put their efforts towards fixing it.”

“We (as drivers) don’t like to be a part of crashes,” he added. “It’s not what our job is, to crash. Our job is to compete and have fun out there and put on a show. Putting on a show, in that crashes happen. … But man, I think people, if they’re cheering for crashes … it’s not a good thing.”

Do I know what the answer is? No, absolutely not. But I’ll be honest, I wish I did.

With every crash that seemingly got worse and worse on Sunday, my level of concern rose for the drivers remaining in the event, even despite seeing everyone involved over the course of the day climb out and walk away.

We’ve improved safety a lot over the past 15 years, across all facets of motorsports and especially in NASCAR. But I couldn’t help but fear that someone was going to get seriously injured by the time Sunday’s race was in the books.

I understand that there’s always been, and will always be an inherent danger in auto racing. My uncle was killed in a short-track crash at Kalamazoo Speedway in September of 1985. I get it. I also know that there’s never going to be a way to make any race car, or any racing event, completely safe.

Perhaps Kyle Busch said it best after the race when he said, “It’s just Talladega. It is what it is.”

But in the wake of an event like Sunday’s — where so many questions have come to light from media, fans and drivers alike — shouldn’t we, as a sport, try to make “what it is” as minimal of a risk as possible?

It’s just a thought.

WHIMPER: Saavedra’s Plans for 100th Indy 500 Run Are Dashed

After it appeared Sebastian Saavedra, Gary Peterson and AFS Racing had all the necessary parts and pieces in place to make a Chevrolet-powered bid for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 grid, the news came out on Monday morning that their quest at drinking the milk has ended before it ever truly had a chance to begin.

Saavedra and Peterson had been working feverishly since the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in April to revitalize their program and make an effort at the century running of the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ — having made it as far as pairing with Eric Bachelart’s Conquest Racing team as their potential entrant of record, after Bachelart brought Peterson’s DW12 chassis out of Chip Ganassi Racing’s shop to begin updating it to 2016 configurations and preparing for opening practice on May 17.

However, Saavedra ultimately said that their efforts began “too late” to make the run at his seventh 500 “the right way.”

“It was just time (that hindered our efforts),” Saavedra told RACER.com in the first report of the disappointing news. “We had an idea of the time to do it, which was very tight, and once we got started working on it, there was a lot more to do than expected, we didn’t have enough personnel, and many, many factors added up to us telling Gary we shouldn’t do it.”

“Chevy believed in us, IndyCar believed in us, our sponsors believed in us, but we couldn’t do a proper program with the time we had. We could have tried to scrape in and make it, but everybody deserves something better (than just that).”

With Monday’s confirmation of Pippa Mann’s entry in a fourth Dale Coyne Racing car, the provisional 500 entry list has exactly 33 car and driver combinations to date.

That fact, at least to me, feels like a travesty considering I’ve heard people tout this as being potentially “the most important event in auto racing history.” Gone will be the thrill of Bump Day, because we’ll know exactly who will be in the field by the end of day one qualifying (because this year Bump Day and Pole Day were to be reversed).

I may be a purist here, but I long for the days of 40 car entry lists and a true Bump Day process once again.

I’m looking at the manufacturers and shaking my head. I’m asking: “Why can’t you, Chevrolet and Honda, open up your pocketbooks and find some engineers to furnish enough engines to create a spectacle BEFITTING the so-called “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” for the centurion running of the greatest race there is in American open wheel competition? Why do we have to put 16 or 17 engine limits on the field and say ‘That’s all folks’ ahead of the biggest event of the year, every year now?!”

The fans deserve far better than a struggle just to fill the field.

Unfortunately, my fear is that we may never see those brighter days realized again. And, to put it simply, that is nothing short of a damn shame.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens for business on Thursday, May 12 with practice for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS infield road course.

The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Race Chaser Online, Speed77 Radio, the Performance Motorsports Network, their sponsors or other contributors.

About the Writer

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.

Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

Email Jacob at: [email protected]

Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77

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