MODERATOR: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 is all about the sites of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," but for a radio guy like me it's all about the sounds. There have been so many things that have changed since Tony (Hulman) built this track in the mid '40s, but the one thing that has not changed is this man. The real voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tom Carnegie has been here since 1946 doing every event, and I don't know what it would be like to come to the Speedway on one of those warm May mornings and not hear that, "good morning, race fans," to start the day. But it's great to have you here, great to be able to spend some time with you. Before we open it up for questions, maybe your general thoughts on how you get yourself ready for another Indy 500, what do you do to prepare for the race?

TOM CARNEGIE: First of all, you love the sport. So you keep up to date on everything that happens, 365 days a year. So really, getting ready for the 500 has been done starting with the previous race. I'm always up to date. I never sit down and really study for any particular day at the track. It's just a matter of assimilation and staying with my favorite sport of mine, and all through the year, I work on it.

MODERATOR: When you started here at the Speedway, and you have I have talked about this, you were not the biggest of race fans, you didn't know a lot about racing. When you first started, did you have any idea in the back of your mind that this could being as big a part of your life as it has become?

CARNEGIE: Absolutely not. When I started, I really had no idea. I had only seen championship racing. I had seen only one race that was at the State Fairgrounds in Illinois prior to that time, Rex Mays and the gang competing, and all of a sudden I was pulled into this situation. The previous announcer turned it over to me on the very first lap, and I had done football games, and I had just figured names and numbers would get me through, and evidently that's what did. I went from the top of the old Pagoda, and you had to have a swivel neck in order to see anything that was going on. There was no help at all. The only thing they had was the driver's ward, and I was able to look down and see who they thought were the first five, always. Evidently, I pleased Tony (Hulman) and the general manager of the track sufficiently to have me named the chief announcer after that race, and that's where I've been ever since.

MODERATOR: You've become an icon, obviously, when it comes to this track, not just for the 500 but obviously the U.S. Grand Prix and the Brickyard 400. I'm curious how you came up with "And he's on it," and "It's a new track record," seems obvious but the first time you said, "And he's on it" where did that come from?

CARNEGIE: I really don't know. That doesn't take a great deal of thought to figure out that sequence (Laughter) - that sequence of words. Really, what happened I think is that I probably used it several times, and then somebody said to me, "Hey, you remember when you said, 'And he's on it,'" they sort of liked that. And I reserve that for just the Indianapolis 500, until last year, the Brickyard 400 went on the very first qualification, they give me the signal that there's a new track record, and I forgot myself. So I said it, "You know, it's a new track record and he's on it," and I just cut loose and did the whole bit. So I use it for everybody now.

Q: After all of these years, can you single out one or a small number of things that really give you a thrill, the goose-bump kind of thrill?

CARNEGIE: Well, yes, I can figure out several things. If you're talking goose bumps, they all know my engines rank right up there in that No. 1 position when they go down that straightaway. Goose bumps, yes, 1967 when A.J. Foyt involved in a multi-car accident or he avoided one up in the fourth turn on his final lap of the race. He was on the white flag lap, had the winning position all shored up and then that happened. I'm yelling: "Where is he, where is he?" I couldn't see him, you know, and then you finally see him crawling out. I think I said, "Here he is, here he is," or "There he is," something like that. And I like to repeat things so everybody can hear it. To me it's not a radio broadcast or a television broadcast on the public address system. You repeat because you've got speakers two and a half miles around this track, and I would repeat things and still do. Like "A.J. Foyt is No. 1, No. 1 is now A.J. Foyt, and Foyt's in front," things like that, so that it makes sure, the important thing is to know what's going on. That would be one. I think another one was the finish between Gordon Johncock 1982 and Rick Mears. That was true theater. To me, what I do is sort of master of ceremonies, and what the P.A. does is sort of a master of ceremonies. And so when you get the audience standing for 10 laps, that's a thrill right away. And everybody was up for the last 10 minutes, it was 10 seconds apart, then eight, then seven, then six and then finally a very close finish, and obviously I didn't know who won. Couldn't tell for sure. I know there was a great finish, and I just can't let it end there. I've got to make some big statement and so I said, "And it's the closest finish in the history of the Speedway." Well, I called over to timing and scoring and had George King do it and he said they don't keep track of things like that. (Laughter). I said to George, "Well, how does 16-hundredths of a second sound to you?" He said, "Sounds good to me." "Ladies and gentlemen, it's a new track record, 16 hundredths of a second." And I go on and on. I couldn't let it just die, you know, saying that's pretty good. I knew that I had set a new speed record the next day when the Indianapolis Star came out with headlines that Johncock wins by 16-hundredths of a second, so I've always been proud of that record. (Laughter).Then 10 years later, here is Al Unser Jr., has the race all wrapped up in 1992 and coming out of the fourth turn, all of a sudden out of nowhere comes that scoundrel Scott Goodyear, and he got some jet propulsion somewhere and almost caught him at the finish line, and I didn't know - I didn't have any idea who won, it that's that close, and finally timing and scoring announced that the winner was Al Unser Jr. And I'm going on about that. I knew it had to be close. Then comes the disturbing news that there was a new track record of 43-thousandths of a second. My record was gone. I said to George, I said, "You know, if we would have just known this was going to happen, we could have set a record for all-time 10 years ago." So reluctantly I said 43-thousandths of a second that day, and I wasn't near as excited about it as I was with the 16-hundredths of a second.

MODERATOR: Thanks to you, we knew the 43-thousandths, you kind of started it, as far as the finishes, keeping track there at the finish.

CARNEGIE: I started out there in 1946 and I knew that, you know we used to have one car on the winning lap and then two, that was really exciting.

Q: Could you reflect on the changes to the Speedway and the city itself during your tenure as the chief announcer?

CARNEGIE: In the first place, I found it unbelievable that there was an Indianapolis Motor Speedway of this size just within a few blocks of downtown Indianapolis. That indicates that this was pastureland for a long, long time. My reaction to it - was that your question, the early days or what?

Q: The changes since then.

CARNEGIE: Well, first of all, I couldn't believe they were going to get the race underway, but they did in 1946, and Tony Hulman was so happy that day. I don't know how I got out here, I think I got in an he is sort down from the athletic club and came out with police - AAA was sanctioning it then and I was here. I knew there was a big race when Blondie Afton, sports editor of the Indianapolis Star, arrived at halftime, halfway through the race, and blamed it on traffic. So I knew it was off to a great start. Since then I've come by train to the track, and now I stay in the motel here on the grounds. The changes are fantastic. Obviously, the facility is loved, loved by the Hulman-George family, and that's what impresses me so very, very much now is the care that they devote to this facility because it's a care that indicates this is going to be here for all time if that family has anything to say about it. Most organizations, you've got to show a profit on this event or that event - for example, just in my time, this last year, they finished a complete revision of the public address system, and they have increased the power from - about the only facts I know - 16,000 watts to 373,000 watts. Now, look at that. Now that's looking to the future, and that's what I notice. As the stands are constructed, our stands are reconstructed like they have done on Turn No. 1 this past year. And then to see across the street on 16th Street, the old motel is gone and the Steak 'N Shake, regrettably, and then the American Hard Clay (company) is gone. It's all indicating - and Georgetown Apartment is gone on the north end. It's all indicating that it's not done for tomorrow or the next day, but it's done for the future. That's what I'm very happy about. Then, of course, the prize fund is fantastic. When I started, it was $115,000. Now it's around $9 million.

Q: You've met so many of us and so many of them, who is the most memorable character you ever met that you can remember at this racetrack?

CARNEGIE: Well, that would a A.J. Foyt. Yeah. I was so frightened of him - (Laughter) - in the early days, and I worked for a television station, and I wanted to go down to Houston and do a show with him. I was so frightened of him that I found out what church, what minister he liked. That minister happened to be a pilot. And so, I talked him into flying me to Houston to do my very first interview, and that worked. I've been a friend of his ever since; I've been to his farm several times, all of that sort of thing. But he still frightens me. (Laughter). You know, if I go and want to talk to him, I don't just step right up. I see how he's treating other people for a while. (Laughter) and if he's fired up and bombastic that day, I ain't talking to him. (Laughter). But he is my No. 1 character. And to think that it will just be a couple of years when he'll be here at 50 years, and that's a press conference I'd like to attend. When they - I remember one day when was still driving and on the television, they had just completed - or he came within a couple of laps of completing 10,000 miles on the track. The announcer who had never known A.J. Foyt or his reaction, stupidly asked him, "How do you feel about not reaching 10,000 miles?" He said, big deal, and just went off. He said more than that. (Laughter). Remember one time at the Hoosier 100, I used to announce that. I don't announce that anymore; haven't for a while. We had a great race one year, and I'm doing it, you know, Al Bloemker was the public relations man and going on and gone, and Al Bloemker leans over and says, "Tony Hulman was about to say, 'Gentleman start your engines.' Tell all of those people to get the hell out of the pits." "Attention in the pit area, if you do not have a pits pass, leave immediately." (Laughter). I no longer announce that race.

Q: You and all of the guys who are on the P.A. crew, you all come from strong radio backgrounds?

CARNEGIE: That's right.

Q: Could you explain a little bit what you think that brings that -- I know in the day of TV talking as that you guys painting word pictures helps create for the job that you have to do?

CARNEGIE: And I like to pick people who have been in theatre, too. To me, this is a giant theater. It's an outdoor theater. When you're on the public address system, you are telling the story of the fans in the audience. So you do it in an expressive way and an interesting way, and you don't deal too much, just give them the highlights. If you're talking all the time, if you're talking all the time, they will quit listening after a while. Jim Phillippe, background in theatre, John Totten was a background in theatre, his father was Al Totten who did the Chicago Cubs games for years on radio. And so he had a background in his own family. And Dave Calabro is now on a lengthy internship. He asked me recently, how long does this internship go? He said, "It's been 20 years," and I said, "Well, you can't really count them as 20 years. It's just, you know, 10 days a month. There's 10 days for each race. So we are still in the days, we haven't reached a full year." (Laughter) What was the question again? (Laughter) Is that enough? OK.

Q: There have been quite a few tragedies and some have involved people you carried about, how did you handle those?

CARNEGIE: You know, I used to be real close to a lot of guys. And then you see them lose their life out here or somewhere else, and it affects you. I resolved not to get too acquainted with them for a while. But now all of a sudden, I don't feel that way. I don't feel that way. You know, in 1973, that horrible month, I washed that out of my mind completely. We have not had tragedies at Indianapolis due to the - since that time with any great number. And since that time, I haven't felt that way and so again, I'm back visiting them in their homes. I've been to Rick Mears many times, all of the drivers through the year the. The point of it, I don't feel that way now. I can go to the race, race day morning and feel that I'll see all 33 of them after the race. It's a good, healthy feeling, but it took me a while to get over that feeling of tragedy when I looked at a driver and saw that race car. And I think that's due to such things as SAFER walls out here, for example, and keeping the speeds in control, the tremendous advancements that's been made in the crews that handle a scene. I remember early on, I didn't know how to handle it. I've given some eulogies at funerals, and it just tears me up, but I won't have that feeling anymore. That's a good, healthy feeling. Need to look at it from that standpoint. Fellas wouldn't be doing it if they didn't want to, and I know that's true. There was some bad decisions years ago. We didn't have all of this protection that they have now. A.J. Foyt was against, for example, this new monocoque design that turns out to be the safest thing anyone has thrown to the Speedway, throw off the barbs and those solid axle cars hitting the wall they would not get hurt, the car wouldn't but kill the driver, it was unbelievable.

MODERATOR: You know, it's been an incredible thing to listen to Tom work over the last several months across the street at IMS Productions, I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity to see any of the DVD compilations from the 60s and 70s and 80s, and, I guess, soon to be the 90s. But Tom narrates all of those, and our studio where we do all of our radio network production is right next to the studio he has been using. When he was talking about the fact that this is a theater, to listen to him voice the scripts for the compilation DVDs, it's just unbelievable. If you get a chance to get one of them and listen to them, the whole thing just comes to life. If I could take any cues from him at all, it is how expressive his voice is in everything that he does. And to be able to hear how he accentuates at just the right time, pauses at just the right time, the crescendo or brings the voice own at just right time; it's really an amazing thing to listen to him voice those compilations.

Q: Are you originally from Missouri?

CARNEGIE: I am from Missouri. I am from (inaudible) Missouri. I played sports there, baseball and football, and then my junior year of school, I had an infection that put me in the hospital for six months and polio-type thing, so I had to lay out of here. And then I went to William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and they had at that time the No. 1 debate team in the United States in college, debated England and so forth. Got into that program. And thank goodness I had some wonderful training, theater and voice and extemporaneous speaking and all of that sort of thing. That's what led me to Indiana. I got out and took a train to Fort Wayne, Indiana, got a job at WOWO and WGL, and it was a very creative station. They did a lot of wonderful things. So you were constantly ad-libbing. I think that the announcer in any radio or television station who has a background in sports at doing play-by-play is the best ad-libber on the staff, without a doubt. And they should be the one covering remotes in the television staff. In the programs you have people used to reading from a script or something but for actually talking, I think your sportsman is just like you, I think of the sportsman as the No. 1 in any station when it comes to expressing himself. Mario Andretti after he won had a series of disappointments in the 500 and you know, it's - evidently not knowing what say, and people do remember, I said, well there are times that Mario is slowing down on the backstretch, when really he wasn't slowing down on the backstretch or something. But I just put him there. It was just convenient to put him in the backstretch. Just recently a couple years ago, he was there, you remember the fateful day. I told Dave Calabro, who is back here, that I am in the going to announce him today. So Dave handled the introductions and all of a sudden his car slows down. I saw him in the fourth turn, and I said, "Dave, give me that." (Laughter) "Ladies and gentlemen, race fans, Mario Andretti coming out of turn number 2, and Mario's slowing down on the backstretch." And a big roar, of course. Robin Miller from the paper the next day at Indianapolis Star, who is a friend of Mario's, obviously, said, I barked at her or something, whatever that term was. That's probably what I did, but that's part of it, and that's theater.

Q: You were talking earlier about the physical changes in this place over your years here, but a lot of the thing about this place is the people. There's been a lot of change in people recently. We've lost guys who have been around here for a long time; can you reflect on the change in the people?

CARNEGIE: Well, it always seems to be somebody stepping forward and taking that responsibility. Al Bloemker ran a one with-man public relations shop and had Roger Deppe and a few others helping him. Then he's gone all of a sudden, but then there's somebody else who is either training or on the scene or brought in. We had a great influence. We used to run this track. It was just about four or five employees - well, that's not true, I don't know how many there are today, but they have got in the hundreds, I'm sure. But I think that they all are devoted to this racetrack, they seem to be and they try to make the decisions that will affect not only this year but as I mentioned earlier, in the future. You wouldn't be cleaning out your public address system and then installing a new one if you were not planning for the future. This building is a good example, the Pagoda. Now I would not have designed it that way, but it's Tony George's money, and got bless him -- he can build it 80 stories tall if he wants to. But I don't work up there because I'm old habit, I work still on the other side. They built me a place up there with glass and I look down, they look like slot cars, so I don't do the race up there. I go back on the other side where I did it years ago. An old dog doesn't learn new tricks sometimes. But so much - the staff here, I like. The staff here is dedicated. They work 24 hours a day for victory for this Speedway. And this state and this city and the spirit of racing should be very thankful that there's - the Indianapolis 500 runs in the way that it's run and by the staff that's in charge of it and take advantage of all the wonderful things they have done. I'm a cheerleader for the 500. I make no bones about it.

Q: Back before there were monitors that showed you every part of this track, how difficult was it to really do the race in the late 40s, 50s, 60s, something like the Vukovich accident happened, and you're over here, and there's no way of knowing what had happened?

CARNEGIE: No, there's no way of knowing. It was very, very difficult. The arrival of television has meant so very, very much. To me, and now to the fans through the 18 video boards around. In those days you just had to wait for a teletype to come through to tell who you was involved in the accident. It was very tough to find out what was going on. And one of the reasons I'm on the outside is try to get a view of the entire track in those early days and so, boy, you made up a lot of things. (Laughter) Honestly, I mean nothing wrong, but just repeating things that weren't too important while you're waiting for what is important.

Q: And finally, your voice is very prominent on at least two sports movies, one which is considered to be one of the five greatest sports movies ever made, "Hoosiers." How does it feel to know that cinematically you played a role that is considered to be one of the greatest sports movies ever made?

CARNEGIE: Oh, great. I really, really appreciate that opportunity. And let me tell you, just a little quick thing about "Hoosiers." I get a call from somebody that I've never heard of, and they said, "We'd like to have you come out to this motel, we are signing up people for the motion picture 'Hoosiers.'" I go out the motel, it is in the not-too-sharp end of town, and danky and so forth. And I'm signed up, but I like the people very much, so I started working. And I just can't believe how nice those people were. I think that's one of the reasons for the success of it. The author and the producer of that film did just a wonderful, wonderful job. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that. The only thing that I look back on and wondered about myself, they want you to wear period dress, and while other people whose picture would be on the screen and so forth at various times, I was the only one that was allowed to wear what I started out with. (Laughter) Can you believe that? That's true. I must have been wearing the 1950s outfits in '85. As I look back, trying to remember what the definitely I said when Bobby stood there and held the ball for seven minutes. I don't know how I handled that. Of course that was before the recording and all of that sort of thing, but I did work it and evidently Tony Hagel and I got through it somehow. But I don't know what I said. That's, again, a true test, isn't it?