 Believe it or not, I actually thought that riding in an Indy car was going to be more terrifying than the ride I got last year in a Red Bull Air Race stunt plane. That sounds crazy. In the plane I was going upside down, doing ultra-fast snap rolls, and started losing my vision at one point. But the danger just seems so much more present in an open-wheel car. This time, there was no parachute to save you. The 99th Indy 500 is almost here and it's going to be one of the fastest ever, but that speed is coming at a terrific price, as multiple drivers have gotten into some spectacular crashes in practice and qualifying. Before that, the cars were on pace to break a 20-year-old track record. The sport is faster this year because the cars have some pretty wild-looking new aerodynamics kits, one of a few changes the series has made to help boost popularity. Ratings have been going down the last few years, and going faster is frankly one way to fix that. As a long-time racing fan, I wanted to know more about where the sport is at right now. And there's really no better way to do that than to go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and get a ride around the track at 180 miles per hour. You wouldn't believe the forces I felt when the car dipped down into the turns. A combination of downforce, nine degrees of banking, and the steady hands of Mario Andretti kept the car turning perfectly smooth, but in my helmet my brains felt like they were leaking out of my ear. On the first lap I leaned into the turns, but by the second lap my head was flailing helplessly to the right. My neck muscles were completely worked. And this is all just a fraction of what Indy car drivers deal with. In the Indy 500, for example, they'll run 200 laps, reach speeds somewhere around 230 miles per hour, and they're going to do that with 33 drivers on the course. I can remember watching the Indy 500 for as long as I've been alive, and I thought that meant I had some idea of what these drivers were going through. But after my experience, I couldn't have been more wrong.
 Believe it or not, I actually thought that riding in an Indy car was going to be more
 terrifying than the ride I got last year in a Red Bull Air Race stunt plane.
 That sounds crazy.
 In the plane I was going upside down, doing ultra-fast snap rolls, and started losing
 my vision at one point.
 But the danger just seems so much more present in an open-wheel car.
 This time, there was no parachute to save you.
 The 99th Indy 500 is almost here and it's going to be one of the fastest ever, but that
 speed is coming at a terrific price, as multiple drivers have gotten into some spectacular
 crashes in practice and qualifying.
 Before that, the cars were on pace to break a 20-year-old track record.
 The sport is faster this year because the cars have some pretty wild-looking new aerodynamics
 kits, one of a few changes the series has made to help boost popularity.
 Ratings have been going down the last few years, and going faster is frankly one way
 to fix that.
 As a long-time racing fan, I wanted to know more about where the sport is at right now.
 And there's really no better way to do that than to go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway
 and get a ride around the track at 180 miles per hour.
 You wouldn't believe the forces I felt when the car dipped down into the turns.
 A combination of downforce, nine degrees of banking, and the steady hands of Mario Andretti
 kept the car turning perfectly smooth, but in my helmet my brains felt like they were
 leaking out of my ear.
 On the first lap I leaned into the turns, but by the second lap my head was flailing
 helplessly to the right.
 My neck muscles were completely worked.
 And this is all just a fraction of what Indy car drivers deal with.
 In the Indy 500, for example, they'll run 200 laps, reach speeds somewhere around 230
 miles per hour, and they're going to do that with 33 drivers on the course.
 I can remember watching the Indy 500 for as long as I've been alive, and I thought that
 meant I had some idea of what these drivers were going through.
 But after my experience, I couldn't have been more wrong.