- I think most fans don't realize that pit stops aren't easy.

How about - Robert Schwartzman watching any three Oh no goes in hard.

Oh no.

Like a bowling ball locks up.

You see the front there.

Skits long in his box, six feet long.

Just absolute disaster.

- It's very easy to go into an internet comment section and say, oh man, I can't believe they screwed that up.

Yeah, - There's no fire.

There's fire all over the car and fire down on pit lane.

That's something you never want to see.

Rossi out of the car.

What on earth is going on at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today?

We have seen it all.

So it happens - Every year.

Hundreds of thousands of race fans travel to Indianapolis to witness the greatest spectacle in racing.

Besides the race parties, the longtime fans, the music events, and the celebrity appearances.

The Indy 500 boils down to just one word.

Teamwork.

While fans see drivers battling on track, teams wage their own fight, racing in the pit lane to pull off lightning, fast tire changes and in the pit box we split second strategy and gut instinct must be balanced.

The drivers and their teams have to coordinate and work together to have any chance at coming in first.

- There's a whole team of people that are working together during the race, probably eight to 12 of us.

They're all coordinating what's going on, talking.

What we're gonna do - Across Indiana was given special access to the Myers Shank Racing IndyCar team to showcase the dedication and focus needed to prepare for the Indianapolis 500.

While filming, we shadowed two key members of the team.

Strategist for driver, Felix Rosen's, number 60 Car, and Meyers Shank Racing's, chief Operating Officer, Adam Rovazzini and Kyle Gibson, the number 60 cars crew chief and air jack operator.

- Basically, my job is to make sure that the mechanics have everything that they need and that they're getting all the information from engineering so that the physical side of the car is prepped and ready to go.

- You know, the COO part of my job, you know, is dealing with Mike, you know, Tim Meyer on the budget side of things, sponsor side of things, just making sure the race team has everything they need to operate on a day-to-day basis.

To be clear, I, I am on the 60 car strategy, but I do oversee and work with the other three cars here at Indy, right?

So it's very important that all of our cars, you know, built the same, run the same, and are all equal - While we're on the topic.

How exactly does a pit stop work?

- So I do air jack, so as the car comes in, I'll jack up the car and then go take the left rear tire off or the right rear, depending on which way we're going.

Then we have our four tire changers.

Your outside front, your inside front, inside, rear and outside.

Rear.

They all do a little bit different of a job.

The outside front will change his tire and then he's responsible for sending the car back out.

So once he changes his tire, he's looking down pit lane to make sure that we aren't sending the car into another car.

It inside front guy will typically take care of just his tire.

Same thing with the inside rear, outside rear is a little different, whereas the other guys will take their own tire off the outside.

Rear guy has the air jack man take his tire off and then the fueler really just worries about himself.

I don't think I've ever done a perfect pit stop.

It's very, there's always all, man, I could have done that a little better.

I could have saved a little time there.

We call it, we need to have mediocre pit stops.

We don't need to be setting the world on fire, but we need to make sure that we're not taking away anything from the driver when he goes back out.

- Kyle and Adam's relationship is one of many that makes the number 60 car and Meyer Shank Racing's IndyCar program a well-oiled machine.

- So Kyle and I have known each other for a few years now, probably a bit more than that.

5, 6, 7.

And he's a, he's a great guy.

You know, he's definitely younger in age for his position, but you could just tell with Kyle that he just has what it takes, right?

You know, it's a commitment and he has that commitment.

- So Adam's worried about the overall performance of the team.

That's where his grades come from, whether that's logistics, how the car builds are, how the team is interacting as a whole.

Adam is over all of that.

Whereas as a crew chief I'm worried about the 60 car - And with other team members pulling their own weight.

The sense of shared competitiveness is strong between these teammates.

- There is a sense of camaraderie.

You have your car guys, you have your guys that you've been with for years.

There are people that I hang out with outside of work quite regularly, but when it's race day, it is, everyone is working towards a common goal.

We joke a lot about how none of us could go work a normal nine to five job.

I started my mechanic career in a dealership and it's just the same thing over and over again.

I think that the variety that you get with this, yes the car is the same week in, week out for the most part, but they're, you can encounter many different challenges at any point in time.

Not only the drivers, but the pit crew and the engineers and everyone up and down pit lane is just as competitive as the drivers.

They want to be here, they want to, well, they wanna win.

And so I think that competitive drive is why you keep coming back.

- But with so many other races on the schedule, why is the 500 seen as the most important?

- So not only, you know, the effort that the team and the crews put into it just to get out here on race day on Sunday for the Indianapolis 500.

I think the whole spectacle of the race day is something to be talked about.

You know, there's 350,000 people in one place at once.

You know it's Memorial weekend, you know, all the service men and women are here.

You know me personally when they're doing the national anthem and all the service people that protect us, you know, it's definitely an emotional and goosebump thing.

I'd be surprised if there's anyone when the national anthem's going on and the flyover, if there's a single person here, doesn't have goosebumps because it's pretty, pretty neat feeling for sure to be standing out there and be representing, you know, our team, you know, in Indianapolis 500, but also our country as well.

- I, I think that there's no bigger event and motorsport when you're on the grid and you look around and there are 350,000 people have come to watch in person, like something that you do, they've come to watch the car that you built.

They've come to watch you do the pit stops that you practiced and then another five, 6 million watching at home.

All paying attention to something that you spend so much time and effort trying to be perfect at is I think why the 500 is so special.

- For more Across Indiana stories go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana