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Chitwood 'ecstatic' at crowd numbers.

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Joie Chitwood has said that he was delighted by the number of people that turned out to watch the Pole Day activities at the Brickyard, saying that it reflected positively on the new-look IndyCar Series.

Despite fearing the worst after rain washed out two-and-a-half days in the run-up to the first qualifying day of the month of May, Chitwood was happy to see people flocking to the circuit on Saturday.

"As much as I know you would love for me to tell you numbers and talk about actual attendance, we don't really do that here at the Speedway," he said on Sunday, "I will tell you, however, that I was ecstatic with the crowd yesterday.

"I was a little bit nervous early in the morning - about 8.30am, I was in Pagoda Command, looking at the cameras that we have stationed to look at the traffic out on 16th and Crawfordsville and I thought to myself 'maybe people think it's still going to rain today'. But, by 11am, we had some great traffic - as much as you can call traffic great!

"I was pleased because there were a lot of people lined up to come in. I thought there was great energy yesterday, and I think they were ready for a show because we've had so many positive storylines leading into this event. I'm not surprised we've had interest and people showing up when you think back to a great list of Helio [Castroneves] winning Dancing with the Stars, then unification, Graham Rahal winning a race, Danica [Patrick] winning - it's such positive story lines, great young talent, a competitive field. The crowd met my expectations based on what I thought we would do because we've got such great storylines going into the month."

Chitwood also suggested that the revised qualifying format for the 500, introduced a couple of years ago, had played a part in attracting fans to the Brickyard.

"I think, two years ago, we got to see a great show, although the format is still in its infancy and there's a lot more to do," he said, "Some of us would rather be seeing a team like [Tomas] Scheckter's #12 try to strengthen their position in the eleven slots. I think it was a great show, and I was really pleased with the attendance yesterday. I think that the fans here, and the community, were dying to come out to see some track activity, and it was really nice that we could finally give them a good day yesterday."