Buddy Martin was also on hand for what was an emotional tribute on Friday night as the sun set. He and Diane Sox (Ronnie’s widow), along with Mopar and NHRA officials, were on a makeshift stage on the starting line, with Buddy donating a $50,000 check to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Collectors Eric Warner, Clark Rand, Greg Mosley and Phil Painter had brought six original Sox & Martin Plymouths out, which were on display at or near the Mopar trailer early in the weekend. 
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After a short tribute to Sox (backed by a Stevie Ray Vaughn instrumental) played on the giant TV screen, every person in the SRO house stood for a moment of silence. Then the owners and drivers fired the historic cars up and rolled slowly down the return road to applause after starter Rick Stewart got the bunch rolling with a mock flag start.
The Big Go is the chance to meet with people you only see once a year, on and off the track. Super Stock/A Hemi racer Darrell Marvel held a large private party in his pit on Thursday night, with several dozen racers, crew, and luminaries on hand. Plenty of steak and chicken cooked over an open fire was followed by plenty of tall tales. On Saturday morning, Russ Flagle and the guys at Indy Cylinder Head hosted a small open house at their facility on the southeastern side of town, where Ken Lazzari showed us a new 426-inch 6.1 Hemi which was up on the dyno and roaring to 565 horsepower. Hemi engineer Tom Hoover, Tom “the Ghost” Coddington, and Herb McCandless were all on hand as well making it a fun and historical occasion.
Back at the track, there is also the nitro brigade, and Gary Scelzi made them stand up on his first shot out of the box Friday evening with a 4.73 at a blistering pace of 330.31, which 
was the quickest time by any drag car in the history of the Indianapolis facility. Whit Bazemore took his Mopar all the way to the final round yet victory remained elusive. Nitro action would be topped by the end of the weekend by Tony Schumacher’s digger, but the fuel Charger was still the first to do the deed.
There are a whole heap of NHRA races every year, and a lot of cookie cutter racecars that would make it seem redundant, but Indy is still “the Big Go” and it is still a pretty special event; you know, I guess I’ll need to go again next year.
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