I, too, grew up listening to The 500 on AM radios in my brothers '55 Chevy or '55 Jaguar.
The race just doesn't interest me anymore and hasn't for 30+ years. Too many buy-a-rides and too much money.
Same for NASCAR... started keeping track of those guys in '58 in Motor Trend or during the news "shorts" at the Saturday movie matinee. Brian France screwed up a good deal.... listened to the 600 for a bit yesterday... I could barely identify 1/3 of the drivers... and I used to have the home phone numbers of Waltrip, Martin, Schrader, Earnhart and a few others.
Now I prefer my Saturday night dirt track car fights.