At that time Carnegie, who knew nothing about auto racing, had no advance preparation for the event. All he had was a list of drivers and the numbers of their racecars. As with all the other spectators, Carnegie could not see the entire of the oval track. He later remarked: "I had never seen such a crowd, let alone a 500-Mile Race" and "it took me ten to fifteen years to have any confidence that what I was saying was right." Carnegie remained the Speedway's announcer for six decades. His signature phrases were "H's onnnnn it" as a driver would come down the Speedway's front stretch to take the green flag, which signaled the start of the driver's qualifying four-lap run, and reported especially fast laps in qualifying efforts with "Listen to this one, fans, you won't believe this!" followed by his favorite line, "It's a neeeeeww track record!" Tony Stewart once remarked: "You take him and put him on a microphone at a race track and if you know anything about racing, you know who that is on the other end of the microphone." Later in life Carnegie acknowledged, "I'm on the P.A. to inform," but he also wanted to create excitement for the fans, and considered his broadcasts as "speed theater."