Brickyard 400

Sunday, July 31 - Here we are, at the last day of July.  What better way to close out this month than the NASCAR race in Indy -- the Brickyard 400.  It was an early morning for us -- we had the alarm set for 6:00 a.m., and, after a small taste of Joe M.'s peach pie with our coffee, we headed out.  We beat the rush, so traffic wasn't back up much yet, and in fact, there were still parking spots in the lot at the track.  But Joe M. had a yard picked out, where they parked for the Indy 500, so we parked in someone's yard for $20, and were at the track by 8:00 a.m., so we had plenty of time to wander around this HUGE racing facility.  We had been here back in the 60s and 70s to time trials for the Indy cars, but had never been to any NASCAR race except in Phoenix, so we were excited about this opportunity.  Thank you, Cathy and Joe, for the invitation, and for making it happen.

We found a few vendors outside the track, and rented our radios, then we decided to check out our seats, so we went inside the track.  This is a huge racetrack, with seating on both sides of the front straight-away, so it is impossible to see all the way around the track, regardless of where you sit.  This is a 2 1/2 mile track, compared to our 1-mile track in Phoenix, so it was a much different experience.

Here, we actually were allowed to walk across the hallowed track to the infield, and we could see inside some of the garages, we could see down pit road, we could see a lot of the "behind the scenes" areas, and we watched some cars goes through the pre-race inspection process.

 No. 83 is Brian Vickers, and apparently he passed because he was on the race track. 

We saw the fuel trucks at gasoline alley, the I found a spot to cool off under the misters, which were scattered around (a welcome sight).

We worked our way over the museum (Hall of Fame) and spent a couple hours inside the air conditioning here.  It was strange to look at all these Indy cars at a NASCAR race, but it was all very interesting, and the a/c was wonderful.  They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 this year.

We watched a short video about the history of the track (learned something, naturally), and then found a place to get a hotdog inside another air conditioned building, before we headed out to the heat.  It was in the low-to-mid 90s, but Cathy had found us great seats in the shade, so we weren't too uncomfortable.  When we lived in Terre Haute, Joe actually drove a dump truck on this track during one of their re-pavings.  They had most of the winning cars here in the museum, and they certainly changed drastically over the years.  This is what they looked like when we used to come to the time trials (we never did get to attend an Indy car race here).

And, of course, there's the famous brick yard.

We finally headed back over to the stands, passing by some of the souvenier trailers and one area where the Rascal Flatts band was performing.  They later sang the Star Spangled Banner, but Reba McIntyre sang America the Beautiful, which was awesome.

We had to cross under the track through a tunnel to get back to our seats.  We had a great view of Turn 1 from our seats, and could see the cars as soon as they came out of Turn 4, all the way down the front stretch.  We also had a good view of the first pit stalls. 

I caught 3 cars just leaving the pits.  Brad Keselowski is the No. 2 car, the red car is my guy, Carl Edwards, and No. 88 is, of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The race was good, not many cautions, and only one minor wreck.  Paul Menard, an Indiana boy, was the winner -- another first-time winner this year.  It took us a little while to hike back to the car, and it was hot, but we made it and headed home.  We stopped in Mooresville at Gray Bros. Restaurant for dinner, and got home just after 8:00 p.m., all very tired, but it was a good day. 

The plan, subject to change, is that we are leaving Indiana on Monday.  But Joe has a challenge to get us out of here -- we have low tree limbs in front of us, and the alley dips too much for him to back out the way he came in.  With the overhang of the RV, he would bottom-out before he could get turned into the street.  So we don't know exactly what we have to do to get onto the street; hopefully, we won't take out any garages or trees, or lose any mirrors or air conditioners.  Otherwise, Joe M. and Cathy may have permanent visitors.