Sunday August 27, 2000
Brian accompanied me to the Belterra Resort and Casino 300 today. The Kentucky Speedway is a new track that opened this year and is nestled a little south of Indiana in Kentucky, between Cincinatti and Louisville. It is 1.5 miles around this tri-oval. It is kind of sunk down into the hilly Kentucky countryside and it's curves are pretty flat compared to most Nascar ovals. This year, Nascar trucks and Arca are also racing at this facility.
The speedway currently contains 65,000 seats. About 55,000 seats were sold for today's IRL race, which is a good number for Indy Cars these days. By the time Brian and I got parked, walked a mile up to the speedway and got settled in our seats, it was time for the national anthem. They launched some fireworks that were like bombs, during the National Anthem at the appropriate moment.
Tickets were priced $30, $40, and $50 for seats in the general grandstand. We payed $50 each and got to sit on the top row. In these two photos, you can see the view of the stands from my seat, looking left, and then, looking to the right.
Thankfully, it had been overcast all day, however it was very muggy and there was zero wind, so it was still a little uncomfortably warm.
Before the race started, there was a small aerobatic show in the air by a half dozen WWII fighter planes. They looked like P-51 Mustangs to me.
Even though this track has fairly flat corners, the IRL cars can scream around it. Scott Goodyear qualified on the pole in the 119's! There were qualifiers at this years 2.5 mile Indy 500 who qualified at 118 mph.
Soon they were ready to go and the speedway was filled with the very loud IRL cars as the greenflag dropped. You could not hear the speaker system at this track at all during the race. I highly recommend bringing radio headphones to this place.
Scott Goodyear very quickly got passed by Eliseo Salizar, who started 2nd, and by Jeret Schroeder. However, they got tangled up on the 2nd lap and both hit the wall throwing debri all over the place. A wheel went flying into Little Al and he hit the wall, badly bruising his leg. Luckily, no one else was hurt. It brought out the longest yellow of the day.
Scott Goodyear led the most laps today. His car obviously did not handle well in traffic though. He would lose his momentum severely when he hit dirty air. Its amazing he mananged to bring it home second today.
Sam Hornish, Jr. charged out of the gate today and in no time had taken the lead. He had an absolutely awesome car this afternoon. Unfortunately for him, his car ran out of fuel while leading, and then he was black-flagged for passing the Pace Car on the exit of the pits after a hurried stop. He lost a lap but still raced back to finish ninth.
Jimmy Kite also had a very strong car today and led 16 laps when his engine failed on lap 156 of 200. Sarah Fisher, 19, did well today, finishing in 4th and more importantly, missed the wall all day. Goodyear remarked, "I've never been on the podium with someone who couldn't legally drink."
Buddy Lazier was also very competitive and held off Scott Goodyear to win the race and retain his lead in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series championship.
This was a very fun race and I look forward to coming back next year.
The Kentucky girls alone, are worth the trip!
We decided to take the scenic route back. We were lost most of the time and it took us 3 times as long, but the rolling countryside of southern Indiana is a beautiful thing!
We eventually drove through a town called Greensburg. We had to stop and take a picture of their courthouse, for a tree was growing out of the top of it!!
