Jay and Betty drove up from Alabama yesterday to join E.T. and I in going to the race. The weather was perfect race morning. Instead of leaving early, they listened to me and we took our time getting to Speedway. The traffic was settled and we drove right in with no traffic and parked in the coke lot.
Evidence of massive partying was in every direction. These folks set up a stage and even brought a pool table!
If these guys would drink something stronger than lite beer, maybe there wouldnt' be an aluminum shortage.
These guys were doing beer bongs inside the gates.
We got to our seats in plenty of time for all the special pre-race music. Reggie Miller waved the Green Flag. He just retired from an 18 year career with the Indiana Pacers NBA team.
We were sitting in the 4th turn (Stand J, Sect 20, Row P)
Finally the cars line up in formation for the parade lap.
While we could see the 4th turn well, we could not see the cars as they screamed down the main straight.
As usual, we pick two drivers and bet $10. After E.T.s 1st pick crashed out, he agreed to my suggestion that we raise the bets to $20.
I had Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, both of which were leading the first 165 laps...
E.T.'s other pick was Dan Wheldon. Go figure.
Note to people with auto-focus cameras: if you have seats behind the fences, make sure your camera is not focusing on the fence!
Most crashes occurred over in turns 1 and 2. Here is Jeff Bucknum climbing out of his car. He seemed pleased with himself for just being in the Indy 500.
Here is a photo from the 1969 Indy 500 of Ronnie Bucknum:
What does this company do? Make bells? ;-)
This was a tremendous race! With 25 laps to go, everyone in the whole place was on their feet until the end. Danica Patrick was leading and it looked like she might win! Holy Cow! This excited most everyone. I on the other hand discovered I was not too happy at the prospect that some 23 y/o rookie could come in and win. While she had fantastic luck this day to have made it to the end, surviving a stall in the pits, a wheel contact and also a spin that took out half a dozen guys, she was to finish fourth.
Dan Wheldon, who has been on a winning streak this year, won the 89th Indianapolis 500. Danica's teammmate, Vitor Meira, finished a close second.
Wheldon started doing donuts in celebration, filling the stands up with tire smoke, but then he ran out of gas! This old guy started slowly pushing him toward victory lane. No one came out to help push!
On his victory parade lap, Dan was joined by the Andretti Green teamowners: Kevin Savoree, Kim Green and Michael Andretti.
We had passes to go to the garages, but didn't want to do the hike or fight the crowds, so we hung out in the stands until they were about deserted.
I later learned that the Teutles from "American Chopper" were here today. I'd like to meet them. Some other celebs included Russel Crowe and Cheech Marin.
We looked in some souvenir booths across Georgetown Rd. I found a nice Dale Earnhardt Jr buttondown shirt for just $15. Some guy sold me a 500 shirt for $5.
Jay wanted to hike down and see his Michigan Tech buddies who were camped out down the street.
"Hey! Its time to go! Enough with the beer bongs already!" :-)
These guys have not taken "chemistry 101" yet. Amongst the things in this fire was a bowlng ball, a paint can and computer monitors.
I have no idea what these bras all strung out are supposed to represent.
Driving the big rig to the race...
We came home and cooked out. Jeff and his race friends came over for awhile. The race was blacked out in Indy, but was telecast at 8 p.m. We watched the F1 race that I'd recorded. Fernando Alonso won.
I watched the awards ceremony the next night on CBS. Danica Patrick won the Indy 500 JPMorgan Chase Rookie Award trophy. Andretti Green won over 2 million dollars in prize money. I hope to attend this one year.
