Indy 500

Last weekend I went to my first Indy 500.
I am not a big racing fan but I have won my Fantasy NASCAR league.
The track is so much bigger than I had expected, only by walking into the infield do you get a sense of just how big it is. Even then the cars make a lap in about 45 sec at 200mph (they reached 222 mph).

The race started and at first I was a bit disappointed:

Then I found out they do 2 slow laps before they actually start racing:

The sound is very impressive and walking along the wall you get very disoriented as they go by.
Everyone ended up being safe so I can say it was neat to have 2 wrecks right in front of us. It is crazy to think that these drivers survive at 200 mph when the first casualty of a car accident was hit at 4 mph.

As a new type of sporting event for me, the main thing I really enjoyed was being able to bring your own cooler. Rachel's Dad packed some sandwiches and drinks. At first I thought this was a very American, Non Commercial, gesture by racing to let you bring your own stuff but I imagine the logistics of trying to feed 400,000 people would be impossible.

The only downside to racing is despite 400,000 people you feel somewhat isolated. The sounds and earplugs make casual conversation impossible. During a yellow flag when they slow down most people take out their ear plugs and start talking.

The strategy of Indy racing also interested me. From casual NASCAR experience I know teammates like to draft off each other. However in this race the first 2 cars were on the same team and they never drafted each other. In fact after yellow flags the #2 car would drop back quite a bit from the #1 car. I figured this could only be true if the Indy cars were so aerodynamic that drafting was irrelevant. And the #2 car was just trying to keep the #3 car back off the #1 car to prevent him from being passed in a restart.

It was a good day and a must see event like the Kentucky Derby.