We left Muncie at 2:30pm and drove through a wall of water. We hit literally zero traffic. We turned directly onto Georgetown Rd and parked on a side street for $15 half a mile from our gate in turn 4. A very very fortunate set of circumstances we purely lucked into.
Walking to the track was a collection of the brave and weary who had been there all day, slowly descending on the speedway. A trickle turned into a flow which turned into a massive stream of race fans. It was happening. We hade it up to our seats in the top of the H stand coming out of turn 4. I was shocked at how full the place was.
The pre-race was spectacular. To give a sense for how big the place is, when the military was shooting the blanks, we could see the puff of smoke from the shot and it was a solid 3-4 seconds before you could finally hear the pop reverberate. I teared up during the anthem. And of course Back Home Again in Indiana. I thought about all the racing I'd consumed in my life and the roughly 100 tracks I've been to. I am blessed to love this unique sport. And now, you could hear a pin drop as I was about to take in my first undisputed pinnacle of motorsports.
What a place to take in a race. Every restart was pure chaos. It was so fun as from our vantage we could see where drivers were making their first moves of stepping out of line in turn 4. I've never seen so much 3 and 4 wide racing in an Indy 500. The crowd absolutely ate it up. We were on the edge of our seats the entire time. At the finish there was a literal roar I have never heard at any other sporting event. We were up there still hooting and hollering well after the cool down lap had finished. An amazing finish to an amazing race. I wish Pato could've gotten it but Newgarden absolutely earned it with the move. That was a thing of beauty.
Again, not sure how, but we lucked into a mere 15 minutes of extra traffic on the way home.
The Indianapolis 500 was more than I could've dreamed of. You can feel how special the grounds are. Nobody ever got an "easy" 500 win. They have always been driven on the absolute edge. Watching Herta and Powder wreck on their own with great cars.... seeing engine failures.... the spirt of this event is still what it was 100 years ago. All while the competition and racing quality has only been on an increase through its history.
The last 10ish years have been a new golden era for the 500. I am so happy to have seen this event at what is one of its peaks and not valleys. What...a...race!
