What Happened at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Our plan was to leave on Thursday, but because we had been so antsy to go and we were abruptly woken at 5am with a passing thunder storm on Wednesday morning we thought we would just get an early start and head partway to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Instead, we drove almost 400 miles and made it just a little over 30 miles away.


Looking back, it was the best decision since the weather would have been wicked on our path for Thursday…Can you say following your gut for the best outcome? We are getting so much better at doing just that!

Thursday morning we got another early start, with a quick stop at WalMart to fill up a few empty spaces with necessities and off to the track we went. This WalMart was about 11 miles from the track and it had all sorts of souvenirs. It was hard for us not to buy the entire department but we managed to get out with only a few purchases that saved us bundles over the track prices. We still have a few more purchases at the track we will need to do.

We spoke to a representative the day before to confirm where our tickets and camping passes were located. We always leave them at Will Call since we are concerned about them meeting up with us by snail mail and some of the tracks leave them at the camping gates, while others like this one leave them at the main ticket office. The rep explained that there was not ample room for us to park our motorhome in the area designated to pick up our tickets so she said that she would send only the camping passes to the camping gate and we would have to find a way to get our other tickets. We were good with that except for when we arrived at our camping lot...


The camping passes were not there, so we had phone and radio communications for awhile until it was resolved. Instead of us being inconvenienced for all that time, the very nice man (Keith) at the gate once seeing our email confirmation decided to allow us to get situated until the office figured out where our passes were located. We were just about setup before they got our passes to us…they apparently sent them to the wrong camping location.


Usually we boondock at the races, but Indianapolis Motor Speedway offered for an additional $150, an electric hookup…we are so happy we paid the extra, it has been steaming hot since we arrived and running our a/c all day has been the norm. Thank goodness to the wonderful rep on the phone with us back in January that knew the best areas for first timers like us. This camping area worked out the best for us, it is just feet from the gate we need to enter to reach our seats.


We spent all day Friday at the track and walked miles. We enjoyed watching practice…what an intense rush with the cars on the track, we were under the tunnel at one point and that was awesome to hear them right above us and feel the vibrations. On the infield they also had a Vintage and Stock Car Show going on with so many different types of really cool looking cars.


All of this and more for one low cost of $10 per person.

Learning about the history, both good and difficult times of this most magnificent track is such a great experience. By paying an additional $5 each to visit the Hall of Fame Museum did exactly that for us.



Usually when we go into these sort of places, we have learned to go our separate ways since we tend to enjoy lingering at certain places and walking right by others very different from one another.



We met up at the little theater area and watched the film of the tracks beginnings and everything in between. If you ever get to the Hall of Fame Museum be sure not to miss watching the 20 minute documentary.


Saturday’s events include practice and qualifying and cost $15 per person, but if you paid $1 for the local newspaper you get a coupon for a two for one tickets price, what a deal!

All of this leading to the main event, the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. We got our tickets back in January when we got our camping passes, our seats were located in the Tower Terrace, Section 51, Row HH, Seats 19 & 20 and what great seats they were. We were on the infield above the pit stalls IN THE SHADE…who would have known it back in January that we would be needing all that shade with the excruciating highs for the weekend…but we did and it was marvelous.


Now…put all 43 cars on the track all racing for the start/finish line and that was extremely a wild rush. Because the track is 2 ½ miles around, there was silence for a few seconds…then the rush of them all coming by again was once again intense. It was a magnificent experience and we also loved that Paul Menard was the winner. We have our favorite drivers and then we have some that we just respect and like for many other reasons, he is one of those guys that we were able to enjoy his first win ever.


We took so many photos, to check them all out go to our Picasa Web Albums.