I won't go into any more detail, but I really enjoyed the race, and I will be going back next year.
Coming in on 30th St., this view is a small taste of how big the Coke lot is. You can barely see the track in the background.
I don't know what was burning, but nobody seemed too concerned about it. Again, the track is in the background, and we were only about halfway between the west end and east end of the Coke lot. East is closer to the track, and the general direction of this photo.
Walking under the track to get to our seats on the inside.
View from our seats as we first got there, about 10:30am.
The Pagoda and the Purdue Marching Band...
Slash from Guns 'n Roses was given the celebrity treatment...
Gasoline Alley when they are taking the cars from the garages to the track is the worst bottleneck in the history of auto racing...Well, I'm not sure of that; it was the first race I've ever attended, aside from sprints and midgets.
See the Pacer logo on the car?
Another bit of evidence to support my case. I'm not complaining. It was awesome to experience and everyone was surprisingly nice. Not one single crappy comment was heard by me. That's not to say that I wasn't thinking a few to myself...
Danica's buddy...
Awesome car. Now belongs to Scott Dixon. Along with a top prize of $2.5 million.
Different view of the same car, obviously. I liked both shots!
The area of hospitality suites just south of the Pagoda and Gasoline Alley.
Our seats, with a few more people...during driver introductions...
This group of service men and women got a rousing ovation from each section they passed. They all got a ride around the track on a fleet of 130 (I think) pickup trucks...It was very moving...
Florence Henderson's rendition of 'God Bless America' brought tears to my eyes....because it sucked so much a$$.
My girl, Julianne Hough (Helio's winning partner on Dancing With The Stars, and new country singer) singing the National Anthem. Now THAT is how you sing. She did very well.
Little Kristi Yamaguchi got to wave the green flag. She looks tiny, but in fairness, the guy with the camera beside her is standing on a riser...
The flyover gave me goosebumps.
Goosebumps, I tell you...
I woulda got a sweet shot here, except.....I didn't. I'm sure that 4 megapixel point-and-shoot that she was wiggling and jiggling while trying to shoot got a SWEET shot...
The parade of 4 pace cars and the real pace car leading the field down the front straightaway out of turn 4.
Just the real pace car leading now, one more lap until the start!
Helio and Danica were the drivers I was pulling for...Sorry Danica, you got hosed. She did a nice job up to the point she got wrecked. It isn't the end of the world. She wasn't the first driver to be taken out through no fault of their own, and she won't be the last. I woulda been just as pissed as she was though.
FIRE! At least now that they burn 100% ethanol, you can actually SEE the flames....
D'oh.
Mr. Dixon, the eventual winner.
The safety and cleanup crews are second to none. They were impressive to watch all afternoon. Great job, fellas. (Not sure if there are any females; I would imagine there are. That wasn't meant to be derogatory.)
Back to racing! The green flag drops!
Everybody seemed to be pulling for Marco, and there were a ton of people freaking out when he had the lead. Gotta love the Indiana Jones car!
I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It was 80-82 degrees and sunny, with a nice breeze at times. It wasn't long sleeves weather. It wasn't winter vest weather. It CERTAINLY wasn't three layers of clothes, and being clad in all black from head-to-toe weather. This girl seemed like a wrestler trying to sweat down to make weight for a match that night or something. I was hot just looking at her wearing all that crap.
I had never heard of a car crashing and going so far down pit road. People were diving all over the place when they first saw the car coming...
It stopped almost right in front of us...I was lucky enough to be standing and looking that direction anyway when it happened!
The billboard was showing Danica stalking over to kick some a$$. We all thought we were gonna see a nice fight.
Nobody could catch Dixon...
My plan was to get a sweet shot of Dixon crossing the bricks with the checkered flag being waved...I followed him down the front straight, and apparently right when I focused the camera, Mr. Excitement pumped his fist and the camera focused on that instead. Sigh. Not really his fault...He was happy and having a good time. Frustrating, nonetheless.
This was more like what I was going for, but the checkered is now waving through the rest of the Top 10 rather than the winner...
Milka Duno waving to the crowd...
I thought the DirecTV blimp was gonna crash into the chopper...
Ah! Sweet victory lap!
The bank of photographers poised to capture Dixon kissing the yard of bricks...
A few more photos that were taken with my small pocket camera....
Another shot of the area between the rows of hospitality suites.
What kind of moron takes a 3 month old infant to the Indy 500? I wore earplugs and I'm a grown man. This was just irresponsible in my opinion. Dumba$$.
I had to have a shot of myself standing on the yard of bricks with the Pagoda! Awesome! Just love this shot!
This is what the infield looked like after it was laid to waste...The guy on the right is indicative of what the majority of the infield crowd looked and acted like about that time...
I think it was NaptownSeth who posted something about shaking his head at the morons trying to fight the pedestrian traffic on Georgetown while in a vehicle right after the race. This photo is for him. Damn, was he right! I'm glad we took his (and others) advice and parked farther away. No way we would've gotten out of there for HOURS.
Oh, I almost forgot! I got a video with my little camera of the entire field roaring by our seats down the front straightaway on about Lap 3. It is pretty cool! I uploaded it to youtube, but they killed the quality of it. Hope you still enjoy it. Crank up the sound and you can feel like you were actually THERE!
[yt]zMYb6F-wCu8[/yt]
Coming in on 30th St., this view is a small taste of how big the Coke lot is. You can barely see the track in the background.
I don't know what was burning, but nobody seemed too concerned about it. Again, the track is in the background, and we were only about halfway between the west end and east end of the Coke lot. East is closer to the track, and the general direction of this photo.
Walking under the track to get to our seats on the inside.
View from our seats as we first got there, about 10:30am.
The Pagoda and the Purdue Marching Band...
Slash from Guns 'n Roses was given the celebrity treatment...
Gasoline Alley when they are taking the cars from the garages to the track is the worst bottleneck in the history of auto racing...Well, I'm not sure of that; it was the first race I've ever attended, aside from sprints and midgets.
See the Pacer logo on the car?
Another bit of evidence to support my case. I'm not complaining. It was awesome to experience and everyone was surprisingly nice. Not one single crappy comment was heard by me. That's not to say that I wasn't thinking a few to myself...
Danica's buddy...
Awesome car. Now belongs to Scott Dixon. Along with a top prize of $2.5 million.
Different view of the same car, obviously. I liked both shots!
The area of hospitality suites just south of the Pagoda and Gasoline Alley.
Our seats, with a few more people...during driver introductions...
This group of service men and women got a rousing ovation from each section they passed. They all got a ride around the track on a fleet of 130 (I think) pickup trucks...It was very moving...
Florence Henderson's rendition of 'God Bless America' brought tears to my eyes....because it sucked so much a$$.
My girl, Julianne Hough (Helio's winning partner on Dancing With The Stars, and new country singer) singing the National Anthem. Now THAT is how you sing. She did very well.
Little Kristi Yamaguchi got to wave the green flag. She looks tiny, but in fairness, the guy with the camera beside her is standing on a riser...
The flyover gave me goosebumps.
Goosebumps, I tell you...
I woulda got a sweet shot here, except.....I didn't. I'm sure that 4 megapixel point-and-shoot that she was wiggling and jiggling while trying to shoot got a SWEET shot...
The parade of 4 pace cars and the real pace car leading the field down the front straightaway out of turn 4.
Just the real pace car leading now, one more lap until the start!
Helio and Danica were the drivers I was pulling for...Sorry Danica, you got hosed. She did a nice job up to the point she got wrecked. It isn't the end of the world. She wasn't the first driver to be taken out through no fault of their own, and she won't be the last. I woulda been just as pissed as she was though.
FIRE! At least now that they burn 100% ethanol, you can actually SEE the flames....
D'oh.
Mr. Dixon, the eventual winner.
The safety and cleanup crews are second to none. They were impressive to watch all afternoon. Great job, fellas. (Not sure if there are any females; I would imagine there are. That wasn't meant to be derogatory.)
Back to racing! The green flag drops!
Everybody seemed to be pulling for Marco, and there were a ton of people freaking out when he had the lead. Gotta love the Indiana Jones car!
I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It was 80-82 degrees and sunny, with a nice breeze at times. It wasn't long sleeves weather. It wasn't winter vest weather. It CERTAINLY wasn't three layers of clothes, and being clad in all black from head-to-toe weather. This girl seemed like a wrestler trying to sweat down to make weight for a match that night or something. I was hot just looking at her wearing all that crap.
I had never heard of a car crashing and going so far down pit road. People were diving all over the place when they first saw the car coming...
It stopped almost right in front of us...I was lucky enough to be standing and looking that direction anyway when it happened!
The billboard was showing Danica stalking over to kick some a$$. We all thought we were gonna see a nice fight.
Nobody could catch Dixon...
My plan was to get a sweet shot of Dixon crossing the bricks with the checkered flag being waved...I followed him down the front straight, and apparently right when I focused the camera, Mr. Excitement pumped his fist and the camera focused on that instead. Sigh. Not really his fault...He was happy and having a good time. Frustrating, nonetheless.
This was more like what I was going for, but the checkered is now waving through the rest of the Top 10 rather than the winner...
Milka Duno waving to the crowd...
I thought the DirecTV blimp was gonna crash into the chopper...
Ah! Sweet victory lap!
The bank of photographers poised to capture Dixon kissing the yard of bricks...
A few more photos that were taken with my small pocket camera....
Another shot of the area between the rows of hospitality suites.
What kind of moron takes a 3 month old infant to the Indy 500? I wore earplugs and I'm a grown man. This was just irresponsible in my opinion. Dumba$$.
I had to have a shot of myself standing on the yard of bricks with the Pagoda! Awesome! Just love this shot!
This is what the infield looked like after it was laid to waste...The guy on the right is indicative of what the majority of the infield crowd looked and acted like about that time...
I think it was NaptownSeth who posted something about shaking his head at the morons trying to fight the pedestrian traffic on Georgetown while in a vehicle right after the race. This photo is for him. Damn, was he right! I'm glad we took his (and others) advice and parked farther away. No way we would've gotten out of there for HOURS.
Oh, I almost forgot! I got a video with my little camera of the entire field roaring by our seats down the front straightaway on about Lap 3. It is pretty cool! I uploaded it to youtube, but they killed the quality of it. Hope you still enjoy it. Crank up the sound and you can feel like you were actually THERE!
[yt]zMYb6F-wCu8[/yt]
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