The Indy 500 was amazing!!!
We would have loved to see a shootout between Josef Newgarden and Carlos Munoz, but it came down to really amazing fuel strategy by Alexander Rossi. It may not have been the side by side for the win finish that we were expecting, but we got plenty of excitement during the race!
In the opening ceremonies, 'Back Home Again in Indiana' was sung by Josh Kaufman. He sounded really good but we're still getting used to not having Jim Nabors sing it like he had for so many years.
The bald eagle that was released during a song was a really neat touch, it was really beautiful. We got to see it up close when it was being taken through the crowd earlier in the morning and it had a little mask over it's eyes so that it didn't get upset around all the people.
We parked in the Speedway Trails parking a few blocks from the track. It was the first time in years that we didn't park inside the track, because although we had a pass we didn't want to wait in the extra long line of traffic to get inside this year. It was good because instead of getting up at 4:00 we actually slept in till 4:45 and were able to easily get to the track from downtown by 6:15.
We got our 100th anniversary milk that was being handed out by the Indiana Dairy Association and kept it in our coolers till after the race when we drank it while Alexander Rossi was drinking his milk in Victory Circle.
It was 81 degrees, so we were hot, but luckily there were some dark clouds that gave us a break once in a while and thanks to our 100 SPF suntan lotion we didn't even burn a bit. The same could not be said for many of the people sitting around us. :)
The one-hundredth running definitely had, as Mario Andretti said, more pizzazz. The stands were packed with people no matter where you looked and the grounds were teeming with fans whenever we ventured down from our seats. You could feel the extra excitement in the air during every moment of the race.
The Program was $25 for the 100th running, but was by far my favorite one that I've ever read. (and we have a lot, some dating back to the 60's). It had all the drivers and all the Indy 500 winners dating back to 1911, plus tons of different facts and articles. It's really cool, and really thick, so I am still trying to finish reading through it.
The pre-race activities were especially fun this year, too. The video about the history and progression of the most famous words in motorsport was really neat, and all the old cars and driver legends that they had on the track. We were in our seat from 8:30 until after Alexander made his victory lap and kissed the bricks because there was constantly something going on to watch!
The day after the race we went back to the Speedway to renew our tickets for next year!
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