An estimated 100,000 fans – the largest in Carb Day history- piled into Indianapolis Motor Speedway today to keep the 100th running of the Indy 500 festivities rolling under blue skies and sweltering heat. It felt like Indiana was celebrating a class reunion behind the 10-floor IMS pagoda.
There were a couple of things on the agenda today for the #InsideIndy itinerary:
• Get a better idea of how the Verizon Indy Car Series pulls together the technology behind the event, specifically the IndyCar app
• Watch the pit crew Carb Day competition – won, again, by Helio Castroneves’ team, his 9th at Indy
• Go inside the race hub production trucks to get a look at the control room where the Verizon Indy App is fed with live footage from four cars
• Mingle with some of the 100k fans who came to Carb Day, some of which were there for the Journey show in the massive outdoor stadium constructed by turn 4
Carb Day observations:
• Lots of vacation days burnt across Indianapolis
• Yard parking about a mile or so from the track was $10, a serious bargain for the proximity
• One house was advertising a biscuits & gravy breakfast for $3…walkups welcome…a seriously good deal for those who didn’t bring enough food
• It appears the real deal houses to yard park your campers at have gas station ice freezers
• Custom novelty shirts are huge at Indy…these people really like to make statements (more on that later)
• IMS has done a tremendous job of making the day into a giant party atmosphere where there are multiple events going on with very little downtime; the place was loaded with the 21-40 crowd
• Example: It went from Indy 500 practice, to an Indy Lights (think Triple-A baseball) race, to the pit stop competition — which included a DJ spinning to keep the fans jacked — and that led to the concerts featuring Neal Schon opening for Journey
Graham Rahal vs. Charlie Kimball
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That’s me kissing the bricks on my first Carb Day:
I'll probably frame this one pic.twitter.com/J6qJhKRJUl
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) May 27, 2016
Getting a look inside the Verizon Indy Car Series production control rooms:
It was impossible to have a bad time at Carb Day:
Whoa, we're half way there #InsideIndy pic.twitter.com/LzdK5FcoLj
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) May 27, 2016
And that’s a wrap from Carb Day. If it hasn’t been on your bucket list, add it.
@bustedcoverage pic.twitter.com/o7mRgVyJ6N
— GG (@patrickgg) May 27, 2016
