Indy 500 in the Rearview: By the Numbers
The Indianapolis 500 has come and gone—and what a race it was—and the figures are in. Here’s a rundown of important numbers from this latest installment in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”:
A. Sorry, bug-o-phobes, the threat posed by these tiny home invaders is not, like a lice infestation, all in our heads. The problem is so widespread that the Marion County Public Health Department actually has a full-time “bedbug guy,” Larry Lobdell, traveling the county offering tips on keeping the pests out of homes, apartment buildings, and hotels.
When you’re a reporter, you’re supposed to keep fandom to yourself. Cheering (and, sadly, beer) is frowned upon in sporting-arena press boxes. There’s never a sign telling you not to; you’re just supposed to know, much the same as no sign tells you to wear pants in public. It’s okay to be breathless in your description of high sports drama, so long as the excitement is not tied to one side in the contest. And you’re not supposed to fawn over the competitors (a dictum many of ESPN’s reporters and commentators seem to have lain aside, but I digress).
On Sunday night, close to 12 miles away from the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, another spectacle played out at a more-modest racetrack across town: the First Annual United States Figure 8 Championship 90-minute World Figure 8 Enduro race at Indianapolis Speedrome (802 S. Kitley Ave.), on the edge of the eastside Irvington neighborhood.
Top Indy 500 drivers—and their fans and arm candy—descended on downtown’s Sensu late Sunday night for the “Big Finish” party. First-time 500 driver Wade Cunningham hosted the affair, where dance songs zoomed by as uproariously as an Indy car, and where the day’s big winner himself elected to celebrate race night.
It was a race to remember, with Indianapolis 500 darling Dario Franchitti winning his third Borg-Warner Trophy and embracing both his wife, actress Ashley Judd, and his friend Dan Wheldon’s widow, Susie, with warmth to match the day’s second-hottest temperatures on record, 91 degrees.
The sun-drenched and sweaty masses came out for international DJ and electronic artist Benny Benassi in this morning’s Snake Pit, that patch of grass in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Turn 3 infield where revelers take in thumping beats and cans of beer.
On the heels of their star turns in the 500 Festival parade today, celebrities in for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” took to the checkered carpet outside the Indiana Roof Ballroom. On the docket: the 2012 Snakepit Ball, with headlining performer Rick Springfield.
