DAN'S PHOTO JOURNALS
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20th Running of the
Brickyard 400
July 28, 2013
The Miller Lite Party Deck is a party area that sits by
itself in the infield of the 4th Turn.  It has been around
now for several years and used at both the Indy 500
and the Brickyard 400.

Using an old large restroom building, a enforced roof
and a staircase has been installed and most of the
inside has been cleared out to make room for a bar
that serves beer and soft drinks.  Part of the old
women's restroom remains which means the mens'
side does not have urinals.

In addition, a music stage, sand volleyball court and
corn-hole game has been set up.

Lawn chairs are scattered about, but not enough for the
crowd that attends.  Attendance requires a special
pass and entitles you to some pizza and 3 beers.  Soft
drinks are free.  I have never figured out how to get a
pass, but this year found some on eBay for $75 which
included the $30 general admission ticket.  I bought two.
The Fox News stage
near the 4th turn infield.
The Miller Lite Party Deck is ran by girls.

Here is the entrance where you trade your pass for
a wristband and tickets for pizza, chips and beer.
People played volley ball through out the day.
Michie and I left my house at 11:30 and took
I-65 to 30th Street.  There was still room to park
for free in the back of the North 40, but I pulled
into the street just east of it and parked further
south toward the track in someone's yard to save
some walking.

Temperature was around 70 degrees.
Once inside the track, we
hired a pedicab to take us
over to the Party Deck

(I wish I'd had bills smaller
than $20 as the pedicab
and the parking price was
left up to me.)
This is the top of the party deck.
Shade and chairs were provides as were two
beer bars. It provided a decent view of the track.

The chairs were all taken and after I got tired of
standing,  we went back downstairs to the ground.
Once we moved to ground level, we got lucky
and grabbed a couple lounge chairs.

Due to the inside wall, we could only see the
top of the stock cars go by.

We finally turned our chairs around and just
watched the jumbotron TV.
The US Gov't stopped providing fly-overs this year,
so the speedway has to hire plane owners.

This year's flyover was this lone WWII B-25 bomber.
Once the race cars got strung out around the
course, the constant drone of their loud
engines was annoying to me.

The band was good and helped drown it out
if you got close enough.  So I wanted to move
there, but Michie wanted to try some other
areas.  She also was kind of cold and wished
she'd brought a jacket.  There were lots of
clouds today.  I got sunburned though
We hiked to the nearby Tower Terrace and
watched some pit stops.  It was a MUCH
better spot to see some action.
We left the Tower Terrace to check out a gift shop.
The simple jackets were $100.  The cheapest
T-shirt was $15.  The only thing I bought were a
pair of ear plugs.

These stock cars are super loud and you really
need ear protection!

The Nascar boys use these pit lane garages
instead of the IndyCar garages.  They have it
all fenced off.
There did not appear to be much passing
and I didn't see any wrecks.  Seemed like
a pretty fast and boring race.

The pole winner, Ryan Newman, won the
race, beating out Jimmie Johnson.

Here is the smoke as Newman does a
victory burn-out by the finish line.
As we were walking back to my car, this guy
was posing.  Don't know who he is, but he
looks like he had a good time.

We had no traffic trouble going to or leaving
the track today.  

We dropped the top and went downtown
where we ate at the Old Spagetti Factory.
View from atop the Party Deck.
The race was over at least by 4 pm.  
It had started after 1 pm.

We were lucky and found another pedicab
to take us down to the north exit.