Dan's 2018 INDY 500 Photo Journal

DAN'S PHOTO JOURNALS

The race was not as exciting as the last several years – the
new cars do not seem to have the passing ability as the older
cars, at least at Indy. What few wrecks happened were usually
out of sight. I could see turns 1 and 2 and there were a few
incidents in T2, but none in T1.

I stood up and had a few smokes during the day. My cold
grapefruit beer sure tasted good!

I had sandwiches. ET forgot to bring any food in his cooler.
I gave him my Snickers and cheese.

I usually last the whole race without a trip to the rest room, but
did the big march this year.

There are race flags that are hung one at a time around all the
grandstands. One had come unfastened and fallen to my
seat bench upon my return. I figured if I didn't snag it, some
one else would. It makes a cool, one of a kind souvenir, and
now hangs alongside my Corvette flag from my garage door.
ET pondered how many races it had seen, after all, they are
only outside for a few weeks in May and probably a couple
of weekends for races such as the Brickyard 400, so it would
take a long time for them to wear out.

The 102nd Indianapolis 500
May 27, 2018

E.T. woke me up at 8:15 a.m. even though I wanted to keep
sleeping. He had already showered and eaten breakfast.

While it was 75°, it was supposed to get hot today.

Today, my friend Russ was going to drive us in his van.
He was bringing his oldest son Eddie.

They showed up at 9:15 a.m., but left to go get some stuff
as I wasn't ready to go. Once they returned, we left about
10:30 a.m.

Russ drove us downtown and cut through the IUPUI campus
and we ended up on 16th Street, about 1/2 mile east of the
Speedway bridge. Hm, this was a new path.

When the race was over, Russ and Eddie followed me out
of the stands and we headed back to the car.

Russ and I hopped a pedicab from the museum to our
parking spot and Russ’ big Chrysler van. The middle seats
and floor were missing as he uses this for his daughter's
wheel chair. So ET and I sat in the 3rd row.

Russ turned on the air conditioning while I sat outside in a
chair and smoked and drank. I hopped in the van some
times to cool off.

ET finally showed up.

ET stayed at the van while us other three went to the
garages. I think we had goofed around at the van too
long, arriving a little late, as cars and teams were packing
up and leaving.

Along the way, I stopped and peeked inside a big tent
where I saw lots of people at tables and a band playing
on a stage.

As we entered the garage area, we saw a group of race
cars from the race that were on display.

I got JR Hildebrands autograph on my race ticket.
He signed the back of it.

I ran into Henry there. He is a friend from Houston that
comes into town for every race. We had these garage
passes thanks to him!

Russ and I was tired and we left even though we had not
made it to the Penske garage. Their driver, Will Power,
won the race today.

Back at the van, I sat outside in the heat and talked to ET
while Eddie and Russ cooled off in the van.

As the traffic flowed, Russ decided to leave.

Back at my house, we unloaded the coolers and stuff.
I flipped Russ a $20 for driving. This may be the first time
that I haven't driven to the race. Then Russ and Eddie
left for home.

ET and I watched the race on TV. It was broadcast locally at
8pm. It officially got to 91° during the race.

Scott Dixon Finished 3rd

J.R. Hildebrands's nosecone shows 500 miles of rubber debris.
He finished 11th.
Below, he autographs my race ticket.

Teams packing up and leaving

ET remained behind at Russ's van.

Race Cars after the Indy 500

These female Sato fans must like bags.

Henry from Texas - a Baseball and Race Fan

Charlie Kimball's disassembled car. He finished 18th.

Sebastien Bourdais' team busy on car after race. He finished 28th.

Spencer Pigot's car heading to the transporter. He finished 20th.

Russ and Eddie

We didn't have to wait in traffic very long. After we pulled into the speedway, Russ went right, instead
of left. There wasn't an entrance to our lot, "5th & Hulman" open on that side. We were heading toward
the 3rd turn through a lot of pedestrian traffic, when he began a 3-point turn around. Some yellow shirt
came up to us and wondered what we were doing, stopping traffic.

We cut through the museum parking lot, where there were lots of open parking, but Russ was scared of
getting towed and wouldn't park there.

As we popped back out on Hulman to head north to our lot, E.T., who is always worried about being late,
jumped out of the van and headed to the stands by himself.

Our lot was basically full, but we grabbed a final open spot at
the furthest north spot.

We then made our way to our top row seats in the South Vista
Deck.

There is a new rule at the speedway - No Smoking in the
stands. I find this maddening. I'd quit smoking a year ago,
but E.T. got me smoking for race weekend. I had a smoke
while still on the ground before I walked up the stairs. Some
old female yellow shirt came over to tell me there was no
smoking in the stands. I wanted to tell her I was not in the
stands, but I was already done with the cigarette, so why
bother.

We three made it to our seats in time for some pre-race
festivities, joining ET.

I was happy to see the Stealth Bomber do a fly by. It's so cool.

It was a very hot day that got into the 90s. Often there was no
breeze. However, as soon as the race started, a cloud
blocked the sun for us for an hour. We would get further shade
throughout the rest of the race, as well as occasional wind, so
it wasn't too bad at all today.

AFTER THE RACE

E.T. - top row South Vista Deck

The Fly Over (36 seconds)

Balloon Release (1 minute)

The End of the Race (2 minutes & 22 seconds)

VIDEOS