I went to the Brickyard 400 yesterday with M, my cousin, and his daughter. It was hot. Brutally hot. I’m pretty sure sitting on metal bleachers in 93 degree heat and no breeze must be what walking on the surface of the sun would be like. Though the surface of the sun might be a bit cooler.
I’ve been to races before, I never really “got” it. Cousin is in to the whole auto racing thing and kept informing me of the details which helped me get more from the race. Generally I enjoy the ridiculous people watching (pregnant women in hot pants and string bikini tops…check!) but this time I learned about why changing tires, conserving gas, and overall strategy matter. His daughter, my God daughter, had never really been to a race before and was semi-delirious from the heat.
“Chris,” she asked “Is it 400 laps or 400 miles???”
I honestly didn’t know and was horrified for the moment that it might be 400 laps, as we had just sat there for well over 45 minutes and had only reached lap 52. If there were 400 laps, I was going to have to think about slitting my wrists with a beer bottle. But I wiped the sweat from my face/arms/neck/legs did the math and figured it was about 400 miles – 160 laps. (Hell, I was new…what did I know???)
I told her this and she blurted out, “I’m so hot! When will this be DONE?”
“Hm, well, it’s 160 laps and we’ve been here for 45 minutes and they’ve done about 50 laps…,” I pondered. “Wait God daughter…how old are you?
“I’m 14,” she said.
“Well, let’s see…so, that means we’ll leave here when you’re about 35.”
I found that incredibly amusing but she was no longer listening…her attention stolen as an old man with a mullet and a “Born to be Wild” back tattoo walked past us.
Our section was friendly, loud and neon red by the time the race was done. As we wearily walked back to the car, people had set up sprinklers that we ran through to cool off. There were people selling tee shirts for $5 and water for $1 but by then all we could think about was air conditioning. If they had been trying to sell air conditioning “Sit in this house for five minutes – just $10!!!” I seriously would have considered that.
I think I’d go back to the race. I just hope that maybe there are more races in cool weather…I think I’ve run out of sweat for the summer.
Tags: indiana
