Latest / Life According to Brian and Jason / #32 - Getting Schooled at the Indy 500: Rookie Lessons and Last-Minute Saves

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#32 - Getting Schooled at the Indy 500: Rookie Lessons and Last-Minute Saves · Life According to Brian and Jason

0:09
All right friends welcome to another episode of life according to brian and
0:15
jason hey jason what's on your mind dude i want to know what lessons were learned at indie.
0:24
I got schooled man that's what I have to tell you as a total novice showing up,
0:31
you got to do your homework friends so I
0:35
will help you understand how you deal with 350,000 people all coming to one
0:42
event and our preface is that you do you are a man of homework and scholarship
0:48
you did do some planning and are you telling it
0:52
Didn't or did not quite measure up or what? Well, well,
0:56
The part I did the planning on, actually, that part worked out.
1:00
The part I didn't think about was how to get into Indy with the crowds.
1:06
And so let me start at the beginning, and I'll paint you a picture.
1:10
How about that? Sounds good.
1:12
I knew parking was going to be a problem.
1:15
You know, just that many people trying to park a car to go to a one-day event
1:22
with 350,000 people, right?
1:24
So what we did is we camped at the drag strip.
1:31
There's a big NHRA drag strip about eight miles away. And they have what's called
1:37
a Race View family campground.
1:39
And it was great. Nice grass, trees.
1:43
And, but man, you're just like sardine in there, but you're with racing fans.
1:48
So we camped with our truck and our rooftop tent.
1:51
And we got the bikes out and we thought, oh, man,
1:54
we're going to be the only ones biking there because there's a rails to trails
1:58
bike path quarter mile from the campground that goes straight into almost the
2:05
front gate of Indy. Very close.
2:07
And so I had that all researched out.
2:10
Nope. There was a lot of other people in that campground had the same vibe.
2:14
And so Tannis and I hopped on our bikes and there was just a little bit of road
2:19
riding. And then once you got to the path.
2:21
It was just a pleasure-filled ride, just 3% grade, pretty much downhill on that one end.
2:29
And we're just riding in the trees. Other people are going to Indy. They had the vibe.
2:36
And then it starts to get into, people start tailgating along the bike path.
2:42
There was kind of some parking as you got closer.
2:45
And you had to kind of start walking your bike in certain sections.
2:49
And then a family of four showed up.
2:53
They'd been to Indy before. They were riding their bikes.
2:56
And so we just asked them at a stoplight, hey, can we just follow you?
3:00
Because you know what you're doing. They're like, sure, come on.
3:03
So we found our front door, man. We found these people and they were super cool
3:09
and they just led us through the traffic.
3:12
And then we were looking for the same thing. We were looking for the bike racks.
3:17
And so Tana's found them. And so there was a fundraiser for a bike program that
3:23
you could pay money and lock it inside.
3:26
But we didn't have a reservation for that. So that was a little piece of research I didn't do.
3:32
Or you could lock them up to a fence. And so we went with the fence.
3:35
And so, yeah, we had our bike locked. So we made it to Indy.
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We're like, look at that.
3:40
It's only 1030. Race doesn't start till 1240.
3:44
Great. All right. So let's go in through the front gate.
3:49
So we're standing in line and, you know, there's, you know, it's a big crowd
3:54
and so you're not moving.
3:56
And it's hot and you're sweating. It's not moving. It's not moving.
4:01
So I'm like, I made the rookie mistake. Let's go to the next gate.
4:06
You know, let's go from gate one over to, I don't know, gate three or something.
4:12
You know, start working our way around because we're at the front gate,
4:16
which is basically turn two for any reference. Well, sorry, turn one.
4:22
And that goes into turn two. We're in turn three.
4:25
So that means we're at turn one. And we're in the opposite side of the complex, the raceway.
4:34
Well, it's a two and a half mile oval inside of the stadium.
4:40
Unfathomable. Yeah, you're just like, okay. So I'm like, well,
4:43
let's go down to turn four, come around to turn three. Sound logical, right?
4:50
So we get to the next gate. And I'm like, oh, the line's not long.
4:53
And then another guy's like, oh, the line starts over here. like double back on itself.
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I'm like, Oh, that's longer than the front.
5:01
Let's just keep going down. It's got to get thinner as we go.
5:06
Nope. We get to the gate 10 down at the far end of turn four.
5:12
Nope. That's where one of the biggest parking lots is. And the intersection
5:17
of this street was shut down and we're all just standing in the intersection waiting to get in.
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And so once again, we found a family. We're just chatting it up with race fans.
5:27
Everyone's cool, though. Everyone's fun.
5:31
A lot of drinking going on. A lot of sweating. And found another family with
5:36
a big stroller with two kids in it and one little kid walking.
5:40
And we're talking to them. So we're just following them.
5:42
We just followed the family. They knew what they're doing. They had race shirts
5:45
on, you know, they had McLaren.
5:48
Everyone's decked out in McLaren gear as a family. So we're chatting.
5:52
Of course, you're attracted to them. You're like, oh, let's go on.
5:55
So we finally get in and it's like 45 minutes to the flag drops.
6:00
We're in the gate, you know, through security, you know, all that.
6:04
So we're like, no problem. We just have to get around to turn three and you're
6:09
still walking and you're still walking. and you're still walking and,
6:14
And all of a sudden it's like 1220 and we're like, oh, we're still not,
6:18
you know, now we're stuck in the bathroom line because by then we got to go to the bathroom.
6:23
Right. And so now the bathroom lines, 400 people long.
6:27
So we're like, pass that bathroom, pass that bathroom.
6:32
You know, finally we start kind of getting towards our area and I'm looking
6:37
at my watch and I'm already at 7000 steps.
6:41
You know that doesn't include the eight mile bike ride and i'm like oh yeah
6:45
dude you know i'm already at 7 000 steps just to get to the restroom and uh
6:50
finally we find the right restroom,
6:53
jen and now we're like trying to find our tickets well we finally found our
6:57
section they're doing the national anthem you know the jets are flying overhead
7:02
we're like uh and then we gotta see it but you can see it oh yeah now now we're
7:07
yeah so we saw we're walking up and we find our row And of course we're in the middle, you know,
7:12
we've got to have scoot around everyone, but everyone's cool.
7:15
You know, we're helping you and we get our seats and man. Yeah.
7:21
Just the parade laps going around. So what that means is there's 33 cars,
7:28
11 rows, three wide. You got the pace car.
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They're just the first lap is like super chill.
7:35
And they fly military helicopters over the cars next to the race fans.
7:40
I mean, you're like seeing straight into the helicopter. They're that low.
7:44
Like, you're up in the stands. Very cool.
7:47
You know, they got the whole big screens going on in the infield.
7:52
So you can see everything that's going on. So we just made it. I mean, we left at...
7:57
Nine o'clock that morning, we thought three hours, 40 minutes just to get to our seat.
8:03
We can do it. We did it just barely.
8:06
And that wasn't without finding help. And that's the lesson learned is when
8:12
you're a rookie, you're a novice, you don't know what you're doing.
8:15
Just find someone that seems to know what they're doing and just see if they can help you.
8:19
And we just we found our angels every time. Yeah, everyone's cool.
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Yeah. I mean, everyone's excited.
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Yeah. and then the people around us this
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is the second glorious part i did not expect this
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i knew race fans are cool i've been around a lot of races but indie
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fans are something special the people
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behind us decked out in jerseys sounded like
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they come every year this is like their section and it's
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been coming for years and and the seats are a
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little tight you know and so we're
8:51
a little we're a little sandwiched in there and this lady's like
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i got long legs and she just she like taps me
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on the shoulder she goes i'm just gonna be kicking you all day because
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you know i'm tall and so that kind of started off
9:02
a fun conversation and then the dude next
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to them he had huge binoculars and he
9:08
starts asking me who you got who you got so i
9:11
told him who was i was you know finding and then
9:14
we had kids down on the other side of tannis you
9:18
know they're partying a little bit more but they weren't obnoxious you
9:21
know you get those sports obnoxious fans that drink all day and they say the
9:25
wrong thing no they were cool and then you know the person next to me was a
9:31
young kid he's big race fan he bought collectible memorabilia there was in a
9:37
bag down there and so him and i got to talk and he was.
9:41
Ferrucci Santino fan and so
9:45
yeah so it was just everyone was so nice
9:48
and everyone's locked in I mean
9:51
they that it's not like you show up and
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no one's paying attention everyone is cued
9:58
in what's going on on the track you had the big
10:00
screen which thank god they have two
10:03
big screens for you to watch because that course is so
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big there's no way you're seeing the start
10:10
finish line there's no way you're seeing turn two we
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had the view of the straight out of turn two
10:17
if you stood up you could see them coming around and we
10:20
are at the end of the straight going into turn
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three they're hitting about 220 miles as
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they're coming past you i mean it was so fast and so impressive and then they
10:32
hit go into that turn turn three you could see them in the short shoot between
10:38
turn three and four you can see just a little bit of turn four and then they you know disappear and,
10:44
I, what a race. I mean, they had a couple of red flags.
10:48
So what that means, they had to shut the race down. They had,
10:51
we were dealing with a little bit of rain in a few accidents.
10:55
And then the fans all just start chatting with each other. Loved it.
10:59
It's just such a nice race culture. I would go back to that again. Easy.
11:04
So. Okay. Well, I got two questions on top of everything. Okay.
11:08
What swag did you get? If any.
11:10
None. I did none. No. You are steel-clad.
11:16
You didn't get the dude's got stuff next to you.
11:20
He's got memorabilia. Everyone's wearing their shirt. You didn't? You're like, no, no, no.
11:25
Okay, well, all right, way to go. And then what about food? Did you just eat
11:28
your sandwich that you brought with you, or did you? No.
11:31
Look at you. We brought our own stuff.
11:34
And the reason is I didn't want to miss the race.
11:39
If I'm stacked up in the stands and this, we knew this, this was the plan ahead.
11:45
It's like, we kind of knew where our seats were like, oh man,
11:49
just if you have to leave mid race, say to run to the bathroom.
11:53
Okay. That's one thing, but to go stand in a hot dog line and miss part of the race.
11:59
No, not doing it. So yeah, I had a cooler bag. We bought a cooler bag and we
12:05
brought in our own sandwiches, our own veggies, and our own beer.
12:09
Yeah, you were saying they were cool. They were cool with you bringing our own stuff in.
12:13
Yeah, we brought in our own beers. We went non-alcoholic because we knew we had to ride back. Right.
12:19
But still, man, we had our own food. We just sat there and ate and had a great time.
12:24
Okay, well, what are other people? I was just curious. What is the hot thing
12:28
that people were who did wait in the 45-minute line.
12:33
To get food did you notice any kind of
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food item that was a wow everyone's getting this uh
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or were they all like you they're like we bring our own stuff and
12:42
most people around us brought food except for the
12:45
young kids they're the ones running off getting the burgers
12:48
and you know nothing looked special i'll
12:52
just standard fair just standard yeah just standard fair
12:55
i did i didn't have time to really hang
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out at the concession lines to research it so so
13:01
i let you down on that i'm just walking around you
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know someone's got the little you know whatever the little race car cup
13:07
right yeah yeah you know
13:11
so now i skip we were in such a rush just
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to get there we saw nothing on the way so
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on the way out we're like let's hit a little concession
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line or not a concession but a swag line you
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know let's look at some merch yeah and the
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hot seller was the mini indianapolis
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flags uh race flag they're little
13:33
small ones on a little stick and so
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i'm just standing there looking at you know 50 hats 40 hats you know 100 jerseys
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i'm like you know because i still got a ride back you know so we're here yeah
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so i'm like and so nope I tapped out, so.
13:57
Well, what were you talking? What was the race talk? Who are you going for?
14:02
You say you went at a person.
14:03
Who is your person? That guy said, who are you going for? I'll look for him.
14:08
Well, I went with Ed Carpenter. He's one of the older guys.
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He's an Indiana native, and I've watched Ed for 20 years.
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But he owns his own team, so he has three cars in there. And so I was going for Ed Carpenter first.
14:27
And, and then I was going for, I really like his second driver, Alexander Rossi.
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He's one at one time. And then I forget who his third driver is,
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but yeah, Ed went out early in the race, got a little sideways with someone
14:43
and caught cash in his day.
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And then yeah, Rossi couldn't finish.
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And then my third was Malukas, a young California kid. and he was on the hunt on the last lap.
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He had some options, but it's probably one of the most thrilling endings to
15:04
an Indy 500 in history, and I was there.
15:08
Okay, so tell us why. Because Felix Rosenquist.
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Yeah, tell us what you know.
15:16
Well, here's the deal is Indy is very fast, low bank turns.
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So it's very it's not a high bank
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turn so the cars are set up to where
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you know when you're going over 200
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miles an hour it's hard to run side by side right
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what made the last lap special is
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Felix is basically he's when the white flag drops he's like third place and
15:46
so he ran next door to another driver side by side all the way around the track
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and to do that and not wash out.
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Typically, when you run the high side, he had the high side, not the inner side.
16:04
You have to take your foot off the throttle because the higher you go on a racetrack,
16:10
what's up there? They call it the marbles.
16:13
As cars go around, rubber comes off of the tires and it goes up the track.
16:19
And so to run the high side, you run the risk of getting loose because of all
16:26
the debris that winds up on the track.
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Right. And so he ran...
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Toe to toe. And then he comes around right where we were and he was able to
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get behind who was in front.
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And then he slingshots the end. So he not only drove side by side past that guy,
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got around to come around for the win, but then used the draft off of the other
16:53
car to slingshot him right across the line. Perfect timing.
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As in both cars, we're crossing the finish line,
17:00
just the nose of his cross first so
17:03
wow yeah i mean the crowd went nuts that was
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just another like everyone was just like you know
17:09
we're watching it on replay on the big
17:12
screen it was so good i mean i mean
17:15
no i mean as in people stayed to
17:18
listen for a little while you know because
17:21
they're doing the whole end of thing and yeah yeah celebration
17:25
man you're there right and so
17:28
unbelievable dude how exciting for you
17:30
and felix what's his history is he what team
17:34
was he with do you remember or just any do
17:37
you know anything about him well i know he's like see
17:40
a dane i think he's danish and he he's
17:43
been around i think he's been what seven eight years and
17:47
his time was due he was coming he's just a consistent solid driver and he had
17:53
a really good qualifying car and people knew he had it the question is is who's
18:01
gonna step up at the end like any sport right who's gonna.
18:05
Put everything on the line at the end he was the guy yeah he just had he was
18:13
the bravest one out there at that time and he figured it out and sized it up
18:18
and quickly quickly quickly,
18:21
Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, well, and as an organizational, I mean, it was 350,000 people.
18:27
Was it orchestrated well?
18:29
I mean, people everywhere doing it all, so that was good?
18:33
Yeah, I mean, you know, us Americans, we all get a little impatient standing in line.
18:40
But in hindsight, if we just would have stayed where we were the first time,
18:47
what i didn't realize is they had
18:50
that first gate gate one has more
18:53
check has more people checking people yes so
18:58
that was my mistake is i just got impatient let's
19:01
go to the next line and those lines those gates were
19:04
smaller gates and the lines were longer so but
19:08
in the end we found cool people everywhere
19:11
we went and now i know and so
19:14
the next time we show up we'll just go through day
19:17
one and then we'll go left or
19:20
right around the racetrack depending on where seats are
19:23
at and try to go a little earlier i didn't understand why people were leaving
19:27
like i got up and i was watching people from my campground riding their bikes
19:32
at seven in the morning i'm like wow they're going early i wonder why oh now
19:37
i know now i know you know Because if you want to get there,
19:43
find your spot wherever you're sitting, go to the concession stand,
19:47
go to the souvenir stand,
19:49
soak it up, walk around a little bit more.
19:53
They have tunnels underneath the infield of the racetrack. So you can go through
19:56
the tunnels. I didn't get to do that.
19:59
You can do seats on the infield because they also have a golf course in the
20:02
infield. The racetrack is that big.
20:05
They have several holes of an 18-hole golf course inside the racetrack. Crazy.
20:10
Yeah, because the rest of the golf course is behind you. And so there's all
20:15
these other things to check out. And they have what's called the Snake Pit.
20:19
It's a concert for the youngins. It's basically a rave party, the entire Indy 500.
20:26
They have a stage and music blasting the whole time in the infield.
20:31
While the race is going on? While the race is going. Yeah, I know.
20:35
Yeah, it's insane. There's 100,000 people just in the infield alone. Damn.
20:40
So, I know. So, it's just, it's another planet, you know. Yeah.
20:47
Tennis and I were talking about that. Why would they let us bring all this food
20:50
in? Well, here's the deal.
20:54
It's a one-day event, and you've got to service 350,000 people,
20:58
food and water. It's impossible, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
21:01
So they have to let you bring your, you know, bring your water bottle in,
21:06
bring your cooler, you know, that kind of thing.
21:09
Because, yeah, you're basically a city came in.
21:12
Watched and then a city left and so
21:16
yeah it's just dealing with people figuring it out but
21:19
i really like the biking thing that gold that
21:22
was score so a lot of fun so mike
21:26
my hats off to the city of indianapolis and indianapolis mortar speedway they
21:31
put on a good show you know they do they do with that lucas oil they do the
21:35
combines and super bowls they drive all kinds because Indianapolis really has
21:42
it locked down on so many things.
21:44
I went to a couple conferences there back when I was as a principal,
21:50
and, man, great downtown scene, great subterranean or basement bars,
22:01
great food scene. I really enjoyed it.
22:03
I really liked Indianapolis, the city itself.
22:08
So yeah we didn't have a chance to do
22:11
that on this trip because just again gridlock
22:14
you know like we're riding our bikes and just five miles out way back there's
22:20
still gridlock in the city from people trying to trying to get their way out
22:25
you know and so i think in some ways we did it right in some ways we learned
22:30
some lessons but thanks for asking man so hope to go again.
22:35
Not next year, not next year, but in the future.
22:39
So my next race I need to go to is Daytona 500, Daytona, Florida.
22:46
So I'm switching to NASCAR. I'm going to try to do that in 2027. That sounds excellent.
22:52
Yeah, yeah. Early, what's it, late February, early March. I don't know.
22:56
I'll have to look at the calendar.
22:57
But the point is, that's the next challenge. How do I figure out how to get
23:02
to that race and enjoy it with Tannis and get back out?
23:08
So I would think some of the things you learned here would apply there.
23:10
That's right. So we're going to take our intel from this experience and try to go to the next place.
23:16
So anyway, hey, guess what?
23:18
What? Hey, we're out of time for this episode.
23:22
So thanks, friends, for joining us for this episode of Life According to Brian. And Jason.
23:29
Until next time. Yeah. Let us know what you think. Is it overhyped?
23:34
I thought it was cool, but maybe you think differently. See ya.