August 5, 1995 - My one and done at the Brickyard
Stock Car Racing History
Hard to believe it's been 20 years to the day that I went to my one and only Brickyard 400. One of these days, I think I'd like to take in the spectacle of the Indy 500. Unless someone palms me a pair of tickets though, I'm not sure I'll be willing to do what it takes to go. So the 1995 BY400 may turn out to be my ONLY trip to IMS.
Some of my memories from that day have faded a bit - and some are gone completely. But I tried blogging those that remain. I'll put part of of it here, but more of the NON-RACING parts of the day (and the funnier parts in my opinion) can be found at my post.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-5-1995-long-day-at-brickyard.html
In the pre-dawn hours of race day morning, four of us departed Nashville for Indianapolis: Philly, my brother-in-law Chuckles, a business associate of his, and me. We put a biscuit and a cup of coffee on our bellies, and then we were on our way. In the rain. The whole way.
When rain shows up on race weekend, we try to be patient and optimistic. A long-time adage of Philly's is "there's magic in believing." Yet, as we approached the track, optimism turned to pragmatism. We had little hope of the race starting on time - and maybe not at all on that Saturday.
We parked in someone's yard. I had no idea at the time this was an Indy tradition dating back decades, but what a neat (and likely profitable) tradition. Lift gates were raised on vans, coolers were moved to the ground, sandwich fixin's were made available, and folks did what they could to stay as dry as possible.
The rain finally slowed to a series of sprinkles and mist, and Philly and I did a walk-about to see the legendary speedway - if nothing else just to metabolize some of our brew intake.
Very few tracks have caused my pulse to quicken as I passed through the gates. My first time at Daytona in 1980 - yes. The inaugural race at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997 - perhaps. Indy - definitely.
After getting settled, however, reality set in. Indy may be a racing facility - but it isn't a spectator's destination. With the trees, pagoda, a museum, etc. in the infield - plus the flat banking - we quickly discerned we'd see little of the race. Yet we were there!
The King - Richard Petty - took a lap or two in 1992 as part of a NASCAR tire test and public relations stunt, but he retired before having the opportunity to race in a Brickyard 400. But the driver of the 43 in 1995, Bobby Hamilton Sr., gave the Petty faithful something to cheer for with his second place qualifying run in the STP Pontiac.
Because of the rain, the cars remained in the garage area. When the call came to start the race, pole sitter Jeff Gordon and Hamilton did something no other driver in an Indy race had ever done.They led the field into the first pace lap by driving out of the garage.
Hamilton did more than give hope to the Petty faithful with his front-row qualifying run. The 43 was competitive all day, and Hamilton led just past the halfway mark. Near the end, however, Hamilton faded to an eventual 11th place finish.
With about 30 laps to go, a name synonymous with Indy - Andretti - took the lead. John Andretti in the Kmart / Little Caesar's Pizza Ford led for 3 laps. Like Hamilton, however, Andretti didn't have staying power and finished 12th.
After Andretti's brief time out front, Dale Earnhardt took command. Rusty Wallace pursued the Goodwrench Chevy, but he couldn't get close enough to mount a legitimate challenge. The Ironhead Army lost their collective minds as the black #3 took the win.
Remarkably, IMS and NASCAR were successful in completing the full race without more rain and without losing daylight. After the checkers, we humped it back to the van for the 5+ hour trip back to Nashville.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
