As much as I've been forcing the summer issue by wearing flip flops and chinos around, grilling when it's too cold out and getting irrationally drunk on Sundays; it finally arrives for real this weekend. Yes, Memorial Day weekend is the official kick off to summer. North Ave beach will open, pastels will be fair game and I will up my drinking to 5 nights a week. But before we enjoy the greatest summer city in the world for the next 3-4 months we all need to take a weekend trip a few hours south. It's racing season.
Fuck ya, Indianapolis motor speedway...you are the only reason I still own a tent and an extremely impressive selection of jorts. In the past I have gone for extreme shock value in my outfits, usually gunning for about a 2 inch inseam on any denim I am wearing. An old school Reggie Miller jersey or a Troup 444 cub scout top have been a couple on my better performances. Unfortunately I think I have lost all my Marlboro 500 hats throughout the years but I should still be able to dig out a nice Schlitz koozie at my parents house.
It is a fact that if you are from Indiana, you love the race. You love the weekend, the coke lot, the Papa Roach carb day concert, it is the one weekend where you openly celebrate (or mock) the perception the rest of the country has against you. I've gone every year since I was about 10. When I turned 18 I started camping out in the Coke lot the night before and getting into various misadventures at night. I've stolen the Moller road sign at least 5 times...so badass. I'm pretty sure that anyone that has ever spent time in Indiana should check it out. Not only is it a bad ass race (cars going 230? sure) the entire grandeur of the event is like something that you will never experience...and when I say grandeur I'm talking about amateur pole dancing competitions, unlimited free cans of dip, millions of Budweisers and if you are lucky a burning couch and a bum fight. (I've already implicated myself in at least 3 crimes in this post.)
Anyway, if you like being American and you aren't ultra suceptible to heat stroke, you should check it out. You will come away with a bad sunburn and some brown urine, but chances are you can tough it out. Trade in the designer jeans and the blazers for a pair of dirty overalls for one weekend and see how the other side lives. These fans are passionate and they are quite often great people...definitely patriots. Because playing posts, icing your bros, and bagging a strange in your muggy ass tent, those are the principles this country was founded on, no? I'll be wandering the streets of Speedway, IN all weekend, turkey leg in hand placing bets on the underground cock fights that go on in the back rooms of the strip clubs near the track. Hope to see ya there.
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