Ladies and Gentleman, START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

A.J. Foyt, Love of Mom's life!

Today marked the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, and I am feeling more than a little nostalgic. The 500 is one of the only things that I remember my parents doing together, and they both instilled the love of racing in me. Mom's family is all from Indiana, so racing is a way of life there. We would go up for the weekend, and Whitney and I would go to Fairland with Mamaw and Papaw, and Mom and Dad would go to the race. Fairland was where my grandparents kept their trailor, and there were always a million fun things to do. We listened to the race on the radio, fished in the lake, and drove the golf cart like maniacs! Mom and Dad always talked about the fact that if it rained, they would try to run the race in the "window". I could not fully appreciate what this meant until I went for my second 500 race, and it poured and poured down rain for two days straight. Basically, if it rains and then stops, they try to run enough laps to constitute an entire race. They bring out the jet engine fans to dry the track, and do their best to find enough of a "window" of time between showers to finish the race! Most years, my parents would come home, Mom tanned to a dark brown, Dad fried like a piece of bacon :) In later years, my parents hosted Indy 500 parties at our house. Sherri and Gary would come down, and friends and neighbors would join the festivities. Everyone would put a dollar in the pot and pull a name of a driver out of a hat. Whoever ended up with the winning driver got the pot. The first year we did this, I pulled Roberto Guerrero, and he crashed on the warmup lap before the race even started! My mom's favorite driver was A.J. Foyt, and we had this huge cardboard cutout of him that we kept in the basement and brought up for parties. He has a grandson, A.J. Foyt IV, and I always secretly cheer for him on behalf of Mom. I definitely inherited my parents' love for the sport, both actually going to the race or even watching on TV. My dad just made it home from Australia, has been up for 40 straight hours, and still watched the entire race today! I don't know that there is anything in the world that reminds me more of my parents together except maybe houseboat trips. My mom was girlie in some ways, but in a lot of ways, she was ever the tomboy. She loved racing along with all other sports, and there wasn't really anything she wouldn't watch. I think this is why Whitney and I are like the sons my dad never had!