2008 Indianapolis 500 Spectacle

The 92nd Indianapolis 500 automobile race was held on May 25th, 2008. It's still the largest single day sporting event in the world in the largest sports facility in the world (250,000 seats). "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" is a great place to see the highest class of auto racing and some other sights that make it fun to watch.

The most popular driver and the one that most people would like to have seen win was probably Danica Patrick, but my favorite was Marco Andretti (seen at right). He's one of the top racers on the track (and hopefully in the sack). He maintains tight control whether making a pass or driving hard in the short chute. For the 500 and maybe a few races afterwards, he has sponsorship from Lucasfilm and Blockbuster, driving the "#26 Team Indiana Jones Presented by Blockbuster" car. As a consequence, his sponsors had him wear an entertaining firesuit intended to look like an Indiana Jones costume. The brown jacket and shoulder strap part actually looked cool, but the drawn-on gun holsters made the bottom half look like kids pajama pants and the fedora was just too precious. Marco placed third this year.

A lot of the other drivers are pretty hot also, but they're hidden in the encasement of the cars during the race. The visible guys are in the pit crews. In their firesuits, handling all of that automotive equipment, they look rather studly. Of course it helps that they are all wearing protective helmets. It's the equivalent of the proverbial paper bag over the head. As long as they keep it on, I don't mind waving my green flag at them.

There are also the female drivers, notably Danica. The run-in with Roger Penske's driver Ryan Briscoe coming out of the pits cost her a top 5 finish but it at least put her in the headlines anyway. She got out of her car and marched towards Briscoe in a manner that was the perfect definition of "fierce". She was diverted from giving him a deserving bitch slap but she gets points for making the attempt. Briscoe on the other hand was a dick for not being man enough to admit that he caused the accident. Danica needs to pour some sugar in his fuel tank.

DWTS winner Helio Castroneves placed fourth. He was one of seven Brazilians in the field. Men of Brazil are attracted to a party and so it is natural they would come to the party that is Indy in the month of May.

The Indy 500 is the premiere event of the Indy Racing League (IRL), the main open wheel racing series in the U.S.