Katherine and I went to the Texas Motor Speedway yesterday evening to watch the Rainguard Water Sealers 600, a 600-kilometer (372-mile) IndyCar event. This past February, we flew to Florida to watch the Daytona 500, a 500-mile NASCAR event. The crowd at Daytona seemed more enthusiastic than the crowd in Fort Worth, but I don't know whether that's because of the type of person each race attracts or the fact that there were fewer people in Fort Worth. Entire sections of the speedway were empty, despite (or perhaps because of) the gorgeous weather.
The race itself was exciting from beginning to end. There were no incidents for well over 20 laps (of the 248 scheduled), but then there were several accidents in quick succession, each of which required a period of time for clean-up. There was at least one red flag, which means the cars stop either on the track or on pit road. One accident—practically in front of us—took out six cars. The racing at the end was fast and furious, with cars two abreast on the turns.
Finally, with only four laps to go, someone crashed, which made the race end on yellow. Will Power happened to be in front at the time, so he won the race. A full moon rose over the horizon directly in front of us, which made the evening even more magical. We had a great time. I'll post a picture or two in due course.
