Brickyard 400 Live Report by Tony Luque

What a trip! As a fanatic Derrike Cope fan, my wife surprised me with last minute tickets to the Brickyard 400 so we quickly made our traveling plans as the race was only three weeks away. The only Winston Cup racing we had ever seen in person had been a couple Winston West races where Ernie Cope (yes, Derrike's younger cousin has been racing) and where Derrike Cope and Chad Little got their careers started.

Coming all the way from Washington state made for a long trip to Indianapolis but well worth it. We didn't arrive in Indy until Friday evening so we decided to drive down to Cinncinati and spend the night there and then drive up to Indy early Saturday morning.

As the alarm went off and our wakeup call rang at 5:00 AM central time, we were understandably tired but excited to see the famous Indianapolis Speedway and the big name drivers, including Derrike. We approached the speedway at about 7:00 AM and thought we would have plenty of time to have breakfast; quickly would we learn that you should never drive to this speedway. It literally took 2 hours to get within a mile of the track and find a place to park.

The number of people at the race was unbelievable, somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 people. I can only say that I have never seen such a chaotic scene. It really did look like a state fair was going on outside the track. The souvenir trailers lined every street and sidewalk and we luckily found the SKITTLES® trailer immediately as we parked about one block away. I purchased a few items and took pictures of the SKITTLES® trailer and then made our way over to the Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip trailer.

After about an hour outside we went into the track and under the tunnel to the inside Tower on the front straightaway where our seats were. The size of this track is remarkable. As the race began we eagerly watched the bright, I mean really bright colored cars come off of turn four and head for the green flag. Ernie Irvan got a great jump and he stayed out in front for the first twenty some laps. The race was really getting exciting when Chad Little got bumped by the #9 car and lost control sending him straight into the wall. The Yellow was out and Cope was sitting in 28th place.

On lap 13 I saw the SKITTLES® car come slowly into the pits. Frustrated at seeing Derrike in the pits so early I was wondering what had happened. Shortly after leaving the pits we heard there had been a crash on turn 2. As we all know, Derrike lost it coming off pit row getting into the grass and shooting up to the outside wall. Though disappointed by Derrike's early exit from the race, we enjoyed the remainder of the race and watched Ricky Rudd come up with the biggest win of his career. Dale Jarrett definitely had the fastest car out there and definitely would have won the race had Rudd and Labonte run out of fuel.

Following the race we visited the Indy Museum and then found the nearest hotel to get some badly needed sleep. We had a great trip and hope to return next year for another oustanding Brickyard 400.