Day 40 (September 4), was probably the dullest day of the trip as it was nothing, but droning hours on the Interstate network between Little Rock and the Indianapolis area. You’d think that with two or three lanes and a speed limit of 70MPH, we’d be able to make good time, but the atrocious lane discipline on the part of most drivers and the intense truck traffic made the drive more frustrating than it should have been. Once we accepted that it was drive on the left, pass on the right, we did fine. Ugh.
We woke up today (Day 41) outside Indianapolis and made our way to Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), which is actually in Speedway, Indiana, with the intent of taking a tour and seeing the track’s museum.
Getting there, we discovered that the only tour available was one lap of the track in a bus, with a stop at the “Yard of Bricks”. This was the only offering as this weekend’s Brickyard 400 meant the track was a buzzing with prep work, including installation of TV cameras. Still it was cool to see the banking and SAFER barriers, feel the track surface, and see the pits up close.
The museum was pretty cool, too, with lots of winning and notable cars from the past, including the one driven by Jacques Villeneuve.
JV’s helmet wasn’t the only one there, here is a sampling:
Never did Indy, but kinda special 
There was a big Mario Andretti Exhibit, with several cars he raced.
In my head, this is what an Indy Car should be… 
… but this isn’t too bad. 
This is kinda pretty 
Not an Inky car, but pretty freaking special
It wasn’t all about Mario, though. There were other cars, too, from a bunch of eras.
Ground effects 
I hate to admit it as it makes me sound like the stereotypical old man who thinks his day was the golden age, but the car’s from the CART/ChampCar era were the best.
There was also this really cool cut-away of an Indy car, too.
Having completed our IMS time, we hit the road, once again battling the trucks and the left-lane bandits on the Interstates. We’re now in Youngstown, OH. Two more nights and we’ll be home. Yes, we’re getting excited about that.