watch the crowd, never focus on the faces only

day 2: Iowa Speedway to Knoxville Raceway

No big mileage for day 2, just big lap counts. We spent the morning in the hotel pool and the afternoon at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa for the first event of the IndyCar doubleheader. Temps were around 100 degrees but we were hella prepared after test-running all of our equipment at the Indy 500 in easier conditions. We each carried our Cotopaxi hiking bags with water bladders (I love this one) filled with ice. We also had cooling towels, a spray bottle fan, UPF clothing, big hats and just an insane amount of sunscreen. It was hot but we were so very ready.

After IndyCar, we headed to Knoxville for the Saturday night weekly show. We haven’t gone a year without at least one show at Knoxville during the season since 2017 (2020 doesn’t count for anything), which makes for a handy growth chart for this munchkin.

Ada has been a Brian Brown fan since last season when we ran into him walking around the fairgrounds while trying to take the above photo and he was extra sweet to her.

More than having a favorite driver though, Ada’s Knoxville favorites are her traditions – taking her pics, picking out a new t-shirt, hanging out with our Section H pals, who have been my family friends since the early 90s when we had the same Knoxville Nationals tickets near them for over a decade. It’s been really wild to watch each other’s kids and grands grow up.

Our trip to Knoxville included a pair of dear IndyCar friends from Michigan who were experiencing their first dirt track race – and they got the full experience with a delayed start due to the heat, a rain delay between heats, and then a rainout between the 360 and 410 A mains. They still had a great time seeing what had only been a streaming TV experience for them previously.

This was our 2nd IndyCar to dirt track double in the same day in 2022 – we also went from this year’s Indy 500 to Kokomo Speedway. It’s our 4th variation of this trick (I’ve also done Indy GP to Eldora WoO + USAC and Road America IndyCar to Beaver Dam WoO in past years.)

Today’s title from “Racetrack Romeo” by Jason Isbell.