DANICA PATRICK CALLS IT ONE OF THE “COOLEST MAINSTREAM STUNTS” INDYCAR HAS EVER DONE

 The field for Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar Series World Championship in front of the Bellagio.

BY BRUCE MARTIN

LAS VEGAS – One of the most famous streets on earth is Las Vegas Boulevard and it is known simply as “The Strip.” With some of the most famous Casinos in the world lining both sides of The Strip it has been the scene of some memorable nights.

On Thursday night the IZOD IndyCar Series gave Las Vegas a night to remember as The Strip was shut down. Instead of passenger car traffic it was 34 IndyCars that hit Las Vegas Boulevard, giving the thousands of spectators that lined the streets a different version of Vegas nightlife.

It was a grand way to welcome the series to Las Vegas in preparation for Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar World Championships Presented by Honda at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“It was fun,” said Team IZOD driver Ryan Briscoe after he drove his red-white-and-blue No. 6 IZOD car down The Strip. “To be amongst the people of Las Vegas it’s great that IndyCar is making so much noise here in Las Vegas. You can’t beat the atmosphere here. It’s pretty spectacular. I had to look after the clutch a little bit and dodge the manhole covers because it’s dark and we don’t have headlights. But it’s the last race of the year and if it is good for the sport and gets all these people that didn’t even know IndyCar was in town to know about the race Sunday it’s all good.”

Paul Tracy has had many nicknames throughout his career from “The Thrill from West Hill” to the “Chrome Horn.” Tracy has a reputation for doing things in style and used to live in Las Vegas before moving to Scottsdale, Arizona. Tracy has seen many crazy things on The Strip and Thursday night he got to take part in something truly memorable.

“It’s pretty cool; it’s great for IndyCar and it’s great for the IZOD series,” Tracy said. “There is always a big crowd on The Strip and a lot of people out here have never seen these cars before. Hopefully it will create a big buzz for the race and bring out more people. It takes a lot of orchestration by the city, the police department and the fire department. This is one of the busiest streets in the world so to shut it out is pretty tough to do.

“Hats off to Randy Bernard (INDYCAR CEO), IZOD and the City of Las Vegas for putting this on.”

The field pulled of 34 IZOD IndyCars along with the Honda Safety Vehicle and the IZOD Two-Seater “Fastest Seat in Sports” pulled up the street and parked in front of the famed Fountains at The Bellagio. Each driver was introduced and posed for photos along with 1969 Indianapolis 500 winner Mario Andretti and Lasorda with the “Dancing Fountains” in the background.

Afterwards, the drivers climbed back into their cars and were joined by Mario Andretti and Fiasco in the IZOD Honda Two-Seater. The field took five laps around The Strip as more fans lined both sides of the street and marveled at the incredible scene.

Of course, one of the stars among the fans was Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 7 GoDaddy.com car for Andretti Autosport. She will compete in her final race in the IZOD IndyCar Series on Sunday.

“This has been one of the coolest mainstream stunts that we have ever done,” Patrick said. “Whenever there are these extracurricular things outside of the car I’m a little cautiously optimistic about them. You have this idea it might be a bit of a nightmare and confusing and might not go well but Randy Bernard has done a nice job with this. He has done some stuff to promote this race that has never been done before. I’m sure it will translate to some success and some new fans.

“There was a lot of regular traffic out there but I felt safe somebody stopped traffic for us. It was a little dark but it was pretty smooth and we all did a lot of burnouts for the fans.”

Rookie driver James Hinchcliffe of Newman/Haas Racing thought it was a thrill to race down the streets of his hometown in Toronto earlier this year. A chance to drive his IndyCar on The Strip was something that Hinchcliffe thought was amazing.

“This is awesome,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s Vegas. It’s The Strip. It’s a pretty cool experience to drive an IndyCar down one of the most famous streets in the world. It’s such the right city with the right atmosphere. It’s a great place for us to end the season. If they could have a street race here it would rival Monaco as the coolest street race in the world. But this says a lot for the sport of the IZOD IndyCar Series and the direction we are going. To get clearance to close down one of the busiest streets in the world shows where this series is right now. We are on an upswing and hopefully we get this town behind it and we are here for many years to come.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport called it a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.

“We’re doing it in style this year,” Hunter-Reay said. “We have to thank Randy Bernard, IndyCar, and IZOD made it all happen. This is something special. I’ve never seen this much activation around a race.”

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Graham Rahal was all smiles as he looked at the crowd that turned out to get a chance to see the high-speed cars on The Strip.

“The turnout is darn good – I’m very impressed with the buzz around this event,” Rahal said. “A lot of people lined the streets and are eyeing these cars and that’s pretty good. It’s cool and something I hope we can do more often. It’s great to be here. I’m amazed they made it happen.”

Scott Dixon of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing is usually one of the coolest drivers in the sport but he was excited to be part of such a unique event.

“It’s awesome with all the people down here – it’s fun,” Dixon said. “You can’t do this in any other city. It’s pretty exciting. With the lights and the backdrop with The Bellagio was great. Kudos to Randy Bernard and IZOD for making this happen.”

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