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The largest sporting event in the world isn't the Olympics

Gotta love this guy's enthusiasm as he experiences the Indy 500 for the first time:

This Memorial Day, VBS and a few hundred thousand other folks crowded into the Indianapolis Speedway to watch cars whip around in circles. It's the largest single-day sporting event in the world. I certainly didn't understand why the Indy 500 drew nearly half a million folks to Indianapolis each year. We'd always kind of assumed car-racing of any sort was lame and boring, but then we took an RV out to the middle of the the Rust Belt and found ourselves in the midst of one of the biggest, most out-of-control parties of our lives. The Indy 500 is a four-day-long bender cleverly disguised as a sporting event. People show up from all over the damn place, throw their RV in a reserved spot in the endless mudpit/lot, and immediately get gravely serious about having a great time. These folks have been waiting for this weekend all year, and all the built-up excitement instantly bubbles over into a rager the likes of which makes Super Bowl week look like a tea party with stuffed animals. I've honestly never seen anything like it. And when a race breaks out in the middle of this madness, well, it's impossible not to care. You're just swept up in the whole mess and all of the sudden you're ten Miller Lights deep, screaming specific things at someone going 200 miles an hour in the loudest car you've ever heard as if he can hear you or you know what you're talking about. I no longer skip racing highlights on ESPN, nor will I ever again. Viva the Indy 500 and partying; we have a new national pastime, folks.

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