Oilpressure

By Susan Phillips

At last the Music City GP weekend is upon us! It seems like it has been a long time since there was a race weekend that wasn’t just 2 days. Nashville is the perfect city to host a long race weekend. There is so much to do, and this city does not shut down on weekdays. Nashville has definitely earned the title of the top destination for Bachelorette weekends (watch out for the numerous party buses—don’t follow too close behind). Good sense does not prevail on the pedal/party trucks. I think I am going to try one of the Big Machine Spiked Coolers this weekend. I am allowed to drink in moderation, but I try not to push my liver too hard.

We have had a great time this weekend. Some of the events we have wanted to attend have overlapped with other events—I chalk that up to not enough hours in the day. The Josef Newgarden Ping Pong Tournament was a blast. I had my picture taken with every driver I could (I wasn’t alone). We attended the event as fans, and I took every opportunity to gush over the drivers. I follow a lot of the driver’s significant others on Instagram—probably one of my favorites besides Lauren Kanaan is Jack Harvey’s girlfriend, Gracie Norton. She gives fashion and makeup tips, plus she’s super nice in person. If they had children, their eyes would be stunning.

The crowds at the track have been really good. I was surprised to see such a large turnout on Friday, but this race has been promoted a lot to race fans. It took me a while to get my bearings. I am extremely directionally challenged. It’s hard for me to remember how to get around large crowd-filled areas. They could have opened a few more places in the fencing so you don’t have to go way out of your way to get from point A to point B. I’m sure there is a science to studying crowd patterns and hopefully it will make a lot more sense next year—I don’t know if there is a shortage of volunteers to man the gates and openings. It was good to see more trash cans on the grounds today.

I think I have spent so much time trying to get my bearings that I’m having some trouble finding things to write about that George has not already covered. I would have liked to do a guide to where to eat and fun things to do, but a lot of Nashville is compartmentalized—there are so many things to do in our separate neighborhoods that it is hard to venture out into Nashville as a whole. We mainly go to the downtown area for Nashville Predators and Titans games. I don’t recognize downtown anymore. I worked at United Methodist Publishing House for 24 years—it is now where the JW Marriott stands.

I also worked for the Lifeway (Baptist Sunday School Board) for a couple of years and they demolished the tower in 2018—it was not an old building, either! I knew that part of downtown—hopefully by next year they will have rebuilt part of 2nd Avenue that was bombed last Christmas. If anyone went to the race and has any great suggestions or places to eat, I will do an in-depth tourist guide for next year. I’m hoping COVID will be a distant memory and some of my favorite places will open up again. I also hope the workforce returns to normal—I have heard that some of the downtown eateries are open, but are not able to fully seat people due to lack of staffing.

Here are some random photos I’ve taken this weekend. If you are here in Nashville, I hope you have a great race day!

This entry was posted on August 8, 2021 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.