Now what should I bring with me????

For me, one of the biggest challenges in going to an event or facility for the first time is knowing what I’m allowed to bring. Below are some helpful hints and tips on what to bring and what to make your visit to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis more enjoyable. If you see ‘a must have’ we missed or have a question about feel free to drop us a note!

Parking information - Enter the facility off of U. S. Highway 136 and you will be directed to our parking lots. For most events parking in the facility parking lots is the shortest walk to your seats.

Facility Map – Be sure to download a facility map for your visit to the facility. Click here for maps for the different events.

Comfortable shoes – Many events involve walking from the parking lots to your seating section so wear comfortable shoes to get to the grandstands.

Sunscreen – Protect yourself from the summer rays!

Blanket – If you are taking in an oval race on the world famous Grass Hill in Turn 1 be sure to bring a blanket to spread it out and sit on it during the event.

Bag chair - If you are taking in an oval race on the world famous Grass Hill in Turn 1 be sure to bring a bag chair to sit on during the event. Please note you can’t bring a chair into the reserved seating area or any of the grandstands.

Earplugs – Protect your hearing during the event.

Radio Scanner – For many events you can listen to the drivers as they communicate with their crew members

Cooler – Cooler size is 14x14x14, no glass bottles are allowed.

Food – You are able to bring in food and snacks with you into the events.

Cash – While there are ATM’s for many events it is a good idea to have cash for purchases.

Cell phone – There are no pay phones at the facility so be sure to bring your cell phone.

Sweatshirts – Temperatures cool off quickly when the sun goes down so be sure to bring an extra layer of clothes to ward off a chill.

ChapStick – Being in the sun and wind can take a toll on your lips so be sure to bring a tube of ChapStick.

Sharpie and autograph book – For many events there is an autograph session that takes place prior to the race so be sure to bring a sharpie and autograph book to get autographs from your favorite drivers.

We hope this helps your planning and we can't wait to see you during the course of the season!

5 Minutes with Kurt Johnson, racing and operations director at Lucas Oil Raceway.

During the course of the year we will be talking with key figures with Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis and learning more about the facility and previewing upcoming events. In this installment of ‘5 Minutes With…’ we caught up with Kurt Johnson, director of racing and operations. Kurt is starting his first full season at the track and is ready for the start of the season.

How much time has gone into getting things ready for the start of the season?
Roughly 100 hours a week since the end of the 2010 season. About 80 to 100 hours a week.

What all goes into that?
We basically created all new run procedures for the Summit Bracket Racing Series, we created the Friday Night Rage program, the Thursday Night Thunder program. We’ve never had run procedures and now we have a 26 page book created and there is a lot of work that goes into it.

What will ensure a great 2011 season?
It is a combination of working with the racers, having good communication with the racers having a good relationship with them and the fact that I was a racer. A lot of this is years of sitting on the back of the trailer after the races going, ‘I wish we did it like this.’ It is pure communication. We are trying to do what the racers want but do it in a way that is fair to everybody. We can’t please everyone all the time but we hope to please the majority.

What has been the feedback from the racers so far?
So far it is been nothing but good. The dragstrip track surface rocked at the end of the year. It was really good and I think the racers are happy with that. I think they feel good that there are people listening here and I’m talking about the entire staff that is willing to listen and try to treat them with respect and there again you can’t always make them happy but if you are fair and you treat everybody the same then it is an overall win.

You just finished the starting line project on the dragstrip. Where does that stand now?
We are going start putting rubber on it on Tuesday the pad came out wonderful E & B Paving did a wonderful job. They stuck behind their word that they said they would give us a super flat surface and they did. I have nothing but good to say about E & B Paving. We went out and hand measured it with Lanny from John Force Racing and had all kinds of fancy equipment out there over the week with lasers, and GPS sensors and it came down to a string line and a machined gauge and the track wasn’t off anywhere above 125,000ths on the new starting line. So it falls well with specs for super flat surface.

Is that going to be a huge improvement?
Huge. One of the main problems we always had was there was a bump in the right lane right before where a majority of the rears wheels sit. And so as soon as the car would come off the line it would upset the suspension and it follows Newton’s Law that once an object is in motion it to stays in motion. It would bounce and basketball out 300 feet or so and would tear the rubber off the track. We will have a much better racing surface on down the track because of that.

What else has taken place this off season?
We put some new asphalt in the main pits, the Pro Pits and have new equipment to sweep the parking lot. So we will be able to keep the parking lot clean. One of the major factors of a good track is having a clean racetrack. The more we can keep the cars in a clean area and have them come to the race track in a clean area we can keep the debris off the track. For the majority of the events we will be parking on the East side of the track and not on the grass on the west side because the grass gets on the track from the west side.

What has been the feedback on the Thursday Night Thunder Series?
We have gotten nothing but good on that and one of the gauges I can use for how popular the series is going to be is how many teams comes to test. We are almost completely booked for the month of May and then June is heavy for testing as well and I see it going into August as well. The teams are excited and I’m not talking about local teams. There are teams in California that are coming out to test and to me that says it is a popular item. I think it will be a home run.

What is one main goal this season?
The main thing is to reintroduce Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis back to the racing population. I think a lot of people forgot the facility. I think offering different promotions, high profile programs and keeping the facility the best we can, will get the trust of the racer again. I think by getting the track better for the racers we will get the racecars here and then we can concentrate on getting spectators to come watch the racecars and gain the trust in the racing community.

Meetings, Meetings and Meetings

Welcome to this installment of In The Groove with Lucas Oil Raceway and we hope your 2011 preparations for the coming season are going well. We at Lucas Oil Raceway are also preparing for the upcoming season and with that comes many hours of meetings and getting together to talk about what is on tap for the rapidly approaching season.

This week the staff of Lucas Oil Raceway has been meeting with the racers in the Summit Racing Equipment ET Bracket Racing Series and getting feedback on what they would like to see from us for the upcoming season. In two meetings, with the final one coming tonight, there has been some great conversation with a great flow of information from the drivers and from our staff to them. The racers at Lucas Oil Raceway are the backbone of the track and are most valuable form of advertising as word of mouth is more effective than any commercial could ever be. While some think of meetings as boring there has been tremendous energy in these meeetings and has been a great way for racers to see each other and catch up o the off season news. We hope that they see the changes being made are for the betterment of the program and that they are able to reap the rewards during the course of the season.

One great program that is being offered by one of our Lucas Oil Raceway racers is the 'free money' program being offered by Sullivan's Tire located here in Hendricks County. The offer is simple: When you purchase $300.00 of trailer tires or any equal service just ask for a Sullivan;s decal and place it on your car. If your car has the sticker on it when you win a race your free money will be $100 for Super Pro, $50 for Pro, $30 for Street and $20 for Junior Dragster. This is a great way racers are giving back to the program and f you have any questions call Craig at 317-272-5050.

That is all for this edition of In the Groove with Lucas Oil Raceway as I'm off to another meeting! Have a great weekend!

Lucas Oil Raceway, new name for a classic facility

Greetings! Happy New Year from In the Groove with Lucas Oil Raceway from the newly renamed Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis which last week entered into a new naming rights agreement with Lucas Oil Products. We are very excited about the new partnership and are looking forward to working with the gang from Lucas Oil.

We also want to thank all of those that helped with the press conference at the AARWBA dinner last Sunday. Check out the guys from Frameworks Marketing Group working to get our logo printed to be used at the Press Conference.

Also thanks to the gang from AARWBA for hosting our press conference and Forrest Lucas for attending the event and the unveiling of the new Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis Logo.

For readers of In the Groove with Lucas Oil Raceway we hope you can join us this weekend at the Cabin Fever Racers Trade Show and Swap Meet taking place at the Kokomo Event Center this Friday and Saturday. Information on the event can be found on their web page.

Also if you are a bracket racer be sure to join us for preseason meetings taking place next week at Eaton Hall at the Brownsburg Town Hall. More information can be found here.

We hope you have a great week and please stop by to say hello if you come to the trade show!

Welcome to the renewal of In The Groove

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes or for this crowd like the return of a Top Fuel dragster after a full engine rebuild, the In The Groove blog has returned. In the coming months and during the course of the 2011 season we hope that you check back often as we want to use In the Groove as a behind the scenes look into the season and many of the events at O’Reilly Raceway Park. We are busily preparing for the coming season and many new items are in the works for the coming year. In case you missed some of the recent announcements they are:

ARCA Returns to O’Reilly Raceway Park during the course of Kroger SpeedFest on July 28th. The night will be called the Thursday Night Triple Header and will feature USAC Midget and Silver Crown Series along with ARCA during the night. This marks the first time ARCA has raced during the same night as the Midgets and Silver Crown. This is also the first time ARCA comes to the track since the mid-80s. Nine-time ARCA Champion Frank Kimmel hasn’t had the chance to race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in his career and was champing at the bit at the press conference and said he couldn’t wait to take to the track.

Also filling out the oval schedule will be the return of USAC Thursday Night Thunder featuring the USAC Sprint Car series at O’Reilly Raceway Park. From May through October the future stars of racing will be putting their best foot under the summer lights. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman all used USAC to further their racing career at O’Reilly Raceway Raceway.

The drag strip will see a fair share of new events including Friday Nite Rage a thrilling series of events dedicated to heads up door slammer racing. There is already a tremendous ammount of buzz regarding these events and they will be short on rules but long on excitement and thrilling racing.

The 2011 O’Reilly Raceway Park schedule will be announced soon and new for the season will be a downloadable version of the calendar in a .CSV file or iCal for Apple users. This will allow you to download the full calendar directly into your calendar and give you direct access to all the information about the season.

During the course of the year we plan on using In the Groove as a resource for our fans and will have guest bloggers, rules information, driver profiles, tail gaiting tips, recipes and much more on the page.

We hope you have a Happy Holiday season and we will be talking at you in January.

Rolling Into The 55th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals

Welcome to the most prestigious drag racing event in the world. The oldest, largest, richest and longest-running Labor Day motorsports event in the United States. It's Sunday afternoon of the 55th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. And I'm here were all the action is going down...at O'Reilly Raceway Park (where all the magic of motorsports occurs).

That's right, I'm back with the team as my former boss, Scott Smith-Smizzle, asked me to assist him with some PR and communications work for the weekend! I've been spoiled all summer long and now this! After U.S. Nationals, I will officially become a drag-racing, motorsports-loving lady.

Well, we may not have sunshine, the drag strip may not be dry...but we do have eager fans, media spectators, drivers and teams (and me!) waiting out the rain so qualifications and rounds can continue for the day.

So as we wait for this weather to pass, let me re-cap all the events that led us up to this point of the U.S. Nationals. Actually, let me rephrase that: I'll recap all of the events I got to partake in.



As the week progressed towards qualifications, O'Reilly Raceway Park was visited with FOX 59's Jeremiah Johnson, on Tuesday, as he interviewed and raced with Top Fuel driver, Larry Dixon.

















Wednesday officially kicked off the week of U.S. Nationals with the Full Throttle Series Press Conference held at the Country Club of Indianapolis. This media luncheon consisted of five drivers from the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series who are competing in the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals: Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel) and John Force (Funny Car).

The entertainment carried into the evening of Wednesday with the Lucas Oil Kick-Off Party hosted at Champps Americana on Indy's Northside. The event featured a driver autograph session, display of race cars, live music and an appearance by the popular trackside big screen, ACDelco Vision. Driver appearances included Larry Dixon, Brandon Bernstein, Ron Capps, Jack Beckman and Morgan Lucas, among others.

Thursday also provide entertainment to fans of U.S. Nationals with the John Force RaceStation Open House and Car Show held here in Indy. Fans were greeted with a display of funny cars and autographs of the Force Racing team, including John Force and his daughter, Ashley Force-Hood.

The open houses continued into Friday as Don Shcumacher Racing hosted their own open house. The event featured a Car and Motorcycle Show, Vintage Nitro Car “Cacklefest”, driver autographs and a racing-themed memorabilia raffle.

Friday, along with the beautiful weather, had many action-packed events in store including live shots with WRTV's Dave Furst, live remotes with WIBC's Big Joe Staysniak and other activities you can only experience at O'Reilly Raceway Park during the U.S. Nationals.

And finally, catching up to speed...Saturday falls nothing short of a, once again, energetic & intense day of Top Fuel, Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock and Funny Car qualifications & rounds.

It's drag racing at its best!

In Their Words

The 2009 VP Fuels E. T. Bracket Racing Series is in the books and the champions have been crowned in each class. Today we hear from Greg Dillman on the season.

What does it mean to win the class championship?
Now days, it's a pretty big accomplishment. With the quality of drivers and cars out there anymore, it's just hard to win a single round let alone a race or championship.

With this being such a long season what all needs to go right to end up on top at the end of the year? Luck! Everyone needs to have those 1 or 2 lucky rounds to get them by to the next round. Sometimes you've just got to create your own Luck. I know I've had my fare share this year.

Was there a time this year where you didn’t think you were going to pull it out?
Probably after the 2nd to last points race. Going out in the 1st round and watching Danny and Eddie go deep into the late rounds and pass me in points was hard to swallow. It's never a easy feeling having to wait a couple weeks and having to rely on mother nature that it doesn't rain just so you have 1 last chance to go more rounds than the people ahead of you.

How nerve racking was it going into the last race down by one point?
Pretty nerve racking. I've been fighting a engine miss for the last couple months and haven't been able to trace it down. Going into the last race and dealing with engine/electrical issues is not something you want going into the last day. But it all worked out.

Was this the first class championship you won and if not how many have you won?
My first championship was back in '93 or '94 when Jr Dragsters started. Since then, I've also won in Street, Pro, and S/Pro.

Is there anyone you would like to thank?
Parents, Dana & kids, Automotion Race Cars, Camping World, and Quinlan Automotive.