The IZOD Indy cars were the feature of the strip on Thursday night when the strip shut down between Tropicana and Flamingo, and the cars had their way.

There was a group of cars at the Bellagio and another group at Mandalay Bay. At about 7pm, the 25 or so cars at Mandalay Bay came up the strip, turned around and staged by the fountains at Bellagio. They had a police escort, but the strip did not close for this part of the event. Street cars just pulled over to the side of the road, cops blocked the intersections, and the Indy cars zipped around. Some were going fast, some were going slow and waving, and some were doing burn outs at every opportunity. It must have been a shock for those street cars that were passed by a parade of open wheel race cars.

Then about 8pm, it got fun again as the strip did shut down in this area and all of the Indy cars did laps up one side of the strip and down the other. It wasn't actual racing. It seemed to be a lot of fun for the drivers and the fans.

I talked to a crew member for one of the cars who said that they practiced earlier on Thurday at the track, had to raise the cars height and remove some of the ground effects package. After this event on the strip, they had to take the cars back and put all that stuff back on and get the car into race trim. Also, they only get one engine per race, so the engine they running with is the only one they brought.

I had a good time.

Nice, so sad about the race though!