WOW is all I can say!  I come back home for the Indy 500 each year and I know the party scene is always loaded… but holy cow, this year was one for the record books!  I'm still so freakin' tired right now as I write this at 10:30 a.m. Indy time on Monday, Memorial Day… and my photographer has all the still photos and video with him, BUT we WILL be posting those as the week's highlights as soon as we are able… you will NOT want to miss what we have to share with you.  Until then, here is the written recap.

From Wednesday night – Kenny Brack's CD Release Party and AJ Foyt Tribute, hanging with the band and AJ truly being humbled… by the way, this music is really good!  Go to KennyBrack.com if you would like to purchase the CD and see just how good he is… seriously Kenny, good times!  Then it was off to the Jeans and Jewels soiree where I had a fabulous interview with Tony Kanaan (TK) and Dario Franchitti (whom Tony is trying to call 'DF')… was what they said foreshadowing?  Looking back now, I'd say yes… and no more worries about being laid up with your back in Indy, right DF?  We also spoke briefly with Danica Patrick, Tomas Scheckter and Al Unser Jr.  Then somehow we were introduced to one of the wealthiest men in Indy, Al Kite, who owns the Conrad Hotel, and he decided to take me, my friends, Helio Castroneves and his entire family, Ryan Briscoe, Jamie Little from ESPN and Nicole Manske from Speed Channel for a personal tour of the hotel and of his top floor penthouse residence, which must be apx. 8000 sq. feet and overlooks the entire city 360 degrees!!  Again, WOW!  Many funny stories from this tour – including Al's personal toilet fun… I can't wait for you to see the photos!  Got home around 4 a.m.

From Thursday night – Of course the RACER party is always a hit, so I started off there at Subterra with Buddy Rice for a while, then hung out with TK again for a bit, saw Bobby Rahal and then out of nowhere came Gene Simmons of KISS with driver PJ Chesson… which is precisely when the party really began.  Poor Gene was a bit tired it seemed as he was mobbed by all the ladies, but he eventually was able to chill with us as we crossed the street to crash Milka Duno's party at Club Six.  The rest of the night is a bit blurred to say the least, but I do remember getting PJ's pic with Kato Cailen (remember him from the OJ Simpson trial)… yeah, whatever.  Once I met up with a lot of my friends who came in from out of town, the night just went into CRAZY mode!  Back home again around 4:30 a.m. this time.  For that night, nuff said. 😉

Friday – CARB DAY!!  Well, we nabbed a lot of good interviews and photos before the IndyCar practice got going, then between the practice and pit stop competition it was good to spend some time with our friends Forrest and Charlotte Lucas (owners of Lucas Oil and sponsors of the winning Indy Pro Series car that day) and my buddy Chip Ganassi.  Say what you may about Chip, but he is such a good person to our show and DAMN fun to hang around!!  Peanut Butter anyone?  As we set up our spot for photos for the pit stop competition, we turned around and noticed we had a few security marshals behind us… lo and behold there was Tony George (who was happy to see me/SpeedFreaks), PJ Chesson and actor Ray Liotta with his daughter Carson.  For the next hour, PJ and I explained the activities of the day to the Liottas and we pulled the drivers over to Carson so she could load up her hat with autographs… Danica Patrick, the Firestone Firehawk, Helio Castroneves, PJ himself, Chip Ganassi and of course yours truly, Crash Gladys! 😉  I also gave her one of my personalized Sharpies so she wouldn't forget little 'ol me in the midst of all those cool drivers.  THEN, it was Kid Rock time… we made it through Hospitality Village and the beer line as quick as we could so we could get our asses back stage for the show.  And after I nabbed some cool, crazy crowd shots, we were able to enjoy Kid right from the front row with again the Liottas and Desperate Housewives' Jesse Metcalfe.  That night the Indy bar scene was CRAZY again… my friends and I got a limo so we could go full throttle and not worry about ANYTHING… first was dinner at Palomino (and damn, for just 10 of us, the bill was freakin' $1200… yeah, we sucked back some good wine!), ran into Bobby Rahal… then it was off to Subterra, Blu (where again we ran into Bobby Rahal) and back to Club Six.  We got ourselves a table at Six this time and knocked down another $1000 just to do so, but it was worth it… we were able to have comfy seats and mingle anywhere in the bar at any time… so we partied again with Gene Simmons and his entire group, found actor Ian Ziering and chilled with him, saw AJ Foyt IV but refused to talk to him as he shouldn't have been out so late on such a big weekend, mingled with our ESPN and IndyCar staff friends and closed down the bar with the Ganassi posse around 4 a.m…. then it was off to Steak and Shake (or what my new foreign friends like to call it, "Shake and Bake") and home by the time the sun came up, 5:30 ish.

Saturday – Yep, this was a tough day to wake up and have any energy as the past 3 nights were freakin' LATE and FUN!  So we decided to diss the parade, sleep in and watched Old School.  And because we knew Sunday was going to be large, we also skipped the Snake Pit Ball and the 'Night B4 the 500 race at IRP' and instead did a cookout of our own… that was definitely the right decision… another GREAT night, too!  Just sorry I missed my friend Lani Williams singing in Fishers… she is so talented!

Sunday – I couldn't sleep the night before because my excitement was overwhelming as it is EVERY year the night before the 500.  So again after what seemed like only 3 or 4 hours of sleep, I picked up my friend Andrew (who was one of my camera guys over the week – FABULOUS shots, by the way!!!!) and headed to the track in the morning, ran into one of SpeedFreaks' best friends/ NHRA driver Brandon Bernstein (which shocked me!) and his fiancee, spent the late a.m. interviewing celebs in the Green Room (got some cool sound bites from Peyton Manning, again Ian Ziering, The Commodores, Chris Lytle and Aimee Garcia… then it was off to the pits for pre-race where we nabbed shots with other actors (yes, Crash was able to finally meet Dr. McSteamy, Eric Dane) and a brief, funny interview with both Mario Andretti and David Letterman at the same time.  Bottom line?  Those two say you just aren't hooked up right if you miss the Indy 500 for that other race down south in Charlotte.  Sweet, Dave!  Then it was off to watch the beginning of the race in Helio's pit stall… I left the guys there and just had to run to the suites to get some lunch… thank you Dryer & Reinbold Racing… when I got back, we walked the pits and grabbed other photos and then the drizzle/rain came, so we rested briefly in the media center.  After a few minutes we decided to check on our sponsor friends in the suites and ended up hanging there for a LONG while… OK, so I also decided that we could be done working for the day and it was cocktail time!  Thanks to Torch for letting us hang in his suite (and meet some of the Navy studs and Survivor's Rupert – who remembered us from last year – is that a scary thing?) and of course to Chip Ganassi for letting us park it in his pad for the remainder of the race.  I couldn't have had better timing, either.  After the race restarted, we headed up to the rooftop seats above the Ganassi suite and continued our little party.  Then I had to make a pit stop of my own… and when I was through, the skies opened up again (ha – I never got wet!)  Later in the night, guess where we ended up?  You'll never guess… … … Club Six!  AGAIN!!  But this time it was the exclusive driver party.  So, even though we were completely exhausted, we capped the week with PJ Chesson, Sam Hornish, Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, Ian Ziering, Marco Andretti, Darren Manning, Scott Dixon, Jamie Little, Buddy Rice, AJ Foyt IV (yikes), Jerrod the Subway Guy, Howard Jaffe models and many, many, MANY more fun folks.  And yep, got home at 3:30 a.m.

Photos and video will be on the way… you will LOVE what we will show you!!!!!  And MANY thanks to all the folks who helped to make the week possible:  Heather and Ed Carpenter, Al Kite and the Conrad Hotel, Blu, Aleks & Steve, Subterra, Six, PJ Chesson, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, my new found fun foreign friends, IndyCar, ESPN, Robin & Anthony, Ganassi, RACER Magazine, Torch Wear, Andrew, Jay and of course my boys at SpeedFreaks.

So who wants to be my intern for the '08 Indy 500 when we go through all of this again!??  Accepting applications NOW, and I'm SERIOUS!!  Pansies need not apply… it is a LONG week, with not much sleep, but trust me, you will NEVER experience anything like it again!  Full access… or rather, full throttle, baby!