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From the Sidelines: Indy race provides fast, and loud, fun

Sports reporter

What is it about fast cars?

Where else would 80,000- plus fans pack into a stadium to watch someone go around a track 200 times?

As devoted as Chiefs fans are, if Priest Holmes grabbed a football and sprinted around the field 200 times, his family might be the only people in the crowd.

Royals' fans loves to see Mike Sweeney round the bases once or twice a game. But 200 times? Not so much.

So how can thousands of people stand to watch cars go around a track 200 or more times?

That's what I always asked racing fans before Sunday. Now I know the answer: speed.

As my buddies and I headed to Kansas Speedway this past weekend we mostly looked forward to the free lunch my friend Pete got us at the GMAC hospitality tent.

We took a tour of the infield and saw all the cars and my interest was piqued a little. At 12:15 Danica Patrick (she was the only driver any of us knew before the race) and the other 21 Indy racers revved their engines and took off.

Twenty or so seconds and one and a half miles later they were back. One minute gone and they were starting lap number four. Then I blinked and it was lap 13.

At around 210 MPH these cars were amazing.

It was like X-Box only better.

With one lap to go, and to our dismay Patrick out of it, everyone stood and watched Tony Kennan edge Andretti Green teammate Dan Wheldon by .012 seconds for the sixth-closest finish in Indy Racing League history.

Well none of us actually knew that until we watched SportsCenter later that night, but we could tell it was close.

For five guys who had no idea what was going on, we sure had a good time. The speed and the noise of the cars was unbelievable, and the stadium itself was impressive.

Next year the five-year-old speedway will more than double its seating capacity from 80,000 to about 176,000. When it is finally complete more than 200,000 seats will fill the place.

It's definitely worth going, even if your only experience with fast cars involves pressing the X-button on the controller as hard as you can.

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