When I asked Greg where he wanted to have dinner our first night in Indianapolis, he told me we were going to St. Elmo’s, rather matter-of-factly, as if I should have already known that. He had overheard Tim Cindric, then strategist for Josef Newgarden’s car, say that’s where they were headed, so naturally, that’s where we were going. We had no idea what we were getting into.
We showed up at St. Elmo still in our fan gear, Greg in a Hitachi jersey and me in a 2Crew tank with a linen overshirt, both in shorts, straight from the track, and realized immediately that we were underdressed. The host smiled, and didn’t seem to mind when he asked if we had a reservation. We didn’t, and he smiled again. He told us he had a table we could have for an hour, but that it was reserved after that and they were fully booked the rest of the evening. We gladly accepted.
As we followed him into the restaurant, it became clear that we had entered the de facto clubhouse for the who’s who of IndyCar. We walked past Mike Shank, a table full of Chip Ganassi Racing’s strategists, and noticed Doug Boles table-hopping. Almost everyone in the room had some sort of racing, sponsor, or manufacturer logo on their clothing, and I understood why the host hadn’t scoffed when he greeted us.
