I guess you could say they told him to...hit the bricks? (Sorry, that was a Brickyard 400 pun, I couldn't resist). NASCAR is back at one of the most historic tracks in all of motorsports, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this weekend. And for the first time since 2020, the NASCAR Cup Series will be racing on the 2.5 mile long oval after being moved to the road course from 2021-2023. The Brickyard 400 has been a crown jewel event for NASCAR since its inception in 1994, and has brought some pretty wild moments over the years as drivers have competed for the opportunity to kiss the bricks. But one of the more bizarre stories from the Brickyard 400 didn't even happen on the track. It was back in 2017 when Kevin Harvick's spotter, Tim Fedewa, brought some sandwiches up to the roof with him as he settled in to spot his driver during practice. Now, a couple of things to know here: First, one of Harvick's sponsors at the time was Jimmy John's, so I'm sure there were always plenty of sandwiches close by his team. And second, Indy is unique in that instead of spotting from a rooftop on the frontstretch like they do at most oval tracks, the spotters at this track are positioned on the pagoda in the infield, which has multiple levels overlooking each other. I'm sure you've seen the famous landmark before.
So anyway, with that in mind, Fedewa makes his way onto the pagoda, sandwiches in hand, and starts passing them out to some of his industry friends. And he tries to throw one to a guy named Chris Sims, who from what I can tell is a reporter for the Indianapolis Star. Well apparently Chris isn't a great catch - and drops the sandwich off of the rooftop he's on. According to Fedewa: "It was a tight spiral. He was one level down, but behind him was seven stories down... Chris holds his hands up in the air, and I hit him right in the hands, it might have been a little hot but it was a good throw. It went through his hands and it went down seven or eight floors, past Homeland Security, because they're right below us at IMS. So they see it go by." And the sandwich just happened to land beside the track president. Fedewa says he saw a NASCAR official talking to an official on the roof, a conversation that went something like "WTF." And then security came up to Fedewa and asked him for his hard card - his credential that allows him in the NASCAR garage, which is obviously an important part of doing your job. The scanner audio captured the awkward moment when Fedewa had to break the news to his team that he was getting kicked out for dropping a sandwich:
"Send someone up to spot for me... They took my hard card. A sandwich fell off the roof and they're mad. It was my sandwich." https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC/status/1813966963502137682 Probably not what the crew chief was expecting to hear. Well the team's hauler driver ran to the roof to replace Fedewa, who was escorted to the NASCAR trailer to speak with officials - like getting called to the principal's office. Fedewa said that NASCAR was "great" about it, and obviously returned his hard card in time for the race. And ahead of the Brickyard 400, the track even poked fun at the flying sandwich on their social media page: https://twitter.com/IMS/status/889190451747721217 Fedewa got a great story out of it, one that he shared on the
Door Bumper Clear podcast a few years ago. And this Sunday, he'll be back on the pagoda once again, this time spotting for Ryan Blaney. But I'm sure he'll have a tight grip on his lunch now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq_6gwsI-BE
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