We’ve seen pictures of the massive crowd at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Tents, lawn chairs and campers filled the grounds in Lexington. Ohio, as fans were treated to a dazzling show that featured 114 position passes.
The scale of campers was really put in perspective, though, by a story out of Cleveland Browns training camp this week. ESPN.com’s Pat McManamon wrote about the RV that rookie Baker Mayfield was ordered to provide for quarterbacks to get away.
Not even HBO’s “Hard Knocks” crew is allowed inside, according to the story.
"It's just someplace that you can go, you can get out of these four walls that start to close in on you after a period of time," said Drew Stanton. "There's no secret meetings or anything going on."
But here’s the best part: Mayfield had to settle for what is apparently a rather boring RV for the first few days of camp because INDYCAR fans had already reserved the best ones for the Mid-Ohio race weekend.
"We had to deal with what we could take at the time, so we'll get the upgrade when it's available," Mayfield said.
Mid-Ohio officials confirmed that reserved trackside motorhome spots were sold out for this year's race. That was clearly visible on the NBCSN telecast around the famous keyhole, esses and carousel locations of the track. More RVs helped fill the campground areas not adjacent to the track, alongside campers in tents as well. In conjunction with race sponsor Honda, the track held a themed camp decorating contest for the third straight year, with more than one INDYCAR driver visiting campsites throughout the weekend to mingle with fans.
We’re reminded yet again that INDYCAR fans are the best. Just look at this crowd: