300,000 people expected to attend the race….extra precautions are being put in place.
Indianapolis has a lot of experience handling big events–which has a lot to do with the Indianapolis 500, the biggest single-day sporting event in the world. But even Indy has never seen anything like the sellout crowd attending Sunday’s race. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is responding with a massive security effort. The Senior Director of Safety and Security for Hulman Motorsports, former Indianapolis Deputy Police Chief Mike Bates, says the number of public safety personnel at the track will be about 20 percent bigger than before. And some of them will be in plainclothes. Anyone entering the track with a bag or cooler will be searched with police dogs and high tech “license plate readers” being used to spot potential trouble. Bates says some measures involve “federal assets” that he can’t talk about. Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles says three things will be important–you should leave early, leave with a plan and be patient.
