Patrick Lindsey took the strangest and most entertaining Sunday drive ever.
After Lindsey's Porsche had an axle issue on the road course during the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Fla., early Sunday, he turned down a service road and ended up driving through the infield and thousands of spectators.
He weaved in and out of traffic -- passing cars, motorhomes and golf carts -- had to slow down for pedestrians and ended up wishing he had a horn.
"A couple of my sponsors came by and said, 'Hey, that was awesome,'" said Lindsey, a full-time driver in IMSA Series. "Everybody I guess got a good laugh about it unbeknownst to me. Yeah, it's funny. We won Petit at the end of last year and people are like, 'Yes, super, good for you.' But I drive through the freaking paddock on the street and people are like, 'Yeah!' "
Lindsey lost forward drive coming out of Turn 5 and didn't want to cause a full-course caution, so he decided to take a short cut through the infield.
"First of all, I got to sit there for a minute while the guy woke up and opened up the gate," Lindsey said. "I don't know what time it was, but people were just kind of foggy. I made it through there and I didn't exactly know where I was but I knew there was a road there somewhere. People were walking, like having their morning coffee, and there's a race car behind them.
"The cars this year are a lot quieter and I'll be damned if we don't have a horn. Because there is nothing you can do except just wait for them to figure out that there's a race car there. As soon as they did, they were kind enough to jump up out of the way."
Even the tram pulled over to let Lindsey by, but not the driver of a white Acura.
"I was seriously thinking about tapping the Acura that was just cruising in front of me," Lindsey said. "Then I thought to myself, 'Well, do I have to stop and like talk to the guy after I hit him? Technically, he signed a waiver to get in here, right? So if he gets hits by a race car, it's kind of his own bad, so I literally had this discussion in my mind about just giving him a love tap."
He eventually got by and then drove by the famed Ferris wheel, past concession and souvenir stands and then by all the sports car clubs before getting to the garage, where crew members started changing the gear box. He got back in the race but fell more than 100 laps behind the leader.
"It's an emotional roller-coaster beyond the obvious mental and physical [strains]," Lindsey said. "When something bad happens to the car, you're distraught and frustrated. One little thing can kind of set you off. Fortunately, we had already had some bad stuff happen. If that was the first bad thing that happened, I would have been pretty upset.
"It was already a bad deal. It was just a little entertainment after that."
Shot from beyond
A recently deceased Illinois woman who didn't think much of Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler when she was alive decided to get in one final shot in her obituary.
From the Chicago Tribune: "Elizabeth Porter Bowman, 78, of Northbrook, Illinois died peacefully January 9, 2016, surrounded by her children. Betsy was an elementary school teacher and later a tutor, but her passion and focus was being a dedicated and involved mother and grandmother. She was a woman of loyalty, integrity, opinion, curiosity and intelligence. A lifelong fan of the Cubs, Blackhawks and Bears (except Jay Cutler)."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you drop the mic.
Sports quiz
Jay Cutler just completed his seventh season with the Chicago Bears. During the time, how many playoff games have the Bears won?
Answer
One.
Sports on 02/01/2016