Thanks to fear generated by the Boston Marathon bombing, the Indpls Motor Speedway took the cooler situation more seriously this year. I have gone to 28 Indy 500s and have had my cooler actually opened up and looked into about 4 times. (Contrast that with Raceway Park in Clermont where it is always a thorough inspection including items taken out of the cooler).

I get the need to look into coolers and I get that it is private property at the track and they have the right to do so. I am not complaining about that one bit.

This year IMS took its responsibility to look into coolers much more seriously and at 30 minutes until the race started there were still 100,000 people standing out on Georgetown Road. Finally, pressure to let people in just in time to see the start of the race caused them to let up.

In the post-race discussion was some talk of the Speedway banning all coolers in the future and making people buy all of their food and drink inside, like NFL, NHL, MBL and NBA do. The reasons: 1) safety, 2) convenience at the entrances, 3) revenue from food and drink sales.

Is there any racetrack in America that does this or would IMS be the first (if it even happens)?

Personally, I think they will keep decreasing the coolers sizes