The Garage Guys are back at it from a rainy weekend in Texas to the Holy Grail of stock car racing: the Indy 500! Garage Guys Chase Holden and Dale Tanhardt with Inside Tailgating and the American Cornhole League wrap up the action-packed racing weekend capped with a historic win.
Check out the Indy 500 Weekend videos and keep reading as we break it all down for you!
Indy 500 Weekend Highlights
ACL Cornament of Champions
The American Cornhole League also held a big event Thursday before race day. Titled the Cornament of Champions, the ACL 500 Championships was a benefit event for the George 4 Foundation founded by George Steinbrenner IV.
It was held in Daredevil Brewing, which boasted their own brews of race day beer. George Steinbrenner and Matt Guy won the event, which also featured two drivers from Andretti Autosports. Hobbyists and professional cornhole players alike showcased their passion and talent in an afternoon of fun, drinking, and lots and lots of tossing.
Rain Can’t Stop the Party
In what seems to be a cloud of rain that has followed the Garage Guys from Texas, it was raining near the racing weekend, but unlike in Texas, rain cannot stop an Indy 500. Parties were going on everywhere you look. Bars are packed, people are grilling, and RVs are tailgating. There’s no stopping the weekend!
TAILGATING TIP #1
If ever you get a chance to attend the Indy 500 (and you should), park at the Coke Lot! Officially named Lot 1C, this is the hub of the Indy 500 party vibe. There will be nonstop action all weekend. You will be surrounded by people with similar passions and similar party energy. Remember Coke Lot, Lot 1C!
The Flip Cup 500
The Garage Guys organize and fun, albeit competitive, flip cup tournament. Aptly named “The Flip Cup 500,” a 16-team, single-elimination flip cup tournament with many drinks and lots of flipped cups. Grilled food abounded, and mixed martial artist legend Matt Mitrione joined the fun and taught Chase how to level up his self-defense game!
TAILGATING TIP #2
If you want to stir some action in your tailgate camp, try organizing fun contests or mini-tournaments. It is a nice way to get people from different tailgates together into one awesome party to share drinks, food, and most of all, a good time.
Indy 500
After Chase got a hold of himself after being awestruck by the sheer size of the speedway (and by trees!), the race began with a beautiful, hour-long opening ceremony. In the end, Helio Castroneves became a four-time Indy 500 winner and made his signature climb of the fence after a victory.
Tailgating the Indy 500 Weekend Wrap-up
Tales of the Indy 500 Tailgate
Garage Guy Chase chats up ACL and USA Cornhole team members, Christine Papcke and Allison Peters from the ACL Cornament event at the Daredevil Brewery prior to the Indianapolis 500.
Chase:
Hello, welcome to Tales of the Tailgate. I’m here inside of the Duke Cannon Mobile Garage, brought to you by Inside Tailgating. With Tales of Tailgate, we’ve got Allison Peters and Christine Papcke, the ladies of the American Cornhole League. And check it out, USA Cornhole league team. So we just had the celebrity championship out here today, which we were calling the corn … was it the corn?
Allison:
Cornament.
Chase:
The Cornament.
Christine:
The Cornament, yeah.
Chase:
I’m a big fan of the cornament, because we have the shirt here.
Christine:
Cornament.
Chase:
Cornament champions. We had some celebrity guests, some Indy car drivers out here. We also had a Kenny Moore from the Indianapolis Colts. So the main thing we’re talking about here is why … girls are supposed to run the world. Why didn’t you guys win today?
Allison:
Because we didn’t put enough bags in the whole.
Chase:
Christine?
Christine:
Yeah, well, because I had to play against Matt Guy. He puts a lot of bags in the hole.
Chase:
I found out a lot about Matt Guy today. So apparently he’s supposedly the Tom Brady of cornhole. So we’re changing that up now. There’s going to be a lot of strength and focus. All right, in this next match that we have coming up. And where are you guys going to be playing next?
Allison:
We’re going to be playing in Albany, New York.
Chase:
So Albany New York. New York is a powerhouse state, by the way. So we all know the Empire State of mind, great song. I think Jay Z and Alicia Keys song, that one. So all we have to do is just focus all the energy there. You’re going to beat Matt Guy. We’re going to find a way to do it. I think Matt guy was with Dale earlier on Tales of the Tailgate episode talking. So being out here in the indie scene, skipping into the whole tailgating vibe of it. Out here in the indie scene, this is my first time in Indianapolis. Y’all have been here before, obviously, right? Yeah.
Allison:
Yeah. But I’m not in the city and doing all of this. Just passing through.
Chase:
What Do you think about Speedway, Indiana? It’s actually in Indianapolis, but it’s not in Indianapolis at the same time. I don’t really understand it. But it’s very clean, very different, very different vibe. What do you think about it?
Allison:
Everybody’s been super nice here. I’ve enjoyed meeting a lot of new people and I think it’s great here.
Chase:
What about you? Where are you from originally?
Christine:
Cleveland, Ohio.
Chase:
So you’re a far away from home.
Christine:
No. I was only four and a half hours.
Chase:
Did you grow up an Indians fan?
Christine:
Yeah.
Chase:
I like the Indians. I was a big Corey Kluver guy.
Christine:
And unfortunately, Browns as well.
Chase:
The Browns are doing better. I mean, you guys smoked the Pittsburgh Steelers this past year.
Christine:
We are trying.
Chase:
Trying to?
Christine:
We’re working on it.
Chase:
It’s coming around. I think the spirit of Paul Brown, he’s going to come back around. It’s going to be okay. So this weekend, I’ll say this much. We’re going to be at Indy 500. I don’t know if you guys are going to be sticking around or not, but we’re going to win this race. Tailgating experiences. I know Allison, we’ve tailgated pretty hard at Darlington. It was good times. What is one of the things that you guys think make a tailgate complete?
Allison:
Just getting out there and getting around all the people that are excited about cornhole and hanging out before and after the races. And just being together and all the fun stuff that goes with it.
Chase:
What about you, Christine?
Christine:
I have never been to a race before, so I am so … I know. I know. I know. I know.
Chase:
What?
Christine:
I am so looking forward to it.
Chase:
Christine. Okay. We have to talk now.
Christine:
I was told earplugs.
Chase:
You can’t leave now. You have to stay here. You have to stay here all weekend.
Christine:
I am.
Chase:
You are. So this is going to be your first race?
Christine:
Yes. Yeah.
Chase:
Okay. We can breathe.
Christine:
But I know.
Chase:
We can breathe.
Christine:
I’ve never experienced it before. So I don’t even know what to expect.
Chase:
Well see, right now Inside Tailgate, we’re on a NASCAR tour, because with garage guys and what we do, we bet on the NASCAR races. So this is my first time coming out to the Indy 500. I’ve been to an Indy Car race in my life. You’re getting to see the pinnacle of racing for your first time ever watching racing. This is a huge deal. Do you know any driver’s names?
Christine:
No.
Chase:
Guess what?
Christine:
I have no idea.
Chase:
Me either. Me either. I don’t know any driver’s names except for Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe.
Christine:
Well, I don’t know who any of them are.
Chase:
That’s okay. Well, they were out there. They were rock and roll. Alexander Rossi, James Hinchcliffe. They were out here today for the event and
Christine:
They’re actually in it?
Chase:
They were in it. They played you guys. They played you guys.
Christine:
Well, they’re in it on Sunday.
Chase:
On Sunday. Yes. They’re going to be racing. See, Christine stays in the zone all the time. She has no time to focus on these other things.
Allison:
Cornhole only.
Chase:
Cornhole only. Okay.
Christine:
It’s really cornhole.
Chase:
The eye of the cornhole. We’re there.
Christine:
That’s all I got going on.
Chase:
But see, that’s the sign of a true winner, though, Christine. You have that in there. I mean, your laser focus is pretty strong too. I think that I was trying to talk to you four or five times and you just were staring. In your mind, you were off somewhere. You were just constantly airmailing just bags just over and over and over again. So the intensity was very, very … it had me. It catches me. Catches me off guard sometimes watching you guys play.
Christine:
Yeah, you have to be like that.
Chase:
So if you went to a tailgate and they didn’t have cornhole boards, would you leave or would you raise hell?
Allison:
I bring my own.
Chase:
She stays. She’s always strapped like Lil Wayne said. We like that. What about you, Christine?
Christine:
I’d find something to do.
Chase:
Would you find her and get the cornhole board?
Christine:
There’s always people playing cornhole.
Allison:
There is.
Christine:
It’s Not hard to find.
Chase:
That’s what’s wild for me, is because this is a new world for me with cornhole, is that you guys, obviously from where y’all are from, it’s a huge deal. I grew up in New Orleans, so around there. I remember going to a couple of tailgates in my life and places and I would see it. We were really big on the washers back home, because we couldn’t afford cornhole bags. So we had to use pieces of broken tools from a shed. So that’s where we came from. We didn’t really get the experience of the bean. If I would have to tried to do that, my dad would’ve got mad because I probably would have had to cut a hole in a bean bag to make my own thing to throw.
Chase:
So it’s a new world for me. But to see going from South Carolina and then going up into Dover area, to see the amount of people that are just gung ho with it, it’s amazing. And it’s wild. I have entered this whole new universe. I’m loving everything that I’m seeing, loving the energy and the focus that you guys have. Because you guys are pros. I’m sitting down with two pro athletes right now. It’s legit. Being on the USA team too, how has that been?
Allison:
It’s been great. Being able to come to events like this and meet new people and just introduce who we are and get our sport going more and more, it’s growing.
Christine:
Growing, yeah.
Allison:
Yes.
Chase:
That’s what we love too. So right now, so many NASCAR fans, I’m finding more and more are flocking. It’s awesome. We’re at the races. They’re seeing the cornhole boards set up, they’re wanting to play, they’re getting engaged. And that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. It’s about getting the ACL, that exposure and showing how awesome it is. And not just as a sporting event, but as something to gather people around that they can watch. NBC and CBS are involved in this thing now. This is the real deal. So it’s a beautiful thing. And it’s exciting to watch. I’m loving it. I know you guys are loving it.
Christine:
We are.
Chase:
I need to learn how to laser focus like you ladies. So I’m going to need y’all to teach me.
Christine:
That’ll take some practice.
Allison:
Lot of practice.
Chase:
How much time we got? How many years did it take?
Allison:
I haven’t been at it as long as Christine, but I’d say my first couple of years, so far, I’ve put in a lot of hours.
Chase:
You would have to think that your arm eventually, you don’t even have to think when you throw, it just goes.
Christine:
Muscle memory.
Allison:
Yeah.
Chase:
Muscle memory.
Christine:
Muscle memory. Exactly. When I first started playing, my ex-boyfriend was like, “You need to throw a flat bag.” I didn’t throw a flat bag.
Chase:
How do you throw?
Christine:
At one point when I was trying to figure out how to throw, I threw a bag on someone’s roof.
Chase:
Overhand?
Christine:
I don’t know what I did, but it was just incredibly awful. That was in 2009. So I’ve come a long way since then.
Chase:
It’s 12 years ago. That’s only 12 years ago. So I have 12 years that I have to dedicate now.
Christine:
You’re going to have to want to.
Chase:
From this moment, from this moment. I’ve got my work cut out for me, guys. All right. I’m going to try my best to get started here. Well, I guess, when this tour is over, I think we’re starting another one possibly. So I have to really hone my skills every day.
Christine:
We can give you tips. We can give you tips.
Chase:
All right. We’re keeping in touch. We’re Doing this. This has been the ladies of the ACL. Ms. Allison Peters, Ms. Christine Papcke. Thank you guys so much for joining Tales of the Tailgate. I want to see you all at a tailgate. I’m going to see you at tailgate this weekend.
Christine:
Yeah. Yeah.
Chase:
We’ll miss you, Alison.
Allison:
We’ll miss you.
Chase:
I’m going to miss you a lot. All right. We’ll see you guys. Heck yeah. We’re going racing. Indy 500.
Christine:
Oh, I can’t wait.
Chase:
Sorry to leave you out.
Christine:
So excited.
Chase:
Sorry to leave you out, Allison. All right, guys.
To sum up, the Indy 500 was a five-day tailgate. It is something everybody needs to experience. The next one will be an All-Star Race back in Texas. See you then!
Special thanks to the American Cornhole League and Duke Cannon for their sponsorship of our 2021 NASCAR Tailgate Tour. Share your Dover tailgate experiences with us below and like, follow, tag us on your social tailgating posts for shout-outs. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and email newsletter so you stay up to speed on all the tailgating insider info!
