Images of the encounter with “Gary” at a campground outside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway around 2 a.m. last Sunday evoke memories of Bigfoot’s infamous walk through the forest.

Grainy, pixelated, and just close enough to be the character in question, my friend and film partner Travis Long is absolutely convinced he and his friends were visited by Verizon IndyCar Star James Hinchcliffe prior to the Indy 500. In disguise.

According to eyewitness accounts, a sober Hinchcliffe—sporting a trucker hat with long straggly hair, and having introduced himself as ‘Gary’—swept into camp and took part in a round of “Fowling” (replace the bowling ball with a football, throw it at the pins, and you have ‘fowling’) with Long’s Indy-loving group.

A grainy close-up of "Gary" Courtesy Travis Long

The brief exchange with the drifter was over almost as soon as it started, and after a few tosses, Gary left to continue his incognito trek among thousands of well-soused fans.

Without a car to race in the field of 33, and freed of the normal routines required of an IndyCar driver, was Hinchcliffe actually patrolling Indy 500 campsites in search of fun early Sunday morning?

Reached after the event, asked if Long’s suspicions were accurate, the Mayor of Hinchtown would only offer two words: “Classic Gary.”

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