INDIANAPOLIS — Heather Carpenter was a nursing student working at the IU Health Infield Car Center at Indianapolis Motor Speedway performing physicals on drivers. Ed Carpenter walked in for a neuro test and saw the beautiful blonde nurse his parents had been trying to set him up with.
Heather saw the confident driver her boss, Dr. Henry Bock, the IMS medical director who was good friends with Ed’s parents, Tony and Laura George, had been trying to set her up with.
Sparks fluttered as Heather gave Ed his baseline concussion test, but, alas, they didn’t fly — not at first. Not until May of 2003 when Ed spotted Heather at the track again.
She was working in the first aid station near the garages and looked even prettier than she had before. Ed asked Heather to leave the track and go run some errands with him.
“And I told him, ‘No, I’m working right now,'” said Heather. “Then he tried again later that night.”
Later that night, Ed suddenly had a runny nose.
“Well, I kind of said that I needed some Flonase,” Ed said Wednesday, laughing, as he and Heather sat in their car waiting for their son’s hockey practice to finish. Heather obliged with the nasal spray and Ed asked her out.