Indianapolis 500 Needs More Entries, Fewer Gimmicks

Auto racing is pretty simple: Go faster than everyone else.

So it should be a red flag that an infographic is needed to explain the latest qualifying procedures for the Indianapolis 500.

Frankly, until there are a reasonable number of viable entries competing for the 33 spots – somewhere around 40 would be great, but I’d settle for 35 or 36 at this point – it doesn’t matter how often the drivers qualify and re-qualify because it’s basically just shuffling the deck.

I suppose it’s possible that a driver could go from 29^th spot one day to 10^th the next day, but given the spec nature of the cars, that seems unlikely. I’ll be interested to see if there are big changes from one day to the next this year.

Anyway, here’s my solution given the lack of entries:

Have just one day of qualifying. At best, there might be 33 cars this year, so there’s no reason to drag this out over three sessions in two days. Just do it on Saturday, reserving Sunday as the rain date or an additional practice day to run cars in race trim.

• 8-8:30 – First group practice
• 8:30-9 – Second group practice
• 9-10 – "All skate" open practice
• 10-11 – Track closed for inspection, refuel cars, get them lined up
• 11-6 – Qualifying. Set the field and the fast nine. Each car gets up to three attempts.
• 6-6:15 – Refuel and line up the fast nine
• 6:15-7 – Fast nine shootout. One attempt per car.

This one-day, make-or-break session has the potential to give the paying customer a full day of action and, hopefully, some drama without putting the drivers and equipment at unnecessary peril.

In the meantime, figure out a way to get more participants for the 500. Bring back the bubble. It’s a word we’ll hear for the next week or so as it relates to the NCAA Tournament.

It would be nice to hear that word in May again, not just March.

Photo credit: Mark Reed/Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Ed Carpenter won the pole for last year's Indianapolis 500. 

Remembering Mike Mosley

A little tribute to Mike Mosley, who was one of my favorite drivers when I was a kid. Would love to hear The Pepsi Challenger roar (and that car truly did roar) around the Speedway one more time.

Dixon Featured In Two Ads in Free Press

Reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon’s upcoming appearance at a Detroit Pistons game is featured in two color, quarter-page ads in today’s Detroit Free Press sports section.

Good to see IndyCar making use of its champion. The drivers – and owners – are IndyCar’s biggest asset.

Dividing Line Might Come Full Circle

 

If Buddy Lazier indeed puts together a program for this year’s Indianapolis 500, then an interesting showdown of sorts looms at 16^th and Georgetown.

That’s because earlier this week Jacques Villeneuve was confirmed for an Indy-only ride with Sam Schmidt’s operation.

This means the 1995 champion (Villeneuve) and 1996 winner (Lazier) could, potentially, square off in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The year 1995, of course, is significant. To some (many?), this was the last great Indianapolis 500 and, maybe more to the point, the last great season of open-wheel racing in this country.

That season, the landscape included well-known drivers, plentiful car counts (at least 26 starters in most races), several chassis (Lola, Reynard, Penske) and engine (Mercedes, Ford, Honda) manufacturers, two tire choices and 17 different venues covering high-speed ovals, short ovals, natural-terrain road courses.

This year we’ll have 18 events – that’s counting double-headers at Detroit, Houston, Toronto and the two events at Indianapolis. Five of these will be on network television – none after June 1.

One other note about 1995: There were two feeder series (Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights), each with some future race winners and champions. Toyota Atlantic had Richie Hearn, Patrick Carpentier and Felipe Giaffone , while Indy Lights had Greg Moore, Robbie Buhl, Buzz Calkins and Jeff Ward.

Villeneuve’s Indianapolis 500 win and subsequent driver’s championship propelled him to Formula One. He wasn’t around for the calamity the 1996 season – and the next decades – wrought to open-wheel racing in this country in general and to the 500 in particular.

I won’t rehash “The Split” here; suffice to say IndyCar racing remains on a slow climb back to relevance in the sporting landscape – both in the U.S. and globally.

Lazier drove a heady, gutty race to claim the 1996 Indianapolis 500 against a field lacking in star power and overall ability. In 1995, remember, the field was so competitive that neither of the Team Penske drivers - Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi (the two previous 500 winners) – qualified.

Lazier never has been accorded the respect of other 500 champions, and probably won’t unless he can pull off another win. Which is a shame, because he’s a bulldog on ovals. I’ve talked with the likable Lazier a few times over the years, and he’s convinced that he was just as fast as Juan Pablo Montoya on the track during the 2000 race and that the faster pit work by Montoya’s team was the difference.

That’s debatable, of course. From where I sat in Turn 4 that day, it looked like Montoya toyed with the field, and if he needed to up the speed, he was certainly capable of doing so. In any event, with Montoya’s return to the series with Penske, Lazier might get another crack at him.

One more thing about Lazier: His qualifying run in 2008, when he used all his experience, desire and attachments to will a reluctant car into the field, merits the respect of all racing fans.

Hopefully everything comes together because it would be nice to see these two former Indy champions who represent the two sides of the split finally compete in the same Indianapolis 500.

 

 

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

"Wall Smacker" Warms Cold Winter Days

The only good thing about the never-ending snow, cold and generally miserable weather is that it allows me the opportunity to catch up on my motorsports reading.

Which brings me to “Wall Smacker,” the autobiography of 1925 Indianapolis 500 winner Peter DePaolo.

It’s a bit humbling to hold in your hands a book that is nearly 80 years old  - and in very good shape at that. I wonder how, why and where the original owner got it, and how many hands it has passed through before I was fortunate to find it.

I developed a certain fondness and appreciation for DePaolo as a 7-year-old after attending the 1975 Indianapolis 500 with my family. This was my first “official” 500 – I did attend the third day of the ill-fated 1973 event, but we left after Swede Savage had his horrible crash basically right in front of us.

The 1975 event marked the 50^th anniversary of DePaolo’s win, so he took a ceremonial lap before the race. I also have memories of him being interviewed before the race, on Pole Day and on TV programs.

DePaolo also was the grand marshal of the parade that year. During each interview he was friendly and of course eager to recount his Indianapolis triumph.

As a side note, in a way we all may owe DePaolo a thanks - in a roundabout way - for establishing Jim Nabors as the yearly singer of “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

DePaolo belted out the song that means so much to fans on race day in 1971. How did he do? Well, accounts indicate that as a singer DePaolo was a great race car driver. The next year, Nabors took over and pretty much has had the job since.

Back to “Wall Smacker,” which was the unfortunate nickname DePaolo earned, along with “Pileup Pete,” as he learned his craft. It’s an engaging, interesting read, full of tidbits of information that demonstrate how much racing has changed over the many decades – and how much remains the same.

For one thing, DePaolo developed quite a bit of mechanical knowledge as the riding mechanic for several years for his uncle, Ralph DePalma, winner of the 1915 500.

A.J. Foyt was probably the last driver who could actually work on his car; today’s rules mean that basically only the engineers and technicians from the respective manufacturers can touch the engine.

In DePaolo’s case, he often took an active hand in getting his machine prepped for races, sometimes working long into the night and morning before driving the next day.

DePaolo’s tale also includes traveling by boat to compete in Europe, racing in places like Charlotte, N.C., long before NASCAR was even a dream, running on the steeply banked board tracks and terrible crashes where drivers were thrown from their cars.

A glimpse at how the Speedway was managed under Eddie Rickenbacker, who owned the track before Tony Hulman bought it in 1945, also is offered.

People won’t be reading from iPads and Kindles 80 years from now – some other even more portable, more convenient piece of technology will do the job.

Still there’s no substitute for a good book, sitting on the shelf, waiting patiently to be discovered and appreciated by a new audience.

 

Franchitti's Abrupt Retirement Similar to Mears

Photo credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/Indianapolis Motor Speedway

I can’t say I was overly surprised that Dario Franchitti announced his retirement from racing earlier this week. His crash at Houston was frightening, worrisome and far too reminiscent of what transpired at Las Vegas two years ago.

Given Franchitti’s considerable achievements – three Indianapolis 500 victories and four series championships chief among them – and his age (40, comparatively old for an IndyCar driver), I wondered if he would at least think about hanging up the driving gloves.

As it turned out, the injuries suffered in the crash, particularly the concussion, left him no reasonable alternative.

“Medically, he has been told he'll make a 100 percent recovery,” said his car owner, Chip Ganassi, during a conference call this week. “He's been told by his doctors to not race again, basically.”

The abrupt nature of Franchitti’s retirement has some similarities to Rick Mears. In 1992, Mears, the defending Indianapolis 500 champion and going for a record fifth Indy win, had a malfunction coming out of Turn 1, spun and smacked the concrete wall (no SAFER barriers back then), his car scattering debris down the backstretch.

I remember being in the media center watching this transpire. The reporter from the Reading Eagle newspaper (Penske’s team was based in Reading, Pa., at the time) immediately picked up his phone and called back to (presumably) his editor, saying, “Rick just got upside down.”

Mears suffered injuries to his right wrist and left ankle in the mishap, then was involved in a wreck during the race, further injuring his tender wrist. This affected him the rest of the season, as he made only four starts in the last 12 races. Mears stepped out of the car for the last time when he withdrew during the Michigan 500 and he retired in December of that year – at age 41.

As with Mears, Franchitti’s retirement leaves open what more he could have achieved. He’s tied for eighth with Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais on the all-time wins list with 31 (two behind Scott Dixon and two ahead of Mears) and sixth in poles with 33 (one more than Michael Andretti and Will Power).

Perhaps the best indication of Franchitti’s consistency is he is tied for sixth with Bobby Rahal for top five finishes with 119.

The question now turns to who will take over the No. 10 Target car for Ganassi. The logical conclusion is that new addition Tony Kanaan slides into the seat, leaving a spot open on the team for someone else. Alex Tagliani’s name has surfaced, which is reasonable, given that he subbed for Franchitti in the season finale at California.

Another possibility is J.R. Hildebrand, fired by Panther after his disastrous Indianapolis 500. Based on absolutely nothing other than a guy sitting at a keyboard with access to the Internet, let’s throw in the name of Danica Patrick. Maybe she can duplicate Franchitti’s career arc of going from IndyCar to NASCAR back to IndyCar.

Good to see IndyCar back at Pocono

I’m stoked about IndyCar finally – after 24 years (!) – returning to Pocono.

Rebooting the Triple Crown – even with the Pocono race only 400 miles – can differentiate IndyCar and perhaps give it a boost.

One key point of the original Triple Crown – Indianapolis, Pocono and long-gone Ontario – was that each race was anchored around a national holiday. Indianapolis was tied to Memorial Day, of course; Pocono was held around Independence Day and Ontario had Labor Day.

The Pocono date quickly shifted to middle or late June (sort of close to July 4, I suppose), then mid-August to off the calendar completely after the 1989 event.

Pocono – like Indianapolis – also was caught in the crossfire of the original CART-USAC split from 1979-81, resulting in lawsuits, confusion, disgruntled competitors and angry fans. (Sound familiar?)

The 1981 race is notable for being A.J. Foyt’s last IndyCar win and because it included eight dirt cars to round out the field.

Ontario Motor Speedway was dogged by financial troubles almost from the start and could not maintain the momentum from a promising debut in 1970 (Pocono’s first race was in 1971).

For two years (1974 and ’75) the California 500 was run in March, but for the most part the race date was consistently in late August/early September.

Both Pocono and Ontario borrowed some key Indianapolis traditions – 33-car lineups, separate qualifying weekends, queens.

Pocono in particular mirrored many of the Indianapolis non-racing activities with a mayor’s breakfast, festival queen’s ball and victory dinner (or bruncheon, as noted in the 1971 program).

My earliest memory of Pocono was the 1973 race. I remember our family listening to the race on the radio (probably on WIBC) and groaning when Roger McCluskey ran out of fuel on the last lap, handing the win to Foyt.

Twenty-four years is a long time to be away, but the early indications are promising. Let’s hope Sunday’s race opens a new chapter at this one-of-a-kind triangular track.