At 26th in the Field, He’s Racin, Because Daddy Was Slick Before Him

His given name is Slick Racin Gardner, but the 26th qualifier for the 500 goes by Racin because his dad is also Slick.

He comes by the name naturally. Slick Sr. was attending a race at Ontario Motor Speedway 24 years ago when his wife went into labor.

Slick is a former land-speed record driver from Buellton, Calif., and Racin followed his dad to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where at 16 he drove the Green Monster and became the youngest driver to exceed 500 mph.

“The land-speed car makes quite a bit more noise and shakes quite a bit more than the Indy car,” Gardner said after qualifying at 224.453 mph in one of Team Scandia’s Lola-Ford Cosworths. “It’s a whole lot different. Out there, there’s no walls and no corners.”

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Scott Harrington, a hometown Indianapolis wannabe 500 driver who sold his prized ’77 silver Porsche 911 to raise money for an Indy car, didn’t last long once he got one. Shortly after passing his rookie orientation, Harrington crashed in the third turn, severely damaging the ’92 Lola-Buick he had bought.

Harrington, 32, suffered a bruised left foot and shoulder.

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Danny Ongais, who will be 54 on Tuesday and hasn’t raced an Indy car for 10 years, took to the track to test Butch Brickell’s ’93 Lola-Menard in hopes of qualifying for his 11th 500 but failed to make it all the way around the 2 1/2-mile track.

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Given a reprieve from the rainy weather, 22 drivers drove a total of 899 laps Thursday. The fastest non-qualifier was former rodeo cowboy Butch Murphey at 225.875. Arie Luyendyk was fastest of all at 238.493 in his backup Reynard-Ford Cosworth.