Foyt's Cars Will Have Front-Row Seats at Indianapolis

By SHAV GLICK

May 17, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

INDIANAPOLIS —

Pole Day turned out to be A.J. Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The first four-time Indianapolis 500 winner started Saturday by taking ceremonial laps in the Bowes Seal Fast Special that he drove to his first victory in 1961. Then A.J. Foyt masterminded the day for his two drivers, Billy Boat of Phoenix and Kenny Brack of Sweden, who won front-row starting positions for next Sunday’s 82nd 500 in Aurora-powered Dallaras.

Boat, who comes from the midget car ranks of Arizona and Southern California, quickly caught the attention of the approximately 90,000 fans with a 224.573-mph first lap, fastest of the year, then came home with a four-lap average of 223.503 to earn the pole.

“I didn’t want to embarrass [Foyt] by not holding up my end of the deal,” said Boat, a graduate of Arizona State, after his boss had been honored.

Brack, whose background is in European Formula 3000 road racing, qualified third for his second 500, at 220.982 mph in Foyt’s PowerTeam Racing Dallara.

Foyt, who had an intense dislike of the color green during his racing career, was dressed head to feet in hunter green Conseco colors, also the color of Boat’s car.

“I grew up watching A.J. win races, especially here in 1977,” Boat said. “Now I know how and why he won, because he’s very detail-oriented and committed to winning. He takes a lot of little details, which add up to something big.”

The fast time was particularly pleasing to Boat, who had crashed his primary car during practice Friday.

“It takes a few laps to get your confidence back after you smack the wall,” he said. “Sometimes you get a race car you feel good in, and I feel good in this car. When we went out this morning, I knew we could run 224, but you don’t want to show your hand [in practice].”

Boat’s fastest lap all week had been 222.008 mph.

Before joining Foyt’s Indy car team last year, Boat’s biggest claims to fame were winning a record 11 U.S. Auto Club Western Regional midget races in a row in 1995 and winning three consecutive Turkey Night Grand Prix races on different tracks, in 1995 at Bakersfield, 1996 at Perris and 1997 at Ventura.

“Beating around half-mile and quarter-mile dirt tracks, running midget races for years is what prepared me for this,” Boat said. “It teaches a young driver to race, run close to other cars, run in traffic and drive a race car on the edge.

“Once you adapt your style to an Indy car, the instincts you learned in midget and sprint-car racing help you.”

Splitting the Foyt pair on the front row will be surprising Greg Ray, a little-known and underfinanced driver from Plano, Texas, who coaxed 221.125 mph from the Genoa Racing Dallara. It was enough to knock Pep Boys Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart off the front row.

Stewart, who had been the dominant driver all week and was the pole favorite, found gremlins and managed only 220.386, after having lapped in the 223s most of the week. He will start on the inside of the second row.

“We had problems with our engines,” Menard team manager Larry Curry said. “It was a huge relief [to see him complete four laps]. I’d hate to have heard [public address announcer] Tom Carnegie saying we had three laps in the book, and ‘He’s slowing down.’ ”

Curiously, all three front-row starters were rookies at Indy last year.

Twenty-six drivers qualified, but among those who did not were Arie Luyendyk, last year’s 500 winner, and Jeff Ward, last year’s rookie of the year. Luyendyk took one lap at 214 mph and came in, and Ward did not make a qualifying attempt.

One of the biggest surprises was Jack Miller, who was the last driver on the track when the 6 p.m. gun went off to end the time trials. Miller, in the lone Nissan Infiniti-powered car to qualify, had not run a lap better than 215 before Saturday, but he put four laps together that averaged 217.800. It put him solidly in the fifth row.

Six of the 26 qualifiers are rookies, including Jack Hewitt, at 46 the oldest first-year driver in the race’s history. He wiped Lyn St. James from the books. She was 45 when she qualified in 1992.

Another successful rookie was Robby Unser, son of three-time winner Bobby. Robby, 30, became the sixth Unser to qualify for the 500. When he took off in his Team Cheever Dallara, his cousin Al Jr. gave him a thumbs-up sign, and when he coasted into the pits after averaging 216.534, Bobby and Al Jr. were waiting to congratulate him.

He was joined by cousin Johnny Unser, making his third 500 field. The other Unsers who have driven here are Al Sr. and Jerry, Johnny’s father. The last time two Unsers were in the same Indy 500 was 1993, when Al Jr. started fifth and his father started 23rd.

The fastest rookie was J.J. Yeley, the youngest driver in IRL at 21. Like Boat, Yeley is from Phoenix and is expected to take over the Team Menard ride when Stewart moves on to NASCAR Winston Cup racing. Yeley, driving for Jeff Sinden’s One Call team, ran 218.044.

Four 200-mph crashes destroyed cars driven by Paul Durant, Jimmy Kite, Eliseo Salazar and Tyce Carlson. All four drivers walked away uninjured, and all four are expected to make qualifying attempts today.

It was quite a contrast with last year, when crashes sent John Paul Jr., Scott Sharp, Johnny O’Connell and Scott Harrington to the hospital.

IRL officials said the crowd was the largest at the Speedway for pole qualifying in five years, thanks mostly to sunny, 81-degree weather.

The second and last day of qualifying is today.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Lining Up

The first three rows for the May 24 Indianapolis 500, listing the driver, chassis-engine and four-lap qualification average speed in mph.

Row 1

1. Billy Boat, Dallara-Aurora, 223.503.

2. Greg Ray, Dallara-Aurora, 221.125.

3. Kenny Brack, Dallara-Aurora, 220.982.

Row 2

4. Tony Stewart, Dallara-Aurora, 220.386.