Penske Name Rings With Menard

Indy Racing League car owner John Menard, who has 1997 champion Tony Stewart and Robbie Buhl as his drivers, has been called the “Roger Penske of the IRL.” He likes the comparison to the man whose cars have won 11 Indianapolis 500s.

“Roger Penske is my hero,” said Menard, a millionaire Wisconsin businessman. “Ever since I got involved with racing, I wanted to be like Roger Penske. Like a lot of heroes, they are probably less than perfect if you start examining them too closely, but, overall, Roger ran a tremendous operation. His cars are clean, and his guys are family-type guys that you didn’t see doing a lot of stupid things. He always set the standard, and he set the standard here. I think he raised racing to a higher level.”

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Former Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones will replace Greg Norman as pace-car driver for the start of Sunday’s 82nd Indianapolis 500. Norman, who had practiced in the purple Corvette convertible for the coveted assignment, was forced to withdraw because of recent shoulder surgery.

Jones, who won in 1963, also drove the pace car, a Mustang Cobra, in 1994.

Before the surgery that has suspended his golfing career, Norman had taken driving lessons on the Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval from former Indy car champion Nigel Mansell, a frequent golfing partner of Norman.

Sunday will be the 50th anniversary of the first Chevrolet pacing the 500. The first Chevy in 1948 was a gray, two-door convertible called the Fleetmaster.

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Fred Treadway, who owns the car driven by defending 500 champion Arie Luyendyk, says he’s getting tired of being asked if, and when, the IRL and CART will get together.

“People say to me they hope the two will get back together,” Treadway said. “I don’t see that. It just isn’t going to happen. I think they’re comfortable with the split, and we’re happy.”

He also doesn’t believe that the IRL’s decision to use different engine specifications widened the gap between the two open-wheel racing groups.

“I don’t think there ever was a gap. We never were together, so how can there be a gap?”

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The only time cars will be permitted on the track until Sunday will be today for two hours during Coors Carburetion Day. Also today will be the $90,000 Coors Indy Pit Stop Challenge in which eight teams will compete for a $40,000 first prize. Teams will change four tires and simulate a fuel-hose connection for five seconds.

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The fastest cars don’t always make it into the 500.

Eliseo Salazar’s lap of 222.637 mph was the sixth fastest of the week during practice, but in his qualifying attempt, the Chilean veteran hit the wall in the first turn of his first lap. The car was demolished.

Salazar later qualified in a backup car, but was bumped from the field by Billy Roe. He made another attempt in a Riley & Scott chassis owned by Stan Wattles but couldn’t get it up to speed.

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Greg Ray, the businessman-racer from Plano, Texas, who surprised everyone but himself by qualifying in the middle of the front row with an unsponsored car, has been receiving offers from associate sponsors.

One of them came from the Justice brothers of Duarte, Calif., who were the sole sponsor on Johnnie Parsons’ car when he won the Indy 500 in 1950.

“It only cost us $5,000 to sponsor Parsons,” recalled Ed Justice. “Frank Kurtis owned the car and we got the national champion [Parsons] for the five grand, and he threw in his other car that Fred Agabashian drove.”

Estimates to sponsor a championship car today range between $1.5 million and $2 million.

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Ray will start from the No. 2 position. The last driver to win the 500 starting from the middle of the front row was Mario Andretti in 1969.

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The eighth row in Sunday’s field is made up of rookies--Jack Hewitt, Steve Knapp and Donnie Beechler. The last two times that rookies filled a row were last year and 1985, and curiously both times it was the eighth row--Billy Boat, Sam Schmidt and Billy Roe last year; Ed Pimm, Raul Boesel and John Paul Jr. in 1985.

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The last time a second-year driver won the 500 pole was 1979 when Rick Mears did it and then went on to win the race, the first of his four Indy victories.

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When rookie Robby Unser joined Eddie Cheever’s team, it caused a different kind of stress for owner-driver Cheever.

“Every time his dad [three-time champion Bobby Unser] comes around, it scares the hell out of me,” Cheever said. “I wonder what I did wrong.”

“Me too,” added the younger Unser.

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Indy 500

* Today: Carburetion day, final practice 8-10 a.m. PDT (ESPN, noon)

* Sunday: 82nd Indianapolis 500, 8 a.m. PDT (Channel 7)