Indy Gets Back Up to Speed

The Penske team is back and so are Michael Andretti, Tony Stewart and Arie Luyendyk. Even Robby Gordon.

The Indianapolis 500, self-styled “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” has been tarnished a bit since Tony George introduced his Indy Racing League in 1996, causing a breach with Championship Auto Racing Teams, but this year the 85-year-old race is regaining its luster.

Chip Ganassi started the movement across lines from CART to the IRL last year when he brought Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser to Indy, then went to Victory Circle to collect the Borg-Warner trophy after Montoya had won the race.

This year Penske joined the movement by bringing the CART champion, Gil de Ferran, and Helio Castroneves, to the Brickyard in hopes of winning an 11th Indy 500. Then came Michael Andretti, winless in 11 starts at Indy, and itching to join his father Mario as a 500 winner.

Ganassi had planned to return this year with rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian, but when CART canceled races in Brazil and Texas, he decided the youngsters did not have sufficient experience to tackle the Brickyard. So he went out and signed Stewart, an IRL favorite before moving to Winston Cup three years ago, and Vasser, whom he had dropped last year but talked into returning to the Target fold for this one race.

The scenario will begin to play out today when four-lap time trials determine the pole sitter and as many of the field of 33 as can qualify.

“I predict this will be the tightest field, from one to 33, in Indy history,” said Al Unser Jr., a two-time Indy 500 winner who switched from CART to the IRL last year.

For Penske, returning to Indy has been a crusade. He has smarted for five years, since the debacle in 1995 when he was here with Unser, the defending champion, and Emerson Fittipaldi, another two-time winner. Neither of them qualified.

“The longest walk of my life was that day, from the pits to the garage with Al and Emerson, but you know, those are the facts, and it’s happened to others too,” Penske said. “Maybe that’s why you have to respect this place so much.

“We appreciate the way we have been received here [considering all the animosity between CART and the IRL] and we also appreciate the way CART changed its ways and allowed us the time to come back here.”

CART originally scheduled major races on the same weekends as 500 qualifying and the race.

Despite the influx of outsiders, the pole favorite is the IRL’s own Greg Ray. He won it last year and on Friday, the critical final day before qualifying, had the fastest lap, 225.403 mph.

“Why shouldn’t Greg be the favorite? He’s the favorite every place we run,” Unser said.

Then there’s Luyendyk, who at 47 couldn’t resist the temptation to try for a third 500 win. He holds the track record of 236.986 mph, set in 1996 when cars were turbocharged. Even after the IRL adopted normally aspirated power plants, Luyendyk proved fastest, setting the stock-block record at 225.179 in 1999, the year he announced his retirement.

“My desire to keep racing here has never stopped,” Luyendyk said. “I was in the broadcasting booth last year and realized that wasn’t where I wanted to be. You can put it this way: I’m back for the love of the sport, especially, the love of Indy.”

Michael Andretti is back for much the same reason.

“When I watched Juan [Montoya] win so easily last year, I knew I had to get back before I got too old,” said Andretti, 38, who has led the 500 for 382 laps in the past, the most by any non-winner.

“I’ve led the wrong laps,” he said. “This year I want to lead No. 200. I have something definitely driving me. It hasn’t been meant to be, and I’m hoping this time it’s meant to be. I don’t feel I have to prove anything to anybody, except I want to win this race.”

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Indianapolis 500

Schedule

Today: Pole day

Sunday: Second-day qualifying

Wednesday-Saturday: Practice

May 20: Bump day

May 27: Race day (9 a.m., Ch. 7)