Pedal Pusher

Arie Luyendyk is 48, hasn’t driven a race in a year, is starting Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 near the back of the pack--and he thinks he can win it?

“If the race is on the line, I’ll be as aggressive as any 20-year-old,” the Dutch-born veteran said Friday.

And, really, why shouldn’t he think he can win? He’s a proven winner here, having put his likeness on the Borg-Warner trophy twice, in 1990 and 1997.

Usually, though, he starts up front, where if the winning isn’t easy, it’s at least easier. Car problems bedeviled him on pole day, though, so he missed a shot at one of the choice starting spots and will be starting 24th in the 33-car field, outside in the eighth row.

That’s going to make his job harder.

“This looks like one of the best fields that’s been here in a long, long time,” Luyendyk said. “The teams are all high-quality teams so starting back in 24th probably will be a matter of just having a good car, and driving to the front will [require] quite a bit of strategy and some luck with the [caution periods]--maybe not coming in [to pit] when everyone else comes in--to gain track position.

“Starting back there is going to be tough.... You’re behind so many cars that the turbulence is unbelievable the first few laps, the methanol [racing fuel fumes] gets in your eyes, and the dust too. They clean the track here but when you get all the cars together and running in places where they never really run, there’s quite a bit of dust kicking up in the air and you get it all in your face. That’s why I’d rather be in front.”

Luyendyk wouldn’t be putting up with all this stuff if this weren’t the Indy 500--his 17th.

After the 1999 season, he retired to the comfortable life of a two-time Indy winner and part-time entrepreneur in Scottsdale, Ariz. He even donned a blazer and tie to join the ABC television crew for the race here in 2000.

Then he thought, “Oh no! What have I done?”

“That was really it,” he said. “That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I want to race again here.’ Being up in the booth, I realized I missed driving here .... It’s the best moment in racing, walking out there and getting ready to sit yourself down in the car.”

So last year, Luyendyk was here again, in his driving suit, not a blazer. He’s here now, and he plans to continue coming back. A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Al Unser were driving competitively here into their 50s, so Luyendyk figures he has a few years left.

“I don’t feel old, at all,” he said, adding that if you’re only going to drive one race a year, this is the one it should be.

“After the first day here, I’m pretty stiff--my neck and my arms,” he said. “But that gets less and less as you drive more and more so that’s the nice thing about Indy. It’s not just a weekend event, it’s a month event. You get to practice hundreds of laps ... so that’s why I can do this race. That’s why racing with these guys doesn’t seem to be a problem with me.”

Foyt, a four-time winner here, suggested one possible drawback to being a once-a-year driver.

“You don’t know the moves some of the young guys might make,” he said. “When you race all the time, you know everybody’s moves.”

Luyendyk has taken that into consideration but said, “The young drivers these days have been around for so long--they were racing go-karts when they were 9 or 10--by the time they’re 20, they have a wealth of experience and actually are quite level-headed.”

Luyendyk himself spends more time in race cars than anyone would expect of a retired gentleman. Since last year’s race, he tested here in October, then again in April. In between, he tested in February at California Speedway in Fontana and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And he has driven 16 races here.

“I think there’s always a balance between being too aggressive or being somewhat conservative and relying on your experience,” he said. “So I have a lot of experience and I probably won’t make the kinds of moves that some of the younger guys might make ... but I’ll be as aggressive as I need to be. I feel really good about going into the race now.”