Saturday, March 04, 2000
AUTO RACING INSIDER
Best drivers are part of Indy 500's charm
BY TOM GROSCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A few Indy Racing League fans e-mailed me, objecting to last week's lament of “another lackluster Indianapolis 500 field this May.”
Two-time Indy champ Al Unser Jr. returns this year, I was reminded. And last week the top team in rival CART, the Chip Ganassi duo of Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser, entered the Indy 500. Montoya is the defending CART series champion, Vasser the 1996 season champ.
Does this mean Indy has regained some cachet?
It depends on your point of view.
IRL fan Brett Hickman writes, “Are you suggesting that simply having the "names' of CART automatically makes the race better? If so, then you're saying that it's not the race itself but rather the drivers that make the event.”
Actually, it's a little of both.
Since the CART-IRL schism in '96, Indy unquestionably has had some great finishes and compelling human interest stories. There was Buddy Lazier winning in '96 with a broken back, Arie Luyendyk racing Scott Goodyear to the wire in '97, Eddie Cheever winning on a thin budget in '98, and Kenny Brack driving owner A.J. Foyt back to the winner's circle in '99.
But each year, the CART-IRL split hovers over the proceedings. The Indy 500 became famous because it played host to the fastest cars and attracted the best drivers in the world, but now it attracts only some of the best.
To IRL critics, that's the main problem. How popular would NASCAR be, they say, if Jeff Gordon drove in one series and Dale Earnhardt was in another? That's essentially what happened when the CART boycott began; you had Luyendyk and Goodyear in the IRL, while Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti stayed with CART.
Old news, IRL fans say, blaming the media for annually rehashing the split. IRL critics pin the blame on Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George, saying he devalued the world's greatest auto race.
Everybody else? They're watching NASCAR, not caring at all.
The Montoya-Vasser entry will not spur a CART-IRL reunification, although Montoya said, “I think it will be good for CART and the IRL. The idea of all this is to get together and do better racing.”
Some say there is no need for reunification. Some say we should accept the fact that there are two Indy car series, and appreciate each for its own merits.
Hickman puts it this way: “Let's start refocusing on the racing itself and leave all the politics out of it. The fans and even non-fans are growing tired of hearing it.”
No argument there.
SLOW START: Is that really Jeff Gordon down there in 22nd place in the Winston Cup season standings?
It is.
The three-time Winston Cup champion rebounded from a disastrous Daytona to finish 10th last week at Rockingham. Gordon is too good not to be back in the top 10 in points soon, but can he challenge for the Cup without departed crew chief Ray Evernham?
“I'm sure there are some doubts in people's minds about what we're going to be capable of without Ray,” Gordon told reporters last week. “It might take a little while for us to get back to where we were, but I think we're off to a really good start.”
SPEEDWAY UPDATE: Kentucky Speedway will begin selling single-event tickets on Monday at its ticket office at Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, Ky., or by phone at 1-888-652-RACE.
• The Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post will sponsor Kentucky Speedway's inaugural “pole night” on June 16. The evening will feature NASCAR Craftsman Truck series qualifying and the Kentucky 100, a NASCAR All Pro series race.
THE DRAGS: Local drag racing aficionado Bob Martin reminds us that Edgewater Motor Sports Park opened last weekend (www.edgewaterrace.com) and that Hamilton's Tri-State Dragway begins its season this weekend (www.tristatedragway.com).
Tom Groeschen welcomes your email at tgroeschen@enquirer.com
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