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Posted: Tuesday June 01, 1999 03:42 PM

Comedy of Errors  

Three would-be victors screwed up, giving Kenny Brack an Indy win

By Ed Hinton and David Fleming

Of the four replacement-driver Indianapolis 500s run since the Indy car circuit split, Sunday's was the most interesting. A.J. Foyt, who won four 500s as a driver, was back in the Brickyard's victory circle for the first time in 22 years, this time as owner of the victorious car driven by Kenny Brack. Brack was there largely because of foul-ups by three of his toughest rivals: pole sitter Arie Luyendyk, Greg Ray and Robby Gordon.

Stewart, the only driver to complete the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, says that he has no plans to try it again. Al Tielemans/George Tiedemann

For more than half the race two-time Indy winner Luyendyk, who had announced that he was retiring from driving after this 500, looked as if he would go out a champion. But while leading with 82 laps remaining in the 200-lap race, he spun and crashed while trying to pass a slower car.

An even more stunning miscue was committed by Ray. After inheriting the lead from Luyendyk and pitting under caution with 80 laps to go, Ray never made it back onto the track. "I have no idea what happened," said Ray after the race. "I was told to go, and I did. The next thing I knew, I went sideways into the pit wall." Instead of pulling cleanly into the inside lane of the pit road, where he was supposed to proceed until he could blend into pit traffic, Ray partly crossed the white line into the outside lane, bounced off Mark Dismore's car, which happened to be proceeding along that lane, and went into the pit wall.

Thus the race boiled down to a duel between Brack and Gordon, the only regular CART driver this year to break the organization's boycott of Indy. Gordon held the lead from Lap 171 until he ran out of fuel with just over a lap remaining. He was so frustrated after the race that he howled, "Aw, s---!" on live TV and again during a press conference. "Kenny didn't have the speed for us at the end of the race," Gordon added. "No way."

Brack, 33, a Swedish-born Formula One dropout, all but agreed. "At the end I was running as fast as I could into the corners, and the car was slipping in the front end and slipping in the rear end," he said. "I was hanging onto it, just trying to catch Robby."

Even after Gordon dropped out, Brack and Foyt had a miscommunication that could have jeopardized the win. From the pits Foyt could see Gordon slowing down. "He told me on the radio, 'Bring it on in, you've got it won,'" Brack said. "I started slowing down." Then it dawned on Brack that it wasn't the checkered flag that he had just passed, but the white flag, signaling one lap to go. "I guess we did have it won," said Brack. "I just hadn't won it yet."

CART-IRL Reconciliation:  
France Steps In, Talks Heat Up

The return of CART teams to the Indianapolis 500 by next year would be a certainty if it weren't contingent upon the moods of mercurial Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George. Publicly, George remains defiant in defense of his Indy Racing League, whose framework for cost containment and rules moderating engine and chassis design have prevented CART teams from racing at Indy since 1996 without building radically different cars. Privately, he continues to listen to the peace offerings of a growing alliance of racing leaders and manufacturers led by the most influential man in U.S. motor sports, Bill France, who's president of NASCAR and chairman of International Speedway Corp. (ISC), which owns the world's largest group of race tracks -- 10 -- with four more in various stages of development.

"There's no question that we can pull the Indy 500 and American open-wheel racing back together," says team owner Roger Penske, a CART cofounder whose cars won the Indy 500 a record 10 times before the schism, "but one man has to make that decision, and Tony is the guy."

Others in the alliance won't speak on the record out of fear that even the best-intended remarks might offend the volatile George and inadvertently undermine negotiations. Even France was walking on eggshells last weekend and would say only, "It would be premature for me to comment on this matter."

For those who understand Francespeak, premature says volumes about what's going on. In the past France has maintained that open-wheel racing was none of his business, though he had given tacit support to the IRL because of its low-budget, grass-roots philosophy that was akin to NASCAR's. Now, industry sources say, France is "on the same page" with high-powered, corporate-oriented CART, especially after ISC recently purchased four tracks on which CART races are run annually. With 34 races already crammed into NASCAR's Winston Cup schedule -- 14 of which are run at France's facilities -- he's looking for additional events to increase his tracks' earning power. Open-wheel racing could fill that bill at all of his venues except Daytona and Talladega, where the sleek Indy cars would be too fast to race safely.

But what France doesn't want is rival open-wheel organizations splintering the fan base. He and Penske visited George two weeks ago during Indy 500 practice. There was also a series of meetings between George and CART CEO Andrew Craig.

"I don't think anything substantive was addressed," says George. "As long as we have different philosophies, we're never going to strike any kind of accord. Nothing came out of those conversations that would lead me to believe that we're any closer to sharing a philosophy."

"I'm not sure that's really what Tony is thinking," said Penske, who described the meetings as "genuine" and "positive."

Others interpreted George's apparent intractability as posturing, an effort to keep his house-of-cards IRL together. The league has, at best, an estimated $50 million in annual sponsorship, compared to CART's more than $400 million.

Nevertheless, the alliance is paying homage to George, who inherited his power base -- the Brickyard, racing's most hallowed ground -- from his grandfather, Tony Hulman. CART appears ready to make huge concessions, including accepting the formation of one sanctioning body ruled by a France-like czar and joining with its auto industry backers and George to design a new, mutually agreeable, version of the Indy car. Says Penske, "We'd be prepared to put something on the table that would be rational, easy to do -- and everybody would win."

Dale Jr.'s Debut:  
Finishing a Sweet 16th

Moments before the drivers in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 were introduced at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt looked over at his 24-year-old son, Dale Jr., who was making his Winston Cup debut. The father could tell that, after months of hype leading up to what promoters were calling E day, the kid needed something to break the prerace tension. So the old man, a seven-time Winston Cup champ, walked over, elbowed Dale Jr. in the ribs and asked him if he wanted an autograph.

From then on, the younger Earnhardt was loose, though he proceeded with caution once the race began. The defending Busch Grand National champion who had qualified eighth (seven spots in front of his dad) for the 600, Dale Jr. fell to 15th after just two laps and was never a factor. (He even had trouble locating his pit stall during the first yellow flag.) He suffered pangs of self-doubt and a few lapses in concentration but, once he settled in, raced his Chevy Monte Carlo well enough to move up four spots between laps 220 and 300. He finished 16th, three laps behind winner Jeff Burton, and gave himself a C for his debut. "At first I was just trying to get out of everybody's way and not make a fool of myself," Dale Jr. said. "Anytime you get a big promotion, you want to show people you deserved it."

At times Dale Jr. had chafed under the expectations and hype leading up to the 600. He was so relieved after qualifying at midweek that he flopped down on a couch at his house near the Earnhardt garage -- the so-called Garage Mahal -- in Mooresville, N.C., and hollered, "Man, thank god that's over!" The next few nights he spent most of his time playing the video game Knockout King with friends and then on Friday sat in on drums for one number with the alternative rock band Bridge during a concert in Charlotte. Earnhardt wrote the lyrics to the song Eyes to See on Bridge's latest CD. "You can just tell Dale loves being onstage," says band member Terrill Hinson. "He likes the lights shining right on him."

That's good, because it looks as if the hype may get even worse between now and his next Winston Cup race. The blond-haired kid is seen as one of the young drivers who can bridge the gap between the sport's down-home roots and its corporate future. Before the 600, Earnhardt was nearly mobbed by fans as he made his way to the garage. Four hours and 600 miles later, he made a beeline for his father's hauler. Big E had finished sixth and was waiting for Little E.

"He told me I did a good job, that I stayed clean and I stayed out of trouble," said Dale Jr. "So I guess you could say after everything that went on, my debut got the ultimate stamp of approval."

His face drained of color from dehydration and his legs too exhausted for him to stand, Tony Stewart stretched out on the black leather couch in the back of the Joe Gibbs Racing hauler and laughed about the only thing missing from his 13-hour Indy Car-Winston Cup driving adventure: a large pizza with everything. On Sunday, Stewart, a 27-year-old NASCAR rookie and former IRL points champion, became the first driver to complete the Indianapolis 500, which started at 11 a.m. EDT, and the Coca-Cola 600, which began seven hours and 15 minutes later, on the same day. (Five years ago John Andretti finished 10th in the 500 but didn't complete the 600 because of engine failure.) Stewart placed ninth at Indy and fourth at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Because he had eaten only two minibagels all day, Stewart was so hungry around Lap 115 of the Coca-Cola 600 that he tried to drive with one hand while stuffing a chocolate nutrition bar under his helmet and into his mouth. He took two bites before chucking the bar out the window and onto the infield grass out of frustration.

"It's great to know that I have left a little mark in the record books for finishing both races," said Stewart, who is fifth in the Winston Cup point standings and on track to become the first rookie since 1980 to finish in the top 10. "We proved 1,100 miles can be done, but you better have a good day at both tracks."

In the end Stewart's blistered hands had steered two cars for 596 laps and through 2,384 lefthand turns in less than 12 hours. Over the past month he made seven round trips between Indianapolis and Charlotte. It's a feat he isn't eager to repeat. "One time was enough," said Stewart, yawning. "Right now I just want to go to sleep -- and I'm not sure when I'll wake up."

"Nice" was as strong a word as Michael Andretti could muster after winning the Motorola 300 at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis last Saturday. The celebration on the podium with his father, Mario, also "was nice," Michael said. But at the bottom of his heart was the gnawing knowledge that "it could have been Indy." Another Memorial Day weekend would pass in Michael's life, a fourth consecutive Indianapolis 500 would be missed because of CART's ongoing boycott of Indy. "Disappointing," Andretti said, with sadness in his voice. He's 36. He hasn't won the race that means the most to his family. Time is running out.

Andretti owes his pit crew thanks for Saturday's victory. The crew gambled by not changing tires on his final stop, with 46 laps left, enabling him to move from fifth to first. As he left the pits that last time, Andretti, who switched from Goodyear tires to Firestone this season, wondered if his worn tires would make it. "But the tires were incredible," he said after holding off the hard-charging Helio Castro-Neves.

The Family Business Father-Son Combined Races Combined Wins Lee and Richard Petty Richard and Kyle Petty Dale and Dale Earnhardt Ralph and Dale Earnhardt Ned and Dale Jarrett Coo Coo and Sterling Marlin 1,606 1,720 619 669 717 611 255 208 72 72 69 6

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his first Winston Cup start on Sunday and finished 16th in the Coca-Cola 600, 10 spots behind his dad. Not only did Dale Jr.'s debut put the Earnhardts (Ralph and the two Dales) alongside the Pettys as the only three-generation driving families in Winston Cup history, but the Dales also became the sixth father-son combo to race on the circuit together. Here's how the six stack up.

Issue date: June 7, 1999

 

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