 |  |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Serious business Car-nut Leno right at home with Indy 500 pace duties
Posted: Saturday May 29, 1999 09:43 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Jay Leno has made a career out of making people laugh. But to the host of NBC's "Tonight Show," driving the pace car to start the Indianapolis 500 is no laughing matter. An avid car enthusiast, Leno has one of the most prestigious assignments in sports. Celebrities such as actor James Garner and famed test pilot Chuck Yeager have driven the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. Last year, golfer Greg Norman was supposed to drive the pace car, but shoulder surgery prevented him from fulfilling his assignment. "I don't think any mysterious injuries are going to happen to me because President Bill Clinton isn't staying at my house," Leno quipped at Saturday's drivers' meeting at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, referring to the President's visit to Norman's Florida home last year. "That was too easy of a joke." Clinton may be the center of most of Leno's jokes, but the comedian is always serious when it comes to automobiles. "I'm anxious to go through the museum because I'm a bigger fan of the early stuff, the Dusenbergs and Offenhausers and things like that," Leno said. "The modern stuff, you have to be an engineer to understand. I want to go down to the basement and see the really old stuff. I'll stay there, that's what I like." Leno received a phone call from Chevrolet, a major sponsor of his show, and was asked if he was interested in driving the pace car for the Indianapolis 500. "I though, Gee, what a terrific honor that would be. Then I thought how far down I was on the list," Leno said. "I thought, 'Who didn't want this job?' It's been great fun doing it because I like American cars. I'm partial to the American-made stuff because my show isn't that big in Japan, let's face it. "It's exciting for me because when I go to Detroit I go to the Henry Ford Museum. I like the history of American cars and nothing is more American than Indianapolis. The Dusenberg Brothers were here and Harry Miller. You can come here and trace the history of the car since day one, and you can't really do that at any other race track." Leno said he was asked to drive the pace car because both Chevrolet and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are familiar with his association with cars. Leno has also set up scholarships for students interested in cars and automotive engineering. "The celebrity side of it helps, certainly," Leno said. "I was out there practicing, so I'll try not to embarrass anybody too bad. "Hey, I'm from Los Angeles, so I'm used to having people going fast behind me. At least they aren't shooting at you here." Leno has been instructed on how to drive the pace car by 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones. "I've always watched the race and I started getting into it when I was 11," he said. "I have to admit, the drivers from my era -- Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney and Jim Clark -- they are my Mickey Mantles. I like the early stuff, because that is where my interest in cars began. "The cars and the engineering is what I'm really interested in." Leno's personal car collection is up to 54. He recently finished restoring a 1918 Stutz. He also is a competitor, as evidenced by his late-night TV rivalry with David Letterman, a co-owner of Team Rahal in CART. "You have to have competitors and what makes late-night TV exciting is you have two guys knocking each other's brains out every night trying to do the best show they can do," said Leno, who has attended seven Indianapolis 500s in person. "It makes for an exciting race when you have David Letterman and us and Ted Koppel. People like it when you have a field that is close. "It's like this year at the Indianapolis 500, it's the closest field since 1963. This is a really exciting thing to do. If you like video, it's like being with Pamela Lee." Leno also came away from Saturday's meeting impressed with the drivers' abilities. "You get the sense whatever you do, they can do 10 times better," Leno said. "I flew with the Blue Angels one time and you realized these guys can do math better than you, got better grades than you, go out with better-looking girls than you do. They can do everything better than you, so don't even think about it."
© 2003 SportsTicker Enterprises, LP
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
