Oh, the pain

Gordon watches another Indy 500 win go up in fumes

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Posted: Monday May 31, 1999 02:36 PM

Robby Gordon's (right) misfortune at Indy includes a 1997 pit fire. AP

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- As the miles wound down in the Indianapolis 500, race leader Robby Gordon kept asking his pit about his fuel. The answer was always the same from car owner John Menard.

"The fuel's OK. Keep racing," Menard calmed his driver.

Gordon kept racing, right up to the 498th mile, and then the fuel was not OK. He coasted into the pits as Kenny Brack screamed by on the front straightaway to take the white flag signifying one last lap to run.

"What else could we say?" Menard said. "You never know. Brack would have crashed. You could play what-ifs forever."

As Brack crossed the finish line, Gordon was screeching his tires, trying to leave his pit after he took on a splash of fuel, hoping against hope something would happen to let him back in the race.

"To lose by just one lap was heartbreaking," Gordon said.

Gordon had started out fourth, then found himself a lap down to the leaders midway through the race.

"I worked really hard and fought back," he said.

When the leaders fell by the wayside, Gordon crept to the front. He grabbed the lead on lap 171 and led for 28 times around the 2 1/2-mile oval.

It was a moment Gordon had thought about for a long time and visualized.

Gordon does not regularly drive in the Indy Racing League, the breakaway oval league for open-wheel cars. Usually, he labors in the cockpit for CART, which is the bigger marquee except for Memorial Day weekend and the Indy 500. Gordon finished last in the CART race Saturday in Madison, Ill., and has been among the owner-drivers who have lobbied most heavily for reunification.

He first drove the 500 in 1993, led for two laps and finished 27th. He finished fifth in 1995 and led again briefly in 1995 before another fifth-place finish. In 1997, he had a terrifying exit when his car caught fire in the pits.

This year, Gordon hooked up with Menard, a Midwesterner whose racing operation is based in Indianapolis. He has been among the most loyal IRL owners and won the 1997 league title with driver Tony Stewart.

Menard's best hope going into the race had been Greg Ray, the second-fastest qualifier who had the fastest car in the place for every day but qualifying. Ray, however, went to the sidelines on lap 120. Gordon was moving up -- and thinking back a few years.

"We should have won this race in '95," he said.

After that, the driver who has raced everything from motorcycles to stock cars tried to learn from the looming figures of the storied track -- Roger Penske, Rick Mears.

"We just really studied it," Gordon said. "We felt we were on our game."

As the miles slipped away under tires turning at 200-plus mph, Gordon kept asking that question. What about the fuel? His gauge showed enough, but he wasn't confident.

Menard considered bringing Gordon in for a quick splash but hoped for a caution flag or something else to squeak out the last mile.

"I just feel like crying, OK?" Menard said.

 

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Robby Gordon calls his finish, "extremely disappointing." (79 K) Click here for the latest audio and video
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