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Notebook Giaffone more than happy to take spot in field
Updated: Tuesday May 22, 2001 8:05 PM INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Felipe Giaffone will start 33rd Sunday in the Indianapolis 500. Starting at the back of the field beat the alternative for Giaffone, who benefitted when team owner Fred Treadway decided to replace Raul Boesel. "If the car's going to be good, we'll be all right," Giaffone said Monday, a day after qualifying ended. "If anything happens at the front [on the start], we'll see it. And, for sure, we won't be hit from behind." Giaffone had qualified 20th in the 33-car field with a four-lap average of 221.100 mph on May 12. At the time, Giaffone's team, Treadway-Hubbard, thought that would be fast enough to make the race. Sunday, though, track conditions changed. "We thought with 221.1 we would be in for sure," Giaffone said. "But we never tested on Sunday, and the track was a lot better than on Saturday. After that, we knew it was likely we would be bumped between 5:30 and 6 o'clock." Giaffone's fears were realized earlier than expected, when Stephan Gregoire bumped him out of the race after taking the track at 5:07 p.m. That caused a scramble to get Giaffone back into the race, but his attempt to requalify at 5:43 p.m. proved fruitless. Giaffone waved off the attempt after one lap of 215.992, and he never got another chance to qualify. Then, a few hours after the track closed Sunday, Giaffone got the good news: He was back in the race in Boesel's car, which had qualified 31st earlier in the day. The change of drivers, however, will force Giaffone to start from the back of the field. "The plan was to call [Raul] and explain the whole situation. He accepted it right away," Giaffone said. "We would put the car in the show right away and wait. He was pretty comfortable with that. He's a little bit upset because we could never get up to speed in my backup. We're still trying to figure out what happened."
Simon happy for GregioreWhen Dick Simon's driver, Stephan Gregoire qualified late Sunday while driving for Heritage Motorsports, Simon said he couldn't have been happier. Simon was hoping for one thing, though -- he wanted his crew to work with Gregoire on race day. When Heritage Motorsports owner Mitch Davis decided to go with a crew from Joe Truscelli's team, Simon began shopping. "I talked with A.J. [Foyt] because he added Donnie Beechler late, and he said he'd be happy to have us and we'll work with them," Simon said. "We'll have three pits right there together and I'll be working side-by-side with A.J. Our guys are already over there working on Donnie's car." Yellow Frieght, which is a sponsor for Simon's team, will appear as one of Beechler's sponsors. But there's one thing that will be missing for Simon. "The only thing that's changed is the paycheck," he said. "A.J. gets that." Hometown heroDriver Jeret Schroeder lists his residence as Vineland, N.J., and the people of Vineland have not forgotten about Schroeder. During the weekend, Schroeder's team received a large sign signed by Vineland residents who wanted to wish Schroeder well at the Indianapolis 500. The team also received drawings and messages from students at a school where Schroeder recently spoke. The sign, drawings and messages are now hanging in Schroeder's garage.
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