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Spectating champion Brack to watch race after jumping ship to CART
Posted: Tuesday May 16, 2000 11:06 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- The defending champion of the Indianapolis 500 won't be in a race car on race day. In fact, he isn't even racing in the same series as many of the competitors at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kenny Brack, winner of the 1999 Indianapolis 500, is now a member of the CART FedEx Championship Series, where he is one of two drivers at Team Rahal. When he decided to leave the Indy Racing League to join CART, he expected he to be one of the drivers who would be allowed to compete in the Indianapolis 500. After all, at the time it appeared 15-20 CART drivers and teams would try to make a run at the Indianapolis 500 field. That was before officials at Ford and Mercedes-Benz strongly discouraged drivers from running at Indianapolis in rival engine manufacturers' equipment. After all, it doesn't do Ford much good if Brack or Michael Andretti or Max Papis won the Indianapolis 500 in an Oldsmobile Aurora engine. That business decision ended Brack's hopes of defending his Indianapolis 500 title. He becomes the first Indy 500 winner not to compete in the race the following year since Jacques Villeneuve won in 1995 and was a Formula One rookie in 1996. Al Unser Jr. remains the only defending Indianapolis 500 champion to make three qualifying attempts and fail to make the field the following year. He won in 1994 but missed the race in 1995. Bobby Unser won in 1981 but retired at the end of the season. Sam Hanks won the Indianapolis 500 in 1957 and announced his retirement in victory lane. Pat Flaherty won in 1956 but was injured and did not compete at Indy in 1957. So Brack is going to do the next best thing -- he's listed as a co-entrant with A.J. Foyt for a car in this year's Indianapolis 500. After three days of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, no driver has been hired for that ride, but Foyt said he will put another driver in the car after his two drivers -- Jeff Ward and Eliseo Salazar -- qualify for this year's race. Instead of strapping on a helmet and climbing into the cockpit on race day at Indy, Brack will be in the pits or in the suites at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to support Foyt's team. "A.J. called me up and said, 'Hey, Kenny, because you can't drive in the Indy 500, how about being a team owner?' I jumped at the chance," Brack said. "I think it's great. If I can't run in the race because I'm under contract with Bobby Rahal, at least I can still have a role in the Indianapolis 500, thanks to A.J. Foyt. "A.J. and I are still great fiends even though I left his team to run in CART. He knew the opportunity that I had to join Bobby Rahal and he gave me his blessing because he knows that I wanted to try some road racing. I feel like I have driven for two great team owners in Foyt and Rahal." Ironically, Foyt and Rahal are not best of friends. In fact, there are strong feelings between one another, which made it interesting that Brack left Foyt to drive for Rahal. That would almost be like Hillary Clinton leaving her husband and dating a Republican. At least the debriefing sessions are different. "Well, we go into a little bit more detail now," Brack said. "It's a big difference between the Rahal team and the A.J. Foyt team. I've said it before, it's like night and day, but they both work hard and they are both characters. I'm very glad to be joining such a good team as Rahal's in the first year in CART. "A.J. Foyt is a great engineer. He knows how to set up a car and get it to go fast on the ovals. He is one of the best. Don Halliday [his current engineer] is very good, too. We have a more complicated situation here because we have a car that has to run on road courses, street courses and ovals. I'm very happy with Don Halliday and the whole team, for that matter." What Foyt really would have liked to have done was put Brack in one of his cars for the Indianapolis 500, just like last year, when the two went to victory lane together. "Kenny knows if he wasn't under contract with Bobby Rahal that he would be running there," Foyt said. "Kenny and I are very good friends and this is great to bring him back to Indy, even if he can't be driving the car." As the Indianapolis Motor Speedway enters a new century, the race remains an event steeped in history. The Indianapolis 500 is about great names and there is no bigger name in the 91-year history of the event than A.J. Foyt. He has been called the "Grand Champion of the Indianapolis 500." He is the first four-time champion of the Indianapolis 500, winning in a front-engine roadster in 1961 and 1964 and in a rear-engine car in 1967 and 1977. The rough, tough Texan has represented the sport at its highest level and arguably is the greatest race driver of the 20th century. So in the final Indianapolis 500 of the 20th century, the greatest name in Indy 500 history returned to victory lane, this time as an owner. Brack has moved on, but Foyt remains the greatest representative of the "World's Greatest Race." He has three cars entered this year and is determined to open the 21st century with another victory in the world's most famous race. Learning how to drive an Indy car from A.J. Foyt is like learning how to play baseball from Babe Ruth. Both are sporting icons, larger than life. Foyt started his career racing the dusty bullrings like Playland Park in Houston before coming to the Indianapolis 500 as a spectator for the first time in 1955. In 1958, he competed in the race as a rookie for team owner Al Dean and the Dean Van Lines Special. Foyt has raced in the Indianapolis 500 as a member of the United States Auto Club (USAC), CART and now is an owner in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. This season, he has branched out to become a team owner on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit with Rick Mast as his driver. Through it all, Foyt never has been afraid to voice his opinion. That has made him one of the truly authentic individuals in American sports. "It's hard to put it into words," he said. "Of all the races I've won all over the world, that's the greatest feeling in racing. It's just like the Kentucky Derby -- when you win the Indianapolis 500 as a driver or car owner, everybody knows about it. That is how they know about Roger Penske. It wasn't because of his driving ability, it's from him owning cars and winning the Indianapolis 500." The last time Foyt went to victory lane before last year, he did it with an experienced race crew in 1977. But when Brack took Foyt's car to the checkered flag last year, Jack Starnes was one of the few holdovers who had been with Foyt in 1977. "They are all younger guys on the team, but I've always liked young boys," Foyt said. "I've liked young race drivers. Let them have the experience that I've had and have the fun as I did coming up through my younger years. Some of the older people will never win because they still have the same habits. "You can take the young people and actually train them the way you want to. Also, they come up with some new ideas and that helps everybody." Sometimes, Foyt feels more like a scout leader than a team owner. "I always try to get somebody who really doesn't know too much about racing. As Herb Porter used to say, a little bit of knowledge in auto racing is very dangerous," he said. "I have had people who have had a little knowledge and they are very dangerous. All in all, I'd rather have somebody who doesn't have that experience in racing and then train them. "Like they used to do at Goodyear, they would always give me a new engineer when I was tire testing because they said I was the best teacher they could have." In last year's Indianapolis 500, Foyt said Brack drove a perfect race because he wasn't in a hurry. The patience paid off because other drivers tend to take themselves out of the race. "Well, that is quite true," Foyt said. "We were in the front pack all day long and even when he was leading, we let Robby Gordon get back on the lead lap. There wasn't any sense in racing them because Kenny didn't have to run any faster than he was running to lead the race. Kenny said it would be an easy day all day long. "Kenny and I are still great friends and we think alike on the race track." The combination of Foyt and Brack was Indy car racing's version of the odd couple. Foyt is a true Texan, an American racing hero; Brack is a soft-spoken Swede with a great sense of humor. But Brack also was unique in that he came to the United States with a road course background and ended up in the IRL, an oval-based series. Brack quickly showed his talent by winning three races and the IRL title in 1998, then capturing the Indianapolis 500 in 1999. After accomplishing his two main goals in the IRL, he looked to CART for his next challenge. "That's Kenny," Foyt said. "He wanted to go over there and show that he could beat them. He said, 'I think I can beat them. I have to brush up on the road courses a little bit, but as far as ovals, I think I can handle them on any oval we go to.' "Kenny works at winning. I respect him highly. If he gets a decent break over there, they will be looking at the back of him." Even though he's 65, Foyt retains a champion's swagger. Most men his age are retired, but he remains active. "When you wind down, you start to get old, and I don't want to get old," Foyt said. "I've always had cars that I raced in NASCAR and I've got some kids coming up, Larry, my son, and I bought him an ASA car. I want them racing in the United States and racing in the United States is what made A.J. Foyt's name what it is today. "If I'm going to race, I need to race in front of my own people. NASCAR is very good racing and I enjoy that type of challenge. I've always felt young, but I just enjoy racing. My whole life has been in auto racing."
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