|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
More than racing going on in Indy
Posted: Friday May 26, 2000 04:04 PM
Sports Illustrated motor sports writer Mark Bechtel will answer your questions every Friday. Click here to send him a question.
Well, Indy is upon us. Have you ever seen the Brickyard from the air? It looks like a rectangle. I can't imagine taking those turns at 220 mph. None of this 36-degree banking stuff either. You should have to put your blinker on when making a turn like that. An added bonus this year is that the Pacers-Knicks series is going on in town, which gave fans and scribes alike the opportunity to pull of a Carburetion Day-Game 2 double dip on Thursday. Indiana is a two-sport state, and Hoosiers rank pretty high on the fanaticism scale toward each. I've absorbed plenty of racing flavor and history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Friday is a slow day, so I think I'm going to hit Milan, the town that gave us the real-life Hoosiers 46 years ago. This week's bag brings us a couple questions about Adam Petty, including one from the unlikely named John Doe of Little League hotbed Toms River, N.J. Unless we're talking about the lead singer of the legendary L.A. post-punk outfit X, I'm guessing this is a nom de plume. I'm not sure what this dude did that forced him to use an alias in the 'Bag, but I'm guessing it must be pretty nasty.
Does Austin Petty have an interest in auto racing? If so, will he pick up where his late brother left off in BGN a few years down the road? With the death of Adam, the Petty legacy seems to be over -- unless Austin races. I heard through the grapevine that he was attending Skip Barber's racing school. John, Austin has always sort of been the black sheep of the family when it comes to racing. He has always seemed more interested in going to school like a normal kid and doing things like playing the violin. He did go to Skip Barber last summer, but that was more of a family outing than a racing prep school. He went with his dad and brother, who were honing their road racing skills and spending some quality father-son time together. (Though Austin did very well.) Nothing seems to indicate that Austin is going to start racing any time soon.
Has an investigation into the crash of Adam Petty been started, or is it in the process? I heard a rumor that the throttle was stuck, resulting in his inability to slow and/or turn, which caused his crash. NASCAR impounded Adam's car shortly after the crash, but they've already returned it to the team. So far, there has been no word on the results of its investigation, and there is no guarantee that when the inquiry is concluded the results will be made public. A few drivers who saw the wreck up close said it looked like his throttle hung open. So that's a definite possibility, but there are also rumors that the team checked the throttle after the wreck and it wasn't open. Of course, the impact of the wreck makes it possible that the car was in a different state after the crash than before it, so we might never be 100 % certain what caused the crash.
I have been an active NASCAR Winston fan since 1993 and have seen many accidents -- cars so demolished you wonder how the drivers walk away from them. My question is, what is it about the Adam Petty accident that caused such head injuries (which contributed to his death)? NASCAR seems to rely on such great equipment and use such measures of protecting the drivers that I wonder what failed this time for this young driver? Cindee, strange as it may seem, the death of a NASCAR driver (since, if it were a regular guy, it wouldn't be surprise at all) hitting a wall at 130 miles an hour is really a fluke. Those cars are like fortresses. Just about the only way a driver is going to get killed is if somehow his head hits something. Drivers are secured tightly into their seats, and the body of the car can easily withstand the impact of all but the most violent wrecks. I don't know what happened with Adam, but theoretically, one way a driver could be killed is if his head makes contact with the wall (there is no driver's side window, just netting), and that, like I said, is kind of flukish. Look at the Winston. Mark Martin got absolutely drilled, and Steve Park hit the wall at 190 mph, and both of them walked away good as new. It's no consolation to anyone, but what happened to Adam was probably a case of really bad luck. Drivers walk away from wrecks like that all the time.
Mark, I am in the service and do not get to watch a lot of NASCAR. Why doesn't NASCAR expand into the international markets, such as Tokyo? Has it ever considered running a points race overseas? David, I think you take the lead in the contest for the most far-flung letter writer. Way to go! To answer your question, I wouldn't hold your breath. There are already too many tracks looking for dates stateside, and I've got to believe they are at the front of the queue. The problem with racing overseas midseason is that the travel would almost certainly necessitate a week off before and/or after, and the schedule is so tight as to make that impossible.
Do you think the Indy 500 will ever mean something again? It seems that for this to happen, CART and the IRL will obviously have to mend fences; any chances of this happening? Because until they do, NASCAR will continue to make what was once America's most prestigious race just another excuse to run up your corporate AmEx bill covering an event no one really gives a damn about. Josh, with such knowledge of corporate AmEx bills, I'm guessing you are a sportswriter. (Your shaky grammar removes any doubt. A semicolon? Come on.) I'm not entirely sure a total mending of the fence is necessary. What's necessary is to getting the CART drivers to Indy. If that's a once-a-year deal, then so be it. One of the biggest hangups now is that CART engine manufacturers don't want their guys winning races with another builder's engines, and they put pressure on the teams to keep their drivers out of Indy. (The exception being Toyota, which gave its blessing to Chip Ganassi to have Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser run Indy this year). To that I say, "Guys, no one pays attention to such matters. Lighten up." Click here to send Mark Bechtel a question.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
