Andretti’s Dreams Take Alternate Route
For Michael Andretti, another chance to end his family’s misery at Indianapolis has passed him by.
“I miss the feeling of being there,” he admitted. “I’m sure I would be feeling different if I had won the race.”
But Andretti has never been first across that narrow strip of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he won’t get a chance to be first this year, either. Because of the feud in Indy-car racing, he’ll be at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., along with other top drivers for today’s inaugural U.S. 500.
All the points and counterpoints don’t account for much when your sport has been torn apart and you won’t get a chance to end your family’s 27-year losing streak in the Indianapolis 500. It seems the fluky mishaps and bad karma that plagued Mario Andretti have carried over to his son.
“Who knows how many more chances I’ll have to win at Indy, and I’ve just lost another one,” Michael Andretti said, slumped on a sofa in his team’s motor home after a practice session. “That’s what bothers me the most.”
The drivers insist they’re solidly behind their car owners, who pulled out of Indy when the track’s president, Tony George, decreed that 25 of the 33 starting positions would be reserved for drivers in his new series, the Indy Racing League.
For the small group of former Indy winners, the feud between George and the car owners is easier to take. Al Unser Jr. had hoped to redeem himself for failing to qualify at Indy last year, but he shrugged off the disappointment of not being there today.
“I’ve won at Indy,” said Unser, a two-time 500 champion. “I think the guys who are really disappointed are the ones who haven’t.”
Championship Auto Racing Teams launched the U.S. 500 as a way of thumbing its nose at George. All of the top teams chose to stick with CART, which went so far as to schedule its race on the same day as Indy, with the cars lined up in rows of three - even though a lack of cars failed to make it a 33-car field.
Twenty-seven cars qualified, including pole-sitter Jimmy Vasser with a speed of 232.025 mph. He is joined on the front row by Adrian Fernandez (231.108) and Bryan Herta (230.774).
Past Indy winners in the field are Unser, who qualified fifth at 230.213; Emerson Fittipaldi, eighth at 227.816; and Bobby Rahal, 15th at 225.464.
CART officials claim that all 90,000 grandstand seats have been sold, and they’re predicting more than 100,000 will turn out. Still, the crowd won’t be even half as large as the throng that will be at Indy to watch a bunch of obscure drivers.
Coca-Cola 600
There are bigger races on the Winston Cup circuit than the Coca-Cola 600, and there are richer ones. There are none, however, offering a more thorough challenge to the drivers and their crews.
“This thing just keeps eating away at you and eating away at you,” Darrell Waltrip said, “and then you finally think you’ve got it licked, and they tell you there’s still another hundred miles left.”
Waltrip is the only five-time winner of the 600, which will be run for the 37th time today at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
It is the longest race run on NASCAR’s premier circuit and starts at 2 p.m. PDT.
Jeff Gordon earned the pole with a qualifying speed of 183.773 in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Spokane’s Chad Little qualified sixth in a Pontiac Grand Prix at 182.070.
Red Dog 300
Mark Martin continued his mastery of Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday by overcoming a fuel problem to win the Red Dog 300 NASCAR Busch Grand National race.
Martin took the lead with 24 laps remaining and held off Dick Trickle by about 10 car lengths for his fourth victory in his last five races on Charlotte’s 1.5-mile, high-banked tri-oval.
Little, who started in 32nd place, worked his way up to 13th and earned $8,300.
xxxx U.S. 500 AT A GLANCE BROOKLYN, Mich. Facts and figures of the inaugural U.S. 500 today at the Michigan International Speedway: Distance - 500 miles; 250 laps around the 2-mile, asphalt Michigan International Speedway track. Sanctioning body - Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). Race cars - Open-cockpit, open-wheel and single-seat, with engine specs set by CART. Minimum wheelbase of 96 inches, most are between 112 and 118 inches; maximum length of 195 inches; maximum width of 78.5 inches; minimum weight of 1,550 pounds. Start - 11 a.m. PDT from a flying start, following warmup and pace laps. The pace car, a Mercedes-Benz S600 Coupe, powered by a 389-hp, 6-liter V12 engine, will be driven by actor Paul Newman. Television - Live on ESPN, with Bob Varsha as anchor; Indy-car driver Scott Goodyear as analyst; and Marty Reid, Jon Beekhuis and James Allen as pit reporters. Pole position - Jimmy Vasser, 30, of San Francisco, who qualified in a Reynard-Honda at a two-lap average of 232.025 mph. Field average in qualifications - 227.807 mph. Purse - Winner earns $1 million from total purse in excess of $3.38 million. Crowd - All 90,000 reserved grandstand seats have been sold; crowd of more than 100,000 expected.