Alonso sees shot to win in oval debut
F1 driver brings wider attention to Indy, and rivals don’t mind.
It was opening day at Indianapolis INDIANAPOLIS — Motor Speedway and Fernando Alonso chose a skateboard as his means of transportation through the paddock.
He essentially turned the hallowed Brickyard into his personal playground.
It has been all Alonso since the twotime Formula One champion announced last month he would skip the race in Monaco to run the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. His presence has drawn massive worldwide interest to the race and given Alonso a break from his depressing F1 season with McLaren.
“I think it’s a breath of fresh air for him,” said Zak Brown, a former Indianapolis-based sports marketer who’s executive director of the McLaren Technology Group. “He is enjoying it. He’s doing all of it. He wants to do it. He feels very welcomed by the IndyCar club.
“I think clearly he’s getting the most awareness right now. But he’s getting awareness not just for himself, but for Indianapolis, for IndyCar, for Formula One. I think it’s a good story. It’s a huge story. Might be the dominant story.”
Indeed, the run-up to the 101st Indy 500 has seen a full-fledged case of Alonso mania at the expense of many other aspects surrounding today’s race.
As a thick crowd of international reporters pushed toward the seat Alonso was expected to take during Thursday’s media day, driver Oriol Servia approached and jokingly asked if they were waiting for him. After all, for more than a decade, Servia was the only Spaniard in the Indy 500. Now he calls himself “the other Spaniard.”
When Servia was asked earlier this month about Alonso, 35, teammate Graham Rahal interrupted: “He’s the only guy racing here, isn’t he?”
No, 32 others are in the field. It just seems they have been overlooked.
Earlier Thursday, online betting site Bovada released its Indy 500 odds and listed Alonso as the 9-2 favorite. Threetime 500 winner Helio Castroneves? 12-1.
Alonso said being the betting favorite is “probably not” a fair expectation, and noted that the last time he did a rolling start was in a 1997 go-kart race. But he thinks he’s done everything possible to prepare for the race, and even spent time Thursday on a simulator.
“I know this is a race that everyone has a chance to win; this is an unpredictable race,” he said. “We all have a possibility. I think I have a lower chance than some of the big names because I am lacking that experience. But if I have a chance, I will go for it.
“I am prepared. I will try to compensate that lack of experience with good motivation, good racing speed and a lot of respect for everyone and a lot of respect for the race. If (fans) want to bet, and they put the money on myself, I will try to make them happy.”
Alonso has certainly thrilled IndyCar’s fan base, which has followed his every move. It wasn’t until 2008 winner Scott Dixon turned in the best qualifying effort in 21 years to win the pole that the spotlight briefly shifted to someone else.
Dixon doesn’t feel snubbed. He considers Alonso a legitimate contender because he’s racing with Andretti Autosport — winner of this race last year with rookie Alexander Rossi — and because “the caliber of driver he is, it seems like he’s definitely soaking it in.”
“We have one superstar who has come from Formula One to race here, so it’s a big deal,” said Tony Kanaan, a 20-year IndyCar veteran who won the 2013 Indy 500. “It’s the best race in the world. He’s caught a lot of attention. He does have a chance, but I can name three or four other guys that I would put my money on this weekend.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first CONCORD, N.C. — childhood memories of Cup Series racing come from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
He remembers watching his famous father Dale Sr. tear up the track. He ran plastic Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough cars down a nearby dusty hill. He recalls his days as a teenager, breaking into the track with friends and hotwiring golf carts until they were chased off by approaching headlights.
It’s the place where he’d finish running an Xfinity race and return to the Campus Connection apartment complex across the street and drink beer with his buddies until late into the night.
It’s also the track where he ran his first NASCAR Cup Series race — and won the 2000 All-Star race as a rookie.
But of all of the memories at Charlotte, one is strangely absent — a Cup Series points race victory.
The 42-year-old Earnhardt would like to change that in his final season as a NASCAR driver before stepping away for retirement.
In fact, he wants to win the Coca-Cola 600 more than any other race remaining on the docket.
“I would love that,” Earnhardt said. “It’s an iconic event.”
There are others who’d like to see the sentimental favorite win this one. Seventime Cup Series champion and teammate Jimmie Johnson has been doing everything he can this week to help Earnhardt reach victory lane.
Earnhardt was a non-factor at the All-Star race at CMS last weekend, but brought a totally different setup during this past week after consulting with teammate Johnson and No. 48 team crew chief Chad Knaus. That’s not a bad idea since Johnson, a seven-time Cup champion, has won more Cup Series races at CMS than any driver.
“We totally eighty-sixed all that stuff we ran last week and we put in Jimmie’s setup just like him,” Earnhardt said. “We are leaning on (the No. 48 team) pretty hard this weekend.”
Earnhardt ran a little better in practice on Saturday after qualifying 19th.
Kevin Harvick will start alongside Kyle Busch today for NASCAR’s longest race, a grueling 400-lap run on a 1½-mile oval.
“Jimmie has come by the car a couple of times in practice already looking at notes and printing out our driver traces and trying to figure out whatever we can do to help me,” Earnhardt said. “He comes over with these printouts and says, ‘This is what I’m doing with the gas and this is what you’re doing and this is where the time is getting loose and maybe try this and that and the other.’
“He is a super teammate. I’m lucky to be able to work in the same shop with him.”
Earnhardt’s best chance to win here came in 2011 when he ran out of gas on turn four of the final lap while leading the race. It was devastating at the time for Earnhardt and took him weeks to get over, but he now says the loss “doesn’t weigh on him much.”
Regardless of whether Earnhardt gets his first Cup Series win of the season today, he said it won’t tarnish the fond memories he has at Charlotte. But a victory here would provide a fairytale ending.
“I would have guessed I’d have got a win here in a point race at some point, but it just hasn’t happened,” Earnhardt said. “For whatever reason it’s really been tough for me. We just really haven’t been able to hit on how to get around here. Either how to set the car up or what I’m looking for or what I need to be doing with the car driving it.
“But, we will keep digging this weekend.”