A lesson in horse power
Hinchcliffe went to Derby
INDIANAPOLIS – There’s horsepower, and then there’s horse power.
James Hinchcliffe, a lifelong fan of the first, learned a little more about the second earlier in the month when he attended the Kentucky Derby for the first time.
“There were a lot of differences,” said Hinchcliffe, a five-time IndyCar Series winner preparing for his sixth Indianapolis 500 start Sunday.
“The biggest thing from a fan’s perspective was that the Derby is, you stand around all day drinking, waiting every half hour for a 90-second race. In IndyCar and the 500, you stand around all day drinking while the entire time there’s a race going on.
“There was a lot more standing around waiting for something than there is here in the 500. So I would definitely still prefer this event.”
Hinchcliffe took part in several Derby traditions — even beyond mint juleps — such as dressing up for the event and placing a wager.
“I’m not a gambler. I know nothing about horse racing,” he said Thursday during Indy media day. “So I did what any egotistical race-car driver would do and I bet on the horse that had my number. And I won.
“This gambling thing’s easy. I don’t know why guys don’t do it more often.”
Always Dreaming, horse No. 5, gave Hinchcliffe a $1,400 windfall that he still doesn’t entirely understand. But he is reminded there’s more at stake for him in the 500, from which the winning team will collect about $2.5 million. Does luck carry over? “I hope so,” Hinchcliffe said. “I’ll be really upset, if I potentially traded an Indy 500 win for a winning ticket at the Kentucky Derby.”
Hanging on: He’ll turn 50 this fall, and while 1996 winner Buddy Lazier doesn’t spend much time thinking about his place in Indy history, he can’t escape the conversation.
“It is a little staggering that there have been 100 Indy 500s and I have taken part in 20 of those,” said Lazier, who will line up 30th for the 101st running. “And there were another five that for various reasons we got left out.
“I take pride in that. A few seconds less and I would be a three-time winner.”
Lazier spent most of his early years with underdog teams but capitalized when the top CART teams stayed away from the 500 after the creation of the Indy Racing League.
He then finished second in 1998 to Eddie Cheever and in 2000 to Juan Pablo Montoya, one of the first CART regulars to return.
“It’s really amazing, this place, how much has to go right to get back into victory lane,” Lazier said. “It’s when you run and you finish second like I did twice that haunt you and you don’t forget about.”
Lights qualifying: Eighteen-year-old Brazilian rookie Matheus Leist of Carlin Racing won the pole Thursday for the Freedom 100 Indy Lights support race on Friday. Colton Herta qualified second.
Aaron Telitz, the rookie from Birchwood, Wis., was sixth-fastest.
One step: Sebastien Bourdais, who suffered pelvic and hip fractures in a vicious crash Saturday during qualifying, says he hopes to be back in a race car before the end of the season.
The 38-year-old Frenchman left IU Health Methodist Hospital on crutches Wednesday for a rehabilitation facility. He should be able to start putting weight on his right leg in about eight weeks, according to orthopedic surgeon Kevin Scheid, a medical consultant to the sanctioning body.
Testing: Andretti Autosport and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports are scheduled to test June 14 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the June 25 Kohler Grand Prix, the track announced.
The session will be open to the public, with ticket-holders for the race allowed in free. Admission is $10 otherwise, and people who purchase tickets during the test will receive a $10 discount.
Just visiting: Vice President Mike Pence,a former Indiana governor, and his wife, Karen, plan to attend the race Sunday but will not have an official role, speedway President Doug Boles said.
“The vice president is a Hoosier and grew up here and I think today tweeted some photos of his family coming here, his family tradition,” Boles said.
Betting favorite: Two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, an Indy rookie, has been installed as the 9-2 favorite to win the 500 by the online sports book Bovada.lv. Pole-sitter Scott Dixon is second at 19-4 and Will Power third at 8-1.
It’s an honor: Former Green Bay Packers guard T.J. Lang — now a member of the Detroit Lions — will serve as grand marshal of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, giving the command to start engines for the first race of a doubleheader that immediately follows Indy.