Indy 500 legends will likely never be replaced
INDIANAPOLIS – In an odd twist, a handful of racing legends toasted a journalist Friday as the Robin Miller Award was created to honor the influential reporter celebrating his 50th anniversary covering the Indianapolis 500.
Four-time Indy winner A.J. Foyt (1961, ’64, ’67, ’77), three-time winners Bobby Unser (1968, ’75, ‘81) and Johnny Rutherford (1974, ’76, ’80) and Mario Andretti, who is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his lone victory, were on hand.
Still, what resonated most wasn’t what they said about Miller – who will be part of NBC’s broadcast of the 103rd Indianapolis 500 Sunday – but what he said about those four and their generation. Andretti was the youngest of the group at age 79.
“When these guys are gone, there’s nobody to take their place,” Miller said. “They were the baddest of the bad. They were the guys we all idolized growing up. When they go places, everybody stops. …
“You can never get enough of them because … all I have to do if I’m having a bad day is to watch one of (Foyt’s) tirades on ABC in the pits, either throwing a computer or taking a swing at somebody. That doesn’t happen anymore. We have too many nice people out here.”
On the track
Tony Kanaan posted the fastest lap in Carburetion Day final practice. It’s wasn’t the rank, though, that excited the 2013 winner,
“I wasn't really happy with my car on Monday, and I was extremely vocal about it, and I think my engineers heard me, so we made it better today,” said Kanaan, who will start 16th.
“I just think I was looking on Monday when I drove the car, I was looking for the same car I had last year, which I didn't have. I think we do now, so pretty much it's to have a consistent car in traffic, and be able to stay behind people and be able to pass some cars and stay up front all day.”
Rookie Santino Ferrucci was secondfastest. Pole-sitter Simon Pagenaud was a surprising 22nd.
There were no significant accidents but a few close calls, and Graham Rahal did brush the wall.
In the pits
Rookie Marcus Ericcson and his Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports crew won the annual pit-stop competition, beating Scott Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing in the best-of-three final round.
That broke the stranglehold of Ganassi and Team Penske, which had combined to win the past 15. Although the contest doesn't have any bearing on the 500, it can provide confidence for a team that probably will make eight or nine stops in the race.
Bright Lights
Rookie Oliver Askew drafted to the inside of Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Norman on the front stretch and slipped ahead by 0.0067 of a second to win the Freedom 100 for the Indy Lights development series.
“That finish, I’m going to remember that for the rest of my life,” Askew said.
The margin of victory – barely a foot – was the fourth-closest in Freedom 100 history and eighth-closest in Indy Lights.
Birchwood, Wisconsin, native Aaron Telitz finished ninth after missing the first five laps due to an axle failure on the pace lap.
In the future
IndyCar announced a partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies to design and build a driver cockpit protection aero screen to be used on all cars next season.
After testing an in-house screen last year, the series adopted what it called the advanced frontal protection device, an 3-inch-tall deflector. The next version of cockpit protection will more similar to a fighter jet canopy but still open on top, supported by a frame. Among the potential problems to addressed are fogging, distortion, driver extrication and vision in the case that, for example, it gets covered with oil.
A prototype is expected in expected in about 30 days, IndyCar President Jay Frye said, with testing to follow, and one should be available for each car by November. IndyCar tested an in-house version of an aeroscreen before moving to the advanced frontal protection device and ultimately Red Bull’s version.
What if?
The weather forecast for Sunday continues to change – which isn’t uncommon in May in Indianapolis – and by midday Friday included thunderstorms and a 80% chance of rain.
The Indy 500 has been interrupted due to rain three times in the 2000s, most recently in 2007, when it was stopped twice and then declared official at the 415-mile mark. The most recent postponement was 1997, when it was delayed until Tuesday.
“This should be the one race that can’t be called at halfway,” 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay said. “It needs to go the full distance, even if we have to do it the next day. It’s the Indy 500. It needs to go 500 miles.”