Santa Clara’s Kaiser hoping to complete Indy 500 fairy tale
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Kaiser’s comeback story accelerated when he bumped twotime Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso out of the Indianapolis 500.
The 23-yearold Santa Clara native hopes Sunday’s final chapter will be every bit as compelling.
After beating the odds during a topsy-turvy month, Kaiser hopes to become the first driver to win the race from the 33rd and final starting spot on the grid.
“We’ve seen a lot of fairy tales at this track before,” he said this week.
“Why couldn’t we see a fairy tale this weekend?”
Here’s what he had to go through to get into the race:
Just as practice for the 500 began last week, team owner Ricardo Juncos announced his two primary sponsors had withdrawn.
On May 16, the day before qualifying began, Kaiser lost control of the car and spun into the outside wall. The car nearly went airborne before landing on one wheel with the tub smashing back to the track surface.
After crew members scrambled to repair the damage overnight, Kaiser didn’t have enough speed to make the protected top 30 on the first day of qualifying. So the team went back to work Saturday night, giving Kaiser one final chance in the last-row shootout.
This time, on the final run of the shootout, he completed a four-lap qualifying effort with an average speed of 227.372 mph — barely ahead of Alonso’s 227.353 — sending Alonso and his well-funded team, McLaren Racing, home to Europe.
“It’s been such a roller-coaster ride you could chart it,” Kaiser said. “I mean even before the sponsors pulled out, I wasn’t sure if I was going to drive the car. I can’t even explain the emotions we’ve been through.”
Now, everyone seems to want to jump on board. Juncos Racing announced 250ok, an Indianapolis-based email intelligence platform, will serve as the primary sponsor this weekend. Last year’s primary sponsor, insurance company NFP, has teamed up with Global Medical Response as a cosponsor. The team also has added Hagerty, the world’s largest specialty insurer of collector vehicles and publisher of Hagerty magazine.
The result could help the part-time IndyCar team take another step toward becoming a full-time entrant. Kaiser finished 21st in his only start this season in Austin, Texas, after making four starts in 2018 — including Indianapolis, where he finished 29th.
But what Kaiser, who as recently as 2017 was taking classes at Santa Clara University, has managed to do over the past two weeks has not been lost on veterans who have fought through their own struggles on IndyCar’s biggest stage.
“You’ve got to stay calm here because this race is all about preparation and if you’re not prepared your chance of failing is huge,” 2013 Indy winner Tony Kanaan said. “It’s really easy to lose your head here and this place can really drain your mind if you let it.”
Kaiser has refused to let that happen and now has a chance to rewrite history.
“I think it was the magic of May,” he said. “It’s just a great underdog story and I think everyone can relate.” Michael Marot is an Associated Press writer.