Bob Jennings

I've been on this nostalgia kick for four months. It was fun to look back at old memories of  A.J. Foyt, the "Hoosier Hundred," Mario Andretti and my favorite Al Unser Sr.  I was more preoccupied with the chaos of the presidential election contest in November and December than the tail end of the 2000 racing season. That was fascinating, like Al Unser Jr. and Scott Goodyear in the 1992 "Indianapolis 500." It was also one of few bright spots in the past couple months for me. My professional career hit a road block last month. It wasn't the merriest of holiday seasons either. Perhaps the comfort of looking back at racing in the past (and better times) filled a need. It's now 2001 however. A new racing season looms. It's time to look at the present and also a little at the future.     

If you're curious why I feature a photo of Al Unser Jr. on this web page there are a couple reasons. The first is I like this photo. I've been planning to use it for at least a year. The second reason is that Al Unser Jr.'s represents my principal focus in the current scheme of things racing these days. 

I took this photo on the day before qualifications opened for the 1998 "Indianapolis 500." Al Unser Jr. was still racing for the Marlboro Penske team in CART. He was making a visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch his cousins Robby Unser and Johnny Unser prepare to qualify for the "500." When this photo was taken, I was focusing on Tony Stewart's battle for high speed honors in John Menard's Dallara. Stewart, Larry Curry and the Menard crew faced tough opposition from A.J. Foyt's Dallaras, driven by Billy Boat and Kenny Brack.

When I saw Al Unser Jr. walking around the pits, acknowledging excited cheers from the fans and signing autographs, it brought back a lot of Little Al memories. Junior and the Marlboro Penske team were sliding deeper into mediocrity at the time and falling to the bottom of the CART heap. But at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he hadn't raced since 1994, he was being greeted like a war hero in a ticker tape parade in Manhattan. Seeing this I thought to myself, this is where Al Jr. belongs and I began looking forward to his return to the "Indianapolis 500." 

More than 2 1/2 years later Al Unser Jr. is planning for his second season in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. Al Jr. had one IRL win last season at Las Vegas and he could've won both races at Texas. He also had good runs at Phoenix and Atlanta. The best part of Little Al's 2000 season is that I saw the old fire return in Unser's racing on several occasions. I have larger expectations for Unser in 2001.

Unser's car owner Rick Galles appears to have big expectations for 2001 also. Tickets.com was the primary sponsor on Al Jr.'s white and black G-Force last season. The cable TV movie channel Starz was an associate sponsor in 2000. This season Starz will be the primary sponsor. TV Guide magazine is coming to the team as an associate sponsor on Junior's car. Al's G-Force number 3 will retain the attractive white and black swoopy graphics from last season.

Galles added two drivers to his lineup for the coming Indy Racing League season. Didier Andre, who won in Indy Lights competition, will run the entire IRL season in a G-Force sponsored by Sony PlayStation France. Casey Mears, the son of Roger Mears and nephew of Rick Mears, will run the first four IRL races through the "Indianapolis 500." Mears' G-Force will be sponsored by CBS Sportsline.com. 

It looks like Rick Galles has been a busy guy in the off season, hustling to add sponsor money. Galles has hooked up with some "biggies" like Sony and CBS. The enlarged 2001 Galles operation in the IRL is reminiscent of the Valvoline period when Unser Jr. won his first Indy car title in 1990 and his first "Indianapolis 500" in 1992. I hope the expansion of the Galles program doesn't detract from the effort for Little Al though. I have some concerns with the recent announcements from Rick Galles. I'm worried the Andre and Mears entries might spread resources too thin and hinder the Unser Jr. effort.       

The "Daytona 500" is less than one month away. Things are starting to gather momentum in NASCAR at a faster pace each day. The annual prelude to Daytona Speedweeks is the January testing. 52 drivers posted speeds at Daytona International Speedway over ten days from January 8 through January 17. The fastest (stand alone) speed was turned by Matt Kenseth in one of the Jack Roush Fords at 182.271 mph. Kenseth's speed was more than five mph slower than the lap Rusty Wallace turned (187.719) during tests where cars were allowed to draft each other. 

The big story coming from Daytona is the lack of speed from the new Dodge Intrepids, which will make their Winston Cup debut in the "Daytona 500." The fastest lap recorded by one of the Intrepids was 180.821 mph by Stacy Compton. The slow speeds resulted in an additional test being scheduled at Talladega for the Dodge teams prior to the opening of Speedweeks.

Another USAC guy has made the move up to Winston Cup in the tradition of Kenny Schrader, Jeff Gordon, Kenny Irwin, Mike Bliss and Tony Stewart. Jason Leffler has vacated his Busch series ride with Joe Gibbs in favor of an offer from Chip Ganassi. Leffler remarked last week he didn't believe the Gibbs team will expand to three cars in Winston Cup in the near future. That was a primary reason Leffler gave for accepting a ride in one of Ganassi's Intrepids. It's also been reported that Jason will race one of the Target cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May, alongside Ganassi's new CART drivers Nicolas Minassian and Bruno Junqueira. 

It's good to see Leffler getting his chance at the big time. He deserves it. He's a good driver, one of the best open wheel oval track guys to come around in years. Tony Stewart has been one of Jason's patrons. When big time racing people like Roger Penske, Joe Gibbs and Chip Ganassi begin paying attention and then paying a salary, it means a race driver is progressing up the proverbial ladder. Leffler wasn't spectacular in NASCAR Busch Grand National racing. He finished twentieth in the season point standings. But Jason was steadily improving as the season progressed. He had two top five finishes and four top tens during the 2000 Busch season. In the Busch series race at Phoenix International Raceway on November 4, Leffler had a particularly good performance, qualifying on pole and finishing second to Jeff Burton in the race.

It bothers me a lot to see young open wheel talents like Jason Leffler going to NASCAR when they ought to be running in the Indy Racing League. In the past few years, we've lost some good guys to NASCAR and the list continues to grow. Ryan Newman has been consumed by the Penske empire. I recently read in National Speed Sport News that Tracy Hines was shopping for a ride in Charlotte recently. When is this stupid trend going to reverse itself? 

The previous five years the Indy Racing League teams have been getting ready to open the season at Walt Disney World. That isn't happening this year, which is too bad because I really liked the one mile oval at Disney World and I feel like I missed something by never going to the January race. I hope it comes back some day.

Arie Luyendyk is returning to race in the "Indianapolis 500." Arie must be missing that fix of adrenaline he last had on lap 117 of the1999 "500" when he crashed while leading. He's 47 now, which isn't necessarily old for an "Indianapolis 500" driver, especially if you compare him to Mario Andretti and Al Unser. I wish Nigel Mansell would do the same thing as Luyendyk and make another attempt to win the "500." Nigel won't be 48 until August. That's probably too much to hope for but it would be terrific to have "old Nige" back in a racing car at the Speedway in May.

Luyendyk will drive for his former car owner Fred Treadway. Treadway has merged his team with the Hubbard operation which ran cars in the IRL for Tyce Carlson during the 2000 season. Aside from Indianapolis, Arie will be the driver coach for the Treadway - Hubbard team the rest of the 2001 season.

I think Arie Luyendyk will do okay in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There aren't many people who know how to get around the 2.5 mile oval better than Luyendyk. I don't expect Arie to have much problem shaking off the rust. 

It's official. Roger Penske will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May to compete in the "Indianapolis 500." It's been five years in coming. During the years of the Indy car split the two competitors who seemed to be most conspicuous by their absence at Indianapolis in May were Al Unser Jr. and Roger Penske. Both came back to the scene of their greatest glory in May 2000, Unser Jr. as a driver and Penske as sponsor of the Fred Treadway entry for Jason Leffler. The Penske organization will be back in full white and red Marlboro regalia this May with cars for CART champion Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves.

It makes me wonder what it will be like to have Penske cars back on the track in May. Will it be like the old days, when the Penske cars ran rampant over the competition year after year? In those days it seemed like Roger Penske pranced around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway like royalty.  In the years since, the once proud Penske team was humbled. But there was a hint of the old glory last season. Both Penske drivers won races in CART and de Ferran managed to take a closely contested CART championship. 

Will there be a different style of Penske presence this time? Times change and so do people. I recently got the chance to finally watch a video of Gil de Ferran's win at Nazareth last May, which brought Roger Penske his 100th Indy car win as a car owner. Despite the fact that most of my feelings about Penske have been contemptuous in recent years, I took notice of his reaction to de Ferran's Nazareth win. Roger Penske was gracious. During his remarks to the media after de Ferran took the checkered flag, he alluded to Al Unser Jr.'s recent IRL win at Las Vegas. It's almost as if the razor sharp Penske is softening some of the edges in his "golden" years. 

I expect the Penske team to concentrate just as heavily on their Indianapolis program as they do to defend de Ferran's CART title, if not more so. Let's face it. Roger Penske made his reputation by winning the "Indianapolis 500" a record ten times. That's what put the name Penske into the public consciousness. Penske will invest a lot of money and time in preparing for his return to the "Indianapolis 500." Included in that preparation will be an appearance by the Penske team at the Indy Racing League season opener at Phoenix International Raceway on March 18.

Do you get the feeling there is a natural evolution towards Indy car reunification or at least accommodation? I do. I'm not sure how to describe my feelings. It's like some natural force is bringing the warring factions back together. Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi will be at the 2001 "Indianapolis 500." Michael Andretti is telling the media he expects to race at Indianapolis in 2002. I keep seeing items that allude to both Ford and Toyota participating in Indy racing sometime in the near future.  

CART seems to be in its usual disarray. Joe Heitzler has recently assumed the job as CART CEO. Does he have any more of a clue about what's going on than any of his predecessors? I read there are problems getting the track built in time for the CART season opener in Mexico on March 11. To date, I haven't seen a definite TV schedule for the 2001 season. CART's financial value has been downgraded by A.G. Edwards. The most recent value of CART shares is $16, which is down substantially from a 52 week high of $28 per share. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but things don't look that promising to me.  

In contrast, the Indy Racing League appears to be getting its act together in the sixth season for the series. There is a 13 race schedule which runs from March at Phoenix to September 16 at Texas Motor Speedway. In between the opening and closing events is a schedule that's convenient for the IRL friendly Indianapolis market. There are six new race tracks on the 2001 IRL schedule and four races within an easy day's drive from Indianapolis. Each of the 13 IRL races in 2001 will feature live TV coverage from either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. IRL officials have stated they expect sellouts at two or three of the races on the 2001 schedule, in addition to the "Indianapolis 500." I'm confident the coming season will be a growth year for the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. I'm really looking forward to it.  

Robin Miller no longer writes for The Indianapolis Star. That's unbelievable! Robin Miller is an icon in the Indianapolis area and a mainstay in the Indy car racing world. For 33 years he wrote his opinions on racing and things associated. Miller was recently fired by The Star. The only one to comment on Miller's firing has been Robin himself. He said something during a local TV interview about being warned by management for sending dirty jokes to his friends over the Internet. Other than that, I haven't seen any details except the newspaper union has filed a grievance over Robin's dismissal.   

I remember when Miller came up as a "cub" reporter in The Star, a protégé of the late Ray Marquette. I always liked Robin's writing style and as the years passed, he got better. Miller could tell the story of a race in a few paragraphs and do it better than anyone I've read. Over the course of 45 plus years I've read them all, Bob Russo in Speed Age magazine, Dick Mittman in The Indianapolis News, Chris Economacki in National Speed Sport News, Gordon Kirby in countless publications and Jonathan Ingram in the now "late great" On Track magazine. Those guys were all good, but Robin Miller was better.

Robin Miller is a product of the Indianapolis culture. He grew up in this town at the same time I did. He relates to the local personality. His style of writing, much like his former colleague at The Star Bill Benner, speaks of the Indianapolis mind set. When Miller appears on TV, he mumbles his words and sounds like my nephews, both of whom are Hamilton County Indiana boys. Robin Miller is a "motorsports junkie." He is obsessed with racing day in day out. That shows in his writing. Sometimes it seems Miller has a love-hate relationship with racing. But he's still consumed by it even when he's angry at the sport which is most of the time.

Robin Miller is probably a decent guy. I read he was in a recent Bill Benner column in The Star. I've actually seen examples of Miller's better nature in person. I've written Robin a lot of e-mails in recent years raising "polite" hell with him for what he's written. But I can't recall his ever not taking the time to respond. I've had a lot of "e-conversations" about racing with Robin Miller in recent years and it's always been fun.

Miller writes what comes to mind immediately whether it's keen observation or a load of crap. He's gotten into trouble over some of the things he's written. He wrote a column several years ago about A.J. Foyt which labeled the Texan as having cheated his way to racing success. For that, Miller got thrown against the scoring pylon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by Foyt. Back in the days when he hated CART, he wrote so many nasty things about Roger Penske I'm surprised he didn't become the victim of a mob hit man. In January 1997 he was fired from his nightly sports talk show on WIBC for a column in The Star which can best be labeled slander against Tony George.

Given my side on the issue of the Indy car split, I usually disagree with Robin Miller. There've been times when I cursed the words he wrote. I always disagree with Miller's view of Tony George and the Indy Racing League. I can't believe the patient and dignified way Tony George has handled Miller's columns. I couldn't have put up with it the way George and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have. Recently I haven't liked Robin's unflattering references to Al Unser Jr. 

Despite the way he pisses me off however, I recognize Robin Miller truly loves the "Indianapolis 500." Where I saw the Indy Racing League as a necessary change for Indy car racing, Miller sincerely feels as if the sport was ruined in 1995. I recognize Robin's gift for putting down words that tell the story of a race. That his words won't be a daily part of the coverage at the Speedway in May, when I read The Indianapolis Star, troubles me. Things won't seem the same.

I don't think we've heard the last of Robin Miller however. I've already seen his byline on the  ESPN racing website and the CART website. I'm sure Miller will continue to make a nice living from writing about racing, lucky son of a gun. But I have to wonder if his words on the Internet will have the same impact they had so many mornings when I opened The Indianapolis Star looking for those words.

If you spend any time at all on this website at all, you see Robin Miller's name sprinkled throughout. Miller has been one of the major players on the local racing scene for a long time. I'm unhappy about his firing by The Indianapolis Star. For that matter I'm unhappy about The Indianapolis Star period. The newspaper's parent company was acquired by Gannett and I don't like the new layout. The Indianapolis Star reminds me of its sister Gannett publication USA Today, which is too bad. A sports columnist from the Denver area named Bob Kravitz was brought to The Star by Gannett. I don't think much of Kravitz's writing so far. It's easy to see Kravitz has no feeling for what's going on with the Indianapolis sport scene.   

I recently opened volume 20 number 25 of On Track magazine to discover it would be the final issue of the magazine. On Track will now be presented exclusively on the Internet. This is almost as big a losing Robin Miller's writing in The Indianapolis Star. 

I remember when I came across the first issue of On Track on the magazine rack at Kroch & Brentano's book store on Wabash Avenue in the Chicago Loop. I was on my lunch break, while working at Polysystems. The magazine was originally the product of Paul Oxman, a publisher of fancy racing posters. If I dig deep in some of those boxes in the basement of my mom's house I'll probably find that first issue of On Track. I have a stack of more recent issues in a plastic storage case in the same room where I'm writing these words.

On Track was a different type of racing magazine from what I'd become accustomed. It wasn't all Formula One and European road racing like Road & Track and Car and Driver. It wasn't all stock cars like the magazines being put out by Dick Berggren. It wasn't in a newspaper format like National Speed Sport News. On Track covered all major forms of racing in detail with excellent photography and relevant text. 

On Track has had a website for a couple years. It was mostly a condensed version of the latest issue of the magazine. About the only thing I found particularly useful on the On Track website was the TV listing. I just took another look at the new website and it hasn't done much for me yet. Certainly at its best the website will never replace the magazine. I must be getting old. I'm beginning to lament some long cherished commodities that are passing from the scene thanks to new technology.

In November, while I was watching the Winston Cup race in Miami on NBC, I was surprised by a TV commercial selling tickets for the 2001 "Daytona 500." Can it be true that each and every one of the 170,000 plus seats at Daytona International Speedway weren't sold out for "the Great American Race" with only three months to go until the race? All 300,000 plus seats for the 85th "Indianapolis 500" were sold last June, within one month of the 84th race. What's going on?

Earlier this month, Joyce Julius and Associates reported the ABC telecast of the 84th "Indianapolis 500" last May 28 generated a record $102.4 million in sponsor exposure. The CBS live coverage of the "Daytona 500" last February generated $92.7 million in sponsor exposure. The "Pepsi 400" at Daytona, which was shown live in prime time on CBS, ranked third at $83.8 million. The ABC telecast last August of the "Brickyard 400" generated $61.6 million. That was sixth in the rankings of all motor racing events on U.S. television.

It looks to me like what's going on is that the "Indianapolis 500" still rules the world of racing like no other event. 

Quinn Epperly died on January 7, at the age of 87. Epperly came up with a radical approach in racing car design in the mid 1950's. Epperly's cars featured a lower frontal area because he placed the Offy four cylinder engine on its side rather than in the upright position as was the usual custom for the old Indy roadsters of that era. In 1957, cars built by Epperly finished first and second in the "Indianapolis 500" as Sam Hanks beat Jim Rathmann. In 1958 Jimmy Bryan won the "500" in the same Belond Special that had carried Hanks to victory the previous year. Rookie George Amick finished second in another Epperly creation, while Tony Bettenhausen finished fourth in yet another car built by Epperly.

I recall the Epperly cars. They looked good. Most of them had neat little shark fins sticking up from the rear end of the car. The Epperly cars were lower at the front than the cars built by A.J. Watson. Epperly's cars appeared to be smaller and lighter. 

My earliest racing hero Tony Bettenhausen liked the cars Quinn Epperly built. Tony drove the red number 33 Jones & Maley Special in the 1958 "500" and led for the only time in his career. In 1959 Tony drove another Epperly "laydown," the orange Hoover Motor Express Special, to fourth place in the "500" for the second consecutive year. Bettenhausen had the fastest car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1961. It was the Autolite Special owned by Lindsey Hopkins. Epperly built the car in 1960 but it didn't qualify for the "500." Bettenhausen talked Hopkins into buying the car for 1961. At the time Tony was killed on Friday May 12, testing Paul Russo's car at the Speedway, he had 2 1/2 mph (149.25 ) on the rest of the field. There's little doubt in my mind Bettenhausen would've broken the one minute 150 mph barrier the following day during the opening of qualifications for the 1961 "500."

Carl Hogan passed away on January 14 at age 71. Hogan was Bobby Rahal's partner when they purchased Patrick Racing at the end of the 1991 season. The following year Rahal and Hogan won the CART championship. Rahal was bumped from the 1993 "Indianapolis 500" and things began to get tense between the two men. After the Rahal - Hogan team blew off their association with Honda in 1994, only to see the Honda turbo V8 engine become a CART race winner the following season, the relationship fell apart and Bobby bought Hogan's share in the team. 

Hogan put up the money for Roger Penske to run a car for Emerson Fittipaldi in 1996. After that, things went downhill. He ran a car for Mercedes Benz in 1997 with Dario Franchitti driving, but most of the money came out of Hogan's pockets. Hogan ran J.J. Lehto in 1998 and Helio Castroneves in 1999. Then he got out because he was running out of money. 

Whenever I see semi trucks carrying the Hogan logo I think about Carl Hogan. Since my life the past 25 years seems to have been an endless drive up and down Interstate 65 from Indianapolis to Chicago and back, Hogan often comes to mind. 

I remember back when drivers like David Hobbs and John Cannon were running Hogan's cars in the SCCA Formula A (later Formula 5000) Continental series during the early 1970's. Hogan's cars were white and carried the blue Hogan trucking logo.

Quinn Epperly and Carl Hogan thanks for the memories and rest in peace.