Bob Jennings

It's the same old story, the usual drill. Bob Jennings doesn't have enough time to maintain Bob Jennings' World O' Racing. He has a wife, a mother, family problems, a full time job (thank goodness for that - especially in the current job market) lots of expenses and not a lot of money. He's getting older too. He just turned 55. He doesn't always have the energy he needs, especially at night when he can write. He stops at his local pub Daddy Jacks on the way home from work for "two fingers" of Wild Turkey 101 and it makes him sleepy and ready to put the day behind him. Sitting at his computer can become difficult trying to find words to convey his ideas and thoughts especially since he isn't a natural writer. But he's terribly addicted to auto racing and he has this deep need to express himself. He wants to play in the game. He also wants to display some of the racing photos he spends so many hours and dollars to produce. When Bob gets an e-mail from a total stranger expressing enjoyment for some of the words he put on the Internet it's like a gift from the gods. The audience is small but it's there and Bob wants to keep it going. 

The photo of Tony Stewart on this page was originally intended to be used for a piece preceding the opening of practice for the 2001 "Indianapolis 500." It was supposed to be a proclamation of joy that Tony Stewart was coming back to race in the "500." Tony Stewart is "Superman." He's the closest thing I've seen to A.J. Foyt at his peak in the early to mid 1960's. Tony Stewart is the best American racing driver I know of. He's the best American driver you know of too. I was happy to have Tony coming back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May and I wanted to write about it.

In May the old energy and time gremlins reappeared. I was hustling to convert a three or four month mainframe computer programmer contract assignment into a full time job. I was trying to get to the Speedway as much as I could to see what was going on and this was without one hour of vacation time. I was informed by his son that my original racing "guru" died in 1994. I was barely able to conclude a piece I began at the start of April before the "Indianapolis 500" on May 27, let alone anything else. So here I am more than four weeks after the "Indianapolis 500" rearranging the words on this page the way I have a couple times already with a lot to say but without the ability to keep pace with the lightning speed of the sport which I'm writing about.   

Although I'm obligated to congratulate Roger Penske on yet another "Indianapolis 500" victory, I haven't quite reached that stage in my emotional growth. The truth is that of all 33 drivers starting the 2001 "500," the two I least wanted to see win were Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves. The last person I wanted in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the "dreaded captain of the evil empire of CART." I mean we're talking about the epitome of mean and nasty in motorsports when the name Roger Penske comes up. The enemies are easy to identify. They are Roger Penske, Robin Miller, Carl Haas, Bobby Rahal, Pat Patrick, Mario Andretti and that entire gang of CART thugs. I exclude Chip Ganassi from the official Bob Jennings' World O' Racing enemies list because he brought Tony Stewart back to the "Indianapolis 500" and for that I'm truly grateful. 

I hate it that CART came to the Speedway and took most of the money! It really pisses me off! What bothers me most about it is that CART fans are probably unloading that same crap we've been hearing for the past six seasons since the Indy car split. Fortunately I haven't read much of it yet. Maybe no one is taking CART and its fans seriously any more. But it's still bad news for the Indy Racing League to have CART kick butt the way they did on May 27. The embarrassment is bad but the worst thing for the IRL about getting beaten so badly by CART in the "Indianapolis 500" is that it might slow or stall the recent momentum the series has picked up. I guess I can be thankful The Indianapolis Star fired Robin Miller earlier this year so we didn't have to put up with his vitriol. Robin is hidden away where he can't hurt too many people, reduced to a couple five minute segments each week on TV and buried somewhere on the Internet. His platform has been taken away. He's gone for the most part. When last seen, Robin was sucking up to another ESPN2 personality (female) in the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on "500" Bump day. I missed reading Miller's reporting from the Speedway in May. But I didn't miss his attitude and opinions. 

Bob Reif is doing a good job marketing the Indy Racing League as Tony George's IRL salesman. The addition of four new races for the 2001 season and the emphasis on venues within a close proximity of Indianapolis is a good move. The announcement in April from Toyota about entering IRL competition in 2003 was a big plus for Tony George's series. The crowds for the IRL races at Phoenix and Atlanta weren't large but they were both better than the crowds for last year's events. The crowd for the IRL race in Miami was comparable to the crowd for the CART race last season at the same track. The sponsorship dollars coming into the IRL recently have been increasing to the extent that it's been noticeable. Some of the sponsor money like that from Anheiser Busch and Budweiser came at the expense of CART teams and that's an encouraging sign.  

Compare the gains made by the Indy Racing League with the losses and general malaise surrounding CART and that adds up to plusses for the IRL. The fiasco at Texas Motor Speedway at the end of April was a bad deal for CART, not only financially but in terms of credibility also. After the cancellation of the race in Texas CART shares on the New York Stock exchange accelerated their usual slide in value. Eddie Gossage who runs Texas Motor Speedway wants the CART sanctioning fee he paid returned in addition to compensation (I read total damages of $7 to $8 million) for other problems created by CART's lack of preparation. 

Rick Galles discovered in 1996 that he needed the "Indianapolis 500." Robby Gordon also figured it out in 1996. Al Unser Jr. realized it a long time ago and did something about it in 1999. So did Derrick Walker and Chip Ganassi. Last year Roger Penske, Michael Andretti and Barry Green came to the reality they need the "Indianapolis 500" too, even if it means playing the game by Tony George's rules. Even Tony Stewart couldn't suppress his need for Indy and came back after he swore he wouldn't try to do Indianapolis and Charlotte on the same day again.

You tell me who looks good when you consider all these things? Is it CART who looks good when they  bring 100,000 locals to some crummy looking "rinky dink" go kart track by an old steel mill somewhere in Mexico to see Adrian Fernandez? Yet they only get 30,000 people at Wisconsin State Fair Park for the traditional Milwaukee race? The attendance at Milwaukee represents a 50 percent drop from last season and the smallest crowd for an Indy car event at Milwaukee since the early 1980's. It was cold in Milwaukee you respond. It's been cold on a lot of early June Sundays at the Milwaukee Mile. I know. I've been there with a lot more people than were in attendance in June 2001. 

Who looks good when the Indy Racing League sold nearly 71,000 seats earlier this month to one of two races this season at Texas Motor Speedway while CART only sold 57,000 seats for their aborted race at the same track in April? You tell me who looks good when no matter how the CART boys want to word it the probability is they will adopt the same 3.5 liter normally aspirated production engine formula as the Indy Racing League for 2003? The word I'm looking for is capitulation. 

However despite the gains made recently by the Indy Racing League and the corresponding losses incurred by CART, in the battle for the Borg Warner trophy, my guys got beat where it really counts - on the race track. However we didn't just get beat. We got our asses whipped!   

While I was standing inside my usual location, the apex to turn three, during the closing moments of the "Indianapolis 500" I was thinking to myself that it couldn't be happening. Roger Penske wasn't going to win the "Indianapolis 500" again was he? Each time I saw those two white and Marlboro red Dallaras (without Marlboro anywhere to be seen) go by in first and second place I cringed. How could it be happening again after all these years?

It happened because Roger Penske's two 'boys from Brazil" were the only drivers who didn't experience problems during the race or make mistakes of one kind or another. The Penske cars were among the fastest cars on the track but not overwhelmingly so. Helio Castroneves was doing some major blocking in the corners and on pit road but he didn't stall while leaving the pits like so many of the other contenders. Gil de Ferran was less imposing than his young Brazilian teammate but to his credit he ran pretty clean for most of the race.

But all around them most of the other guys were screwing up in one way or another. Go down a list of the official results at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and you can see what I'm talking about. There were so many people either shooting themselves in the foot or running into car problems the "500" played out like an episode of I Love Lucy.

Talk about shooting themselves in the foot, way to go Scott Sharp! Who do you think you are - Roberto Guerrero? Apparently Scott Sharp never looked at a video of the 1992 "Indianapolis 500." He didn't realize that racing tires don't find grip on a cold track. 

Same thing for you Sarah Fisher and thanks for taking one of our main IRL guys Scott Goodyear with you. You too Sam Hornish. It's okay you're young. The 180 laps of practice will prove valuable in the future. But Sam, did you have to take Little Al out of the race while you were learning the cold tire lesson? Damn Sam! The most unfortunate thing (other than taking Al Unser Jr. out of the race) about Hornish's spin on lap 16 is that afterwards the Pennzoil Panther Dallara was flying. On lap 130 Hornish turned the fastest lap of the race at 219.830 mph. But he was also running four laps down to the leaders.  

Well let's see now. What's Greg Ray's history with John Menard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Two years ago he pulled out into Mark Dismore's car on pit road. During the 2000 "Indianapolis 500" he wrecked two times. I remember the first one. Debris from Ray's car took Al Unser Jr. out of contention in his return to Indianapolis. 

This May Greg Ray's annual stupid move came just past the halfway point of the race. The rain clouds were getting heavy in the southern sky and Ray was leading the race with Michael Andretti closing in. Apparently Ray couldn't handle the pressure from Mikey. Almost predictably he caught the edge of the wall with his right rear wheel coming out of turn four on lap 103 and Michael moved past. That seems like a usual Greg Ray thing to do. It was also what I consider to be the most embarrassing thing that happened to the Indy Racing League effort all day on May 27. Ray is one of the primary IRL headliners, our number one flat out speed demon. Michael Andretti is nowhere near his prime and probably on the downside of his career. Yet was able to intimidate Greg to the point that he blew his composure and banged the outside wall, which let Andretti by into the lead.

Arie Luyendyk returned from retirement to race in the "Indianapolis 500." Luyendyk admitted while he was communicating with ABC under the yellow flag that he felt rusty and out of touch. He started off well enough running with the leaders in the early phases of the race but he kept experiencing problems with the clutch in his G-Force leaving the pits. Luyendyk stalled at least twice and perhaps three times during stops. This dropped him two laps off the pace and he finished thirteenth which is not nearly what Arie had in mind when he decided to race again.

Robby Gordon took off like bat out of hell after he got by Scott Sharp's spinning car at the start of the race. But once the race progressed beyond the mayhem during the first 21 laps Gordon didn't have anything for Greg Ray. In the final laps of the race Robby had all kinds of mechanical problems and was running sixteen laps behind at the finish. 

Eddie Cheever was plagued by the same electrical gremlins during the race that drove him nuts throughout May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Cheever wasn't running particularly fast before he fell out of the race just past the halfway point.  

Buddy Lazier was the main hope for the Indy Racing League during the 85th "Indianapolis 500" as he tried valiantly to keep Juan Montoya from overwhelming the field. Lazier's challenge was unsuccessful but Buddy gave an excellent effort. IRL fans needed Buddy Lazier to carry the flag in this year's "500." The Oldsmobile engine in Buddy's Tae-Bo Coors Light Delta Faucet Dallara lost a cylinder during the first twenty laps of the race and though he carried on, he was well off the pace for the rest of the race.   

Mark Dismore might have had the fastest car in this year's "Indianapolis 500." It looked that way to me when Dismore was running out front. But the gearbox went bad forcing Mark to the pits for repairs to his Kelley team Delphi Dallara. That took him out of contention. Dismore went back to the race but was five laps off the pace. At the end of the race Dismore was able to run away from winner Helio Castroneves but to no avail.        

Problems weren't exclusive to Indy Racing League teams in the 85th "Indianapolis 500." Look what happened to Michael Andretti in the pits. He rear ended Tony Stewart's Target G-Force because the Penske cars pulled in front of Tony and caught Andretti unaware. Earlier in the race Michael looked like he might be capable of winning. After hitting Stewart's car in the pits Andretti's speed dropped off and his crew replaced the front wing later. That didn't seem to help and Michael's Motorola Dallara couldn't catch the Penske cars during the final laps of the race.

Even Chip Ganassi wasn't immune from screwing up. Why did Ganassi bring Tony Stewart into the pits on lap 149? It was obvious the rain was picking up and the race was going to be stopped in a few moments anyway. Stewart gave up the lead to Helio Castroneves when Ganassi brought him in. That turned out to be the final lead change in this year's "500." We Indy Racing League fans still count Tony Stewart as one of our own even though he drove for a CART team. Chip Ganassi doesn't make too many "boo boos" but he made a big one when he brought Tony Stewart into the pits on lap 149. 

The final challenge to the Penske team was left to Robbie Buhl. For awhile Buhl was doing the Indy Racing League proud too. Robbie's Purex G-Force - Infiniti passed Gil de Ferran easily for second place. Buhl was catching leader Helio Castroneves and it was apparent the Brazilian was blocking Robbie going into the corners. It would've been interesting to see what Buhl could've done with Castroneves during the final 30 laps had Robbie not spun.      

It was the first time Roger Penske saw his cars finish one two in the "Indianapolis 500." It wasn't a dominant win in the fashion of Rick Mears' win in 1988. That race was dominated by the three Penske cars by driven by Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser. Mears, Sullivan and Unser shared the front row and ran in the lead for all but eight laps. Penske's Mercedes Benz pushrod entries driven by Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. led all but seven laps in the 1994 "500" with Little Al taking his second Indianapolis victory. But in both 1988 and 1994 the Penske entries were unique from the rest of the cars in the race. 

This time Penske was forced to run the same equipment as everyone else so he had to feel a strong measure of satisfaction with his drivers finishing first and second in standard Dallara - Oldsmobiles. When interviewed immediately after the race by Ed Sorenson of Indianapolis TV station WRTV Penske said it was 'the best day" of his life.     

Even with CART drivers finishing one, two, three, four, five, even with CART cars filling out the top six places at the Speedway, even with Al Unser Jr. being knocked out of the race through no fault of his own on lap 16 and even with Roger Penske winning for the eleventh time, race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was electric with more drama, emotion and unanswered questions than any running of the "500" in years. The "Indianapolis 500" still rules. Our "500" still rules even though the "Daytona 500" surpassed us in total prize money for the first time ever. I really hate that!  In terms of overall prestige and value of the "Indianapolis 500" the eighty-fifth runnings has to be looked at in a very positive light.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has more than 300,000 permanent seats. Despite the intermittent rain and cool temperatures on race day I didn't see one empty seat while I was at the Speedway. I watched a video of the ABC telecast of the "500" and didn't see an empty seat. Tickets for the 2001 "Indianapolis 500" sold out during June 2000. It looked to me as if more than 300,000 people decided they wanted to be at the Speedway to see this "500" and they used those 300,000 plus seats that were sold last June. 

I remember how much Robin Miller made over the fact that attendance at Phoenix dropped from 60,000 fans to one fourth that number when CART was replaced by the Indy Racing League in 1996. With both series racing at Texas Motor Speedway it was the first time we had the chance to measure how the IRL would stack up against the CART in terms of tickets sold. Guess what folks? The Indy Racing League sold more tickets. It was announced that 70,800 tickets were sold for the IRL race on June 9. 57,000 tickets were sold for the ill-fated CART race on April 29.

The crowd at Pikes Peak International Raceway for the recent IRL race was estimated at 30,000. It looked better to me but the estimate is probably close. The crowd on Belle Isle in Detroit for the CART race on the same day was reported at 44,000.

The story that blows me away is the recent development with Michigan International Speedway. Did International Speedway Corporation get rid of CART or did CART blow off ISC? Doesn't it seem unlikely that CART would take a chance of pissing off the France family? My guess is that Bill France or whoever makes those decisions decided he liked working with Tony George better. What do you think?  

I bet the crowd next season at Michigan when the IRL shows up will be just as good (if not better) than the number of people who come next month for CART's final appearance.