bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING 01/27/2000
Lord, please let Little Al and the IRL succeed
Al Unser Jr. tries to find enough speed to make the 1995 "Indianapolis 500" on qualifying day two
Bob Jennings
If the title of this piece sounds like a prayer, that's what it is. Saturday, the Indy Racing League begins its fifth season at Walt Disney World. There's a lot riding on this season for both the IRL and new recruit Al Unser Jr. It's not an exaggeration to state that the future of the series is on the line. It's also not an overstatement to look at the 2000 IRL season as key to the future of Unser's racing career.
I fell in love with the Indy Racing League during the 1996 "Indianapolis 500." I want the series to make it in a big way. I want the concepts and personality of the IRL to define what Indy car racing is about in the years to come. I want Indy car racing to get to the place where NASCAR is now. I don't think that will happen with the product CART presents. It may not happen with the IRL either. So far, Tony George and company haven't been able to sell the Indy Racing League to the racing public.
The "Indianapolis 500" still sells. I expect the "Indianapolis 500" will always sell. Unfortunately, with the exception of Texas Motor Speedway and Walt Disney World, not many fans have been coming to IRL races. That surprises me because the IRL has terrific racing. In fact, it's no stretch to write that the IRL has the best racing in the world right now.
You don't believe me? Open your eyes. Formula One is essentially a two-team series, with another two or three teams fighting for the scraps left by McLaren and Ferrari. CART is, for all intents and purposes, a one-team series, with Chip Ganassi and Target winning four consecutive titles since the split with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sure that may change this year with Ganassi switching to Toyota, but I bet there still won't be more than three teams fighting for wins on a regular basis. Even NASCAR in this day and age of multi-car operations has basically six, seven cars that are going to win Winston Cup races regularly. Cars from the Robert Yates, Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick teams are going to win most of the races. Every once in awhile one of the Penske cars wins or Dale Earnhardt wins a race or someone like John Andretti or Joe Nemechek wins. For the most part however, the level of competition in NASCAR pales in comparison to what it was ten years ago.
In the IRL, in any given race, a low budget operation can put together a good car that can race with the higher funded teams in the series. It's happened time and time again over the past four seasons and especially since 1997, when the new IRL formula cars were introduced. Look at the Indy Racing League statistics and you'll get a quick idea of what I'm talking about. Even IRL detractors like Robin Miller can't deny that the IRL offers some of the best racing going.
It's bad that drivers like Tony Stewart, Arie Luyendyk and Kenny Brack are no longer around to add quality to the series. Each of those drivers was a big loss for the IRL. Sam Schmidt was another guy who was starting to make a name in the IRL. His recent injuries are sad. Sam was both a talent and a personality that could've been beneficial to the IRL.
Even with the loss of Stewart, Luyendyk, Brack and Schmidt, there are some good drivers and a lot of interesting stories associated with the IRL however.
Eddie Cheever has become the established "old pro" in the IRL and he seems to be as big a hustler with his racing operation as he's been on the track the past couple seasons, starting with his 1998 "Indianapolis 500" win. He and Ron Hemelgarn, with Buddy Lazier, are both trying the second version of the Riley & Scott IRL chassis, which was built by Riley & Scott's parent firm Reynard. In addition Team Cheever is still the only IRL competitor running the Nissan Infiniti V8. Cheever has big hopes that a newer version of the Infiniti V8, which comes out before the "Indianapolis 500" will be the way to go. I didn't care much for Eddie Cheever when he was a CART regular. I like him now though. He caught a fire in his belly a couple years ago and he hasn't been the same since. He was a "late bloomer," but he's a racer now. I like the Eddie Cheever - Owen Snyder pairing at Team Cheever too. These guys are good.
Buddy Lazier is another driver who I think is one hell of a racer. Buddy
never had a chance in CART. All he got to drive was third-rate junk. No one
can tell me though that Buddy Lazier isn't an outstanding competitor. Less
than three months after he broke his back in I don't know how many places
at Phoenix, he was running 230 plus mph laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
chasing down the guys in front of him in the final laps trying to win the
1996 "Indianapolis 500." Those hot shots at Newman Haas must've watched a
video replay of Lazier's "500" win, because they offered him a drive in one
of their cars at Gateway. I wish Buddy would've taken the offer and gone
to run with those CART "egos."
Greg Ray and the Menard team reminds me a bit of Rick Mears and the Penske team from about 15 - 20 years ago. Clearly Ray is the guy to beat this season in the IRL and that extends to the "Indianapolis 500" in May. I think Kenny Brack will run right with the top guys in CART this year and if Ray went over there he'd do the same. Ray won the Toyota Atlantic title a few years ago, so he knows how to road race. Put Ray in one of the top cars and he'd be right at the front.
Scott Goodyear came out of nowhere to almost beat Al Unser Jr. in
the 1992 "Indianapolis 500." Three years later, he had the field covered
at Indianapolis. If he hadn't messed up with the pace car on the restart,
Goodyear would've left Jacques Villeneuve so far behind at the checkered
flag that we would've forgotten who finished second. Wouldn't it be great
to have another Al Unser Jr. Scott Goodyear photo finish in the "Indianapolis
500"this May?
There's some other good guys running in the IRL too. I've never been a big Scott Sharp fan, but I can't deny that on certain days, Sharp looks tough to beat. Like the Menard, Pennzoil Panther, Foyt, Hemelgarn and Treadway teams, the Kelley team of Sharp and Mark Dismore appears to be a "CART-like" professional racing organization. Dismore has gotten continuously stronger over the past couple seasons and looks like he belongs with the front pack.
Fred Treadway lost his Sprint PCS sponsorship and he took Robby McGehee's Energizer money to run this year. The group that surrounded Arie Luyendyk last May at Indianapolis, will be working with young McGehee this season. Robby impressed me with his run last May in the "500" and he may be a driver with a future.
If any driver deserves an IRL win, it's Jeff Ward. I hope that Ward and A.J. Foyt team up well. Both Foyt and Ward are important to the series. I'm never sure how Foyt's cars are going to do. Last season Kenny Brack had a great run to win Indianapolis in Foyt's car 14, but for all but the final few races neither Brack nor Billy Boat ran that strong last season. In 1998, Ward looked so tough race after race in the yellow ISM car. Even though Jeff finished second at Indianapolis, he didn't seem to have the same spirit last season in most of the races driving the Pagan car. I hope Ward gets things going with Foyt in 2000.
During the second half of the 1999, Buddy's kid brother Jaques Lazier was looking fast nearly every race in the white 33 car. I think the younger Lazier bears watching and I'm anxious to see if has progressed from an impressive start in 1999.
There are races where Robby Unser looks like he's on the verge of winning an IRL race. He's an Unser and though there are some people who are doubtful, I think Bobby's kid is going to shine eventually. I'm happy that he has landed a ride with Larry Curry and Tony Stewart on the Tri Star team for the 2000 season.
He has become a journeyman driver, but there was a time when Robbie Buhl was the pride of Indy Lights with a bright future predicted. I don't think getting hooked up with Dale Coyne during his attempt to break into CART was such a good deal for Buhl. Now Robbie attempts to get things going in the IRL with his own new team.
Billy Boat is one of the few reminders of what a lot of us hoped the Indy Racing League would become, a place for "hot shot" open wheel drivers from USAC and the World Of Outlaws to move into the big time. Sadly, it hasn't turned out that way yet in the IRL and Boat, after a promising start, is scrambling for a ride. It seems like Billy's fortunes took a down turn after a crash in 1998 and then last May's three incidents at Indianapolis added to Boat's problems. I'm glad, however, that Billy will be running this weekend for the Pelfrey team at Disney World. I hope it will lead to some good things.
In my mind, I see an eventual Indy car racing reconciliation of some kind occurring within the next couple years. I think Tony George and CART came close to an agreement last summer. I'm not completely sure what kept things from coming together. Perhaps Tony George wanted to give it one more try with the IRL. I admit I was pleased that George decided to call off the merger talks with CART last September.
The Indy Racing League faces a lot of challenges though. The crowds seem,
to get smaller each season at many of the races. In the past two years, the
IRL lost races at New Hampshire International Speedway, Dover Downs and Lowes
Motor Speedway. The IRL has to pay for its races this season at Las Vegas
and Atlanta and the series has only one race at Pikes Peak International
Raceway, after having two races at PPIR last season. The mayor of Cleveland
pulled the plug on a plan for the IRL to replace the CART race at Burke lakefront
Airport this summer. A proposed race at Nazareth in September isn't going
to happen either, according to some because Bill France is pissed off that
Tony George ended talks with CART. The IRL series sponsor Pep Boys is gone
and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is suing. Leo Mehl, the official spokesman
for the IRL since the start of the 1997 season, has retired. Things aren't
going well.
Into this mayhem steps Al Unser Jr. Little Al's problems were just starting when I took the photo on this page. The Penske team failed to qualify for the "Indianapolis 500" and Indy car racing hasn't been the same since. The first piece I wrote for this website was about Al Unser Jr. I've resurrected that old effort for this look at the Indy Racing League in 2000. When I wrote Little Al Versus the World in August 1996, I was dismayed at Unser's misfortune but didn't question his talent and desire. Since that time things have only become worse for Al. He hasn't won since the 1995 CART race at Vancouver. Many including myself have questioned his continuing desire to be a racing driver. At the same time, Unser's personal life has fallen apart too. His long time marriage to Shelley ended and his daughter Cody is paralyzed from a spinal virus.
Last summer Roger Penske cut Unser loose after six seasons. Neither the Penske
team nor Unser has run worth a damn for a long time. Frankly, I wish Penske
had fired Little Al a lot sooner than he did, considering the crap Penske
gave Unser to drive. Despite the switch to Honda and Reynard for 2000, I
honestly don't expect the Penske team to recapture its lost glory. I think
Penske has either gotten too old or else has forgotten how to race. I
hope the same thing can't be said about Little
Al.
If there's ever been a driver who needed to return to the "Indianapolis 500" and do well, it's Al Unser Jr. If there's ever been a racing series that needed Al Unser Jr. to come in and generate some interest and excitement, it's the IRL. The pairing of Al Unser Jr. and the Indy Racing League seems natural and if Unser can be successful this season, it might grab some attention, especially with the new ABC/ESPN television package.
Unser reunites with his former racing partner Rick Galles in a new white, black and red G Force sponsored by an outfit I never heard of before, Tickets.com. I want this deal to come together in the worst way and as I look to Saturday's Disney World race, I'm feeling "racing butterflies" in my belly. I had hoped to take my wife to the race, but her schedule conflicts make the trip impractical.
It would be the neatest story for a long time in racing if Little Al gets back in the winning groove this season and brings the IRL along with him. For me, it's the best thing that could happen in racing.