Did you know ...

... that in 1986 four time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt almost became just the second person to own an Indy 500 and Kentucky Derby starter? His undefeated colt, Rare Brick, was to run in the spring classic but injured an ankle in winning the Rebel Stakes. That same spring, Howard Keck made history by entering eventual winner Ferdinand in that Derby. Keck also won two Indy 500s, in 1953-54. Foyt divested himself of his race horses in the early 90s when he was injured and his son/horse trainer, Tony, had to come home to Hockley, Texas to tend to the ranch. If Rare Brick had entered and won the Derby - and he likely would have been among the favorites - Foyt would stand as alone as the only person to own Derby and 500s entrants and winners and win one of the races as a driver.

BJ : How does the Derby compare to the Indy 500?

AJ: I’ve had Willie Shokemaker here, Chris McCarron, Pat Day and quite a few of them and the boy who won the Derby a few years ago, Mike Smith, and all those guys have won races for me and when I’d invited them to Indianapolis, they couldn’t believe it was so damned big compared to the Derby.

You have a lot of good horse tracks, but you have one Kentucky Derby, like Indianapolis. You got a bunch of great race tracks, but you’ve only got one Indy 500. That’s what everybody knows you from. I won LeMans, Daytona, Sebring or Pocono and all that, big races all over the country and they know me for one race. That’s like the Kentucky Derby. As long as you win that, everybody remembers that. You can win the Belmont, Preakness and people know it when they do it, but it’s forgotten pretty quick. You win the Kentucky Derby and you’ve won it the rest of your life, just like the Indy 500.

BJ: Do you spend all year waiting for May?
AJ: Quite true. Every horse trainer, he lives to run a horse in the Kentucky Derby and I think every good chief mechanic, every race driver in the world, his dream is to win the Indy 500. You can win the Formula One championship and all that, and a lot of people know about it, but when you say Indianapolis 500, I don’t care if you’re in Russia, people have heard of it, like the Kentucky Derby. Those are two great races, the greatest races in the world.

Dispatches from Indy

By Dan Wheldon

I didn’t think we got everything we could out of the car in the first qualifying attempt, but it was
definitely fast. I knew the time wouldn’t stick and I knew there was room for improvement.

On my second attempt, I had a genuine shot at the pole and it was nice of Chip Ganassi to give me the
opportunity to try and go for it. The handling characteristics of the car brought my speed down after the first lap. Typically, the speed does drop. You kind of feel everything at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when the car is that trimmed out. The balance was just a touch off and maybe the conditions played into it. Starting the race second isn’t bad.

Going into Pole Day in the past we’ve had enough speed in practice to compete for the pole. But, when we qualified we weren’t as competitive as we wanted to be. It’s good to show that our cars are strong this year.

The whole field is competitive this month. It is really tight. The Target Chip Ganassi Racing team
worked really hard for both Scott Dixon and I to give us fast race cars.

We have to make sure we have a good race car. It is a team effort. This team has worked very hard to perform well all month. The guys back at the shop have worked very hard to give both Scott and I the kind of equipment to start the Indianapolis 500 on the front row.

Starting the race second, I have to look after my teammate and make sure he stays out of trouble. It’s a very long race. I’m not going to get too crazy on the first lap, that’s for sure.

It’s great for the team to be one and two.

Now the focus shifts to the race. It’s going to be exciting.

Lloyd release from hospital

From a Rahal Letterman release:

INDIANAPOLIS (May 10, 2008) -

Rahal Letterman Chip Ganassi Indy Car driver Alex Lloyd (#16 Dallara/Honda/Firestone) has been discharged from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis following yesterday's accident during practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Lloyd, who hit the SAFER Barrier at the south end of the racetrack on Friday, was given a battery of tests after reporting neck pain and a headache after the accident. The tests were all negative, although Lloyd was kept overnight in the hospital for observation.

Lloyd has returned to his Indianapolis home and will meet with IndyCar Series physicians later in the week in order to receive medical clearance to resume participation in this year's Indianapolis 500. His #16 Rahal Letterman Chip Ganassi car is expected to return to the track on Wednesday, May 14 when practice resumes.

Danica Patrick hits crewman from another team

Danica Patrick accidently clipped Charles Buckman, chief mechanic for Dale Coyne Racing, during practice for the Indianapolis 500 on Friday. Note Mario Andretti just feet from the scene.

Buckman, who runs Mario Moraes' No. 19 program, sustained scalp and facial cuts and a concussion. He was treated at a local hospital.

"It's really, really unfortunate what happened today, thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and hopefully he can get back to the track soon and be able to do what he loves," Patrick said in a statement.

Will race fans like the Speed Racer movie?

A speedy review: Visually mesmerizing, but even gorgeous special effects can become overwhelming. Still, it’s arguably the best rush ever in a racing movie. For realism, look elsewhere, though the heavily hammered theme of corporate mammoths consuming motorsports will resonate. Watch closely in the final ‘Prix’ to spy IRL driver Milka Duno, who plays Kelly Gearbox. Race fans will find things to like.

Click here for more on Speed Racer.

— Brant James. Bang. 3.4 seconds.

NASCAR: fumes incapacitated passengers in plane crash

From the Associated Press:

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Fumes from an electrical fire incapacitated two pilots causing their NASCAR plane to plunge into a neighborhood near Orlando, killing them and three people on the ground, according to a NASCAR report released Friday. But federal investigators do not necessarily agree with that claim.
The NASCAR summary is included in reports released by the National Transportation Safety Board into the July 10 crash of the Cessna 310R airplane into two homes in suburban Sanford. Onboard were NASCAR pilot Michael Klemm and Dr. Bruce Kennedy, husband of International Speedway Corp. President Lesa France Kennedy.
Unlike the NASCAR summary, the NTSB report only presents facts of the crash and does not speculate on the cause. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the final report will likely be issued this summer.
Knudson said NASCAR has been cooperating with investigators and it is not unusual for companies to provide their own report.
"We want to consider everything. The more information the better," Knudson said, adding that only the safety board will determine the accident's cause.
The NASCAR report said the electrical fire in wiring behind the instrument panel began about three or four minutes before the aircraft crash. It said the crew reacted by declaring an emergency, turning off electrical equipment and diverting to an airport about 3 miles away.
"However, approximately two to three minutes after the fire began, only about one minute from reaching their alternative airport, the crew was incapacitated by toxic fumes from the burning electrical wiring," the NASCAR report concludes.
The NTSB said investigators could not determined who was operating the plane at the time of the accident. Both men were certified pilots and died from the crash.
Three people in the homes also died: 24-year-old law student Janise Woodard, her 6-month-old son, Josiah and a 4-year-old neighbor, Gabriela Dechat. NASCAR's insurance company earlier this year reached a settlement with Joseph Woolard, the husband and father of two of the victims.
The plane was traveling from Daytona Beach to Lakeland, a 100-mile trip. The pilot reported smoke in the cockpit shortly after reaching 6,000 feet, and air traffic controllers at Sanford Orlando International Airport gave him clearance to land on any runway, according to the NTSB report. The last radio transmission, about a half-minute later, was cut off in mid-sentence.
Witnesses reported seeing smoke trailing from the plane as it sped low over the neighborhood and seeing its wings "rocking" before it sharply banked, clipped treetops and slammed into the homes, the report said.
The safety board report also noted that a pilot who had flown the plane a day before the crash reported the radar going blank, accompanied by the smell of electrical components burning. When he turned the unit off and pulled a circuit breaker, the smell went away.
The NASCAR analysis discounts the possibility the radar unit was at fault. The safety board said the radar unit was heavily damaged by the crash and had heat damage.
"No arcing or other signs of electrical faults were observed on this component or the accompanying circuit boards," the NTSB report states.

Oh yeah, nothing brewing here

A reporter suggested to Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left) at the end of his hauler chat at Darlington yesterday that Kyle Busch (bottom) - with whom he collided while leading in the waning laps at Richmond last weekend - was a lot like his late father (right). Earnhardt Jr. agreed, to a point.

"On the race track, there may be some comparisons there. He’s fast. He’s running well. He’s quick. He’s aggressive. This is Dale Earnhardt in ’89 and earlier. Daddy quit doing that stuff after a while, you know. But that’s the way Dad raced and Kyle has that same style. He’s very aggressive.

"Personality-wise, they are polar opposites. Give me a break. You knew my dad better than that. Give my dad a little more credit than that." 

Photos: Times archive

Who's the real-life Speed Racer?

You've seen Speed Racer somewhere, whether you got hooked on the series during its near-20-year run in syndication beginning in 1967, or maybe when MTV or Speed Channel resurrected it. Perhaps you'll see the movie this weekend. No primer needed here, but a question: which modern racing figures would be best-suited to play the characters?

Speed  Racer?

Suggestion: Jimmie Johnson?

Racer X?

Suggestion: Kyle Busch

Pops Racer?

Mom Racer?

Trixie?

Chim-Chim?

Race Talk 101

Breaking down Richmond; why Denny should save his stuff; why Tony shouldn't leave Gibbs; why crew members should stay in their place, and much, much more!

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Junior goes to sea

We tagged along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Thursday as he toured the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier performing war games about 80 miles off the coast of Jacksonville. Earnhardt's JR Motorsports Busch Series car, driven by Brad Keselowski, is sponsored by the Navy. So he gets to do cool stuff like this. Not even Budweiser could have been this fun, and this has more kick than Amp.

Above, a crewman secures the catapult mechanism to a recon aircraft as part of a 10-plane launch and recovery (landing) operation. It's impossible to grasp the violence of a carrier launch until seeing one up close, and then experiencing one personally, as we did in a so-called COD (Carrier On-Board Delivery) craft which delivered us from Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The force and sound of the engines is overwhelming. And it's a little unnerving when the pilot misses the arrestor cable, forcing another go-around. Did that, too.

As for the launch off the ship, passengers sit backwards in near darkness because there are just two windows in the back of the 15-person propeller plane. Five-point harnesses and "cranials,'' fabric and hard-shell helmets are worn with "horse collar" life preservers. They smell like dried nervous sweat. When the two airmen in the sparse back bay warn it is time to go, that the wings have been fixed down and the catapult secured, passengers brace hard, knees against the seat in front and arms crossed, to be thrown from zero to almost 150 mph in less than three seconds. Some crewmen described it as having sex during a car accident, some say it seems your eybeballs are about to pop out.

In both instances, imagine that feeling just before the rocking chair tips. Then imagine it lasting about five seconds ... at about a thousand times the intensity. Or being flung out of a catapult, which we kind of were.

In a word, it was exhilarating, and a once-in-a-life time experience for a civilian. Here is an audio file recorded inside the COD leading up to our launch. Near the end you can hear the crewmen signal for passengers to brace, then reactions. Amazingly, none audible are me. Maybe I wasn't breathing yet. But I was grinning. Perhaps Navy's slogan should be "Accelerate Your Innards'' instead of "Accelerate Your Life.''

Above: Earnhardt Jr. listening to sailors on the bridge describing the ship's navigational equipment.