INDIANAPOLIS - Sam Hornish Jr. has won the past two Indy Racing League championships and the nearly $5-million that accompanies such success. The Indianapolis 500, however, has been one big pothole for the 23-year-old all but anointed the new boy wonder of American open-wheel racing.
He has raced 535 laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has yet to lead one. He finished 24th in 2000 when he crashed, 14th in 2001 when he spun out and nearly crashed and 25th in 2002, 14 laps behind winner Helio Castroneves and the last of the drivers still running at the end. He never has started higher than seventh. He's the top qualifier among the 10 drivers with Chevrolet-powered cars but starts 18th in Sunday's race, his lowest start ever. "If he wins the race this year with what he has to work with," Panther Racing team owner John Barnes said, "they should rename this place after him."
So what's going on? What's his problem with this place they call the Brickyard?
"I get asked that a lot," he said. "Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to stop people from asking. It's depressing sometimes because I know we could have had some pretty good races. I always look forward to coming here; I just don't like talking about it."
CAUTION: HEAVY TRAFFIC: There was only one engine failure in the Indy 500's 33-car field in 14 days of practice and qualifying, leading team owner Roger Penske to speculate that there might be even more cars running at the end than last year's 25.
Nine cars are powered by Honda engines and 14 by Toyota. The Chevrolets fill out the field with Hornish's speed 51/2 mph slower than Castroneves' Toyota. "I think the biggest issue this year is going to be being able to pass," said Penske, who owns the cars driven by Castroneves and Gil de Ferran. "People are going to be taking a lot of chances to get by (other drivers) because so many cars are the same. I think you're going to see a lot more cars out there at the finish."
With Penske adding another sponsor, an Internet mortgage loan company, Castroneves and de Ferran were asked if they expect raises after their contracts expire.
"You need two basic ingredients to get raises," said de Ferran, laughing. "You need results and you need the money. So now we have the money and the results." Turning to Penske, he added, "What do you think about that?"
WHO NEEDS TWO?: The 500 used to be a hot ticket, despite the hundreds of thousands of seats and infield spaces available. Ticket brokers and scalpers peddled at a premium almost every ticket they got. No more.
Mike Peduto has owned a ticket brokerage company since 1985; he remembers when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the place to be during the Memorial Day weekend. "You paid double and sold them for triple," he told the Associated Press. "Now there's just a small area we're doing that for."
Penthouse seats are still in big demand, Peduto said, but prime seats along the main straightaway, across from the pits, go for only $10 above face value.
He said the race hasn't recovered from 1996, the year the IRL ran its first Indy 500 after the split with CART that kept most of the big names from racing here.
"It was great the year before. It was huge," he said. "The next year it was nothing. I couldn't believe how quickly it fell apart."
