I'll say it, the IRL needs to win Indy 500
By Marlo Klain, Special to ESPN.com
Greg Ray is one of the INLRS's top drivers. Can he give his series a much-needed win Sunday in the Indy 500?
INDIANAPOLIS -- Nobody around Gasoline Alley will really talk about it. It seems taboo almost to speak aloud of the perceived IRL vs. CART battle being staged Sunday in the 84th Indianapolis 500. But don't be fooled by tight
lips. The Indy 500 is a race the Indy Racing Northern Light Series must win.
Besides, actions always speak louder than words at this place.
A perfect example of how much this race means to the IRNLS came on Pole Day before Greg Ray went out and knocked Juan Montoya off the provisional pole. Mark Dismore, a rival of Ray's at any other track, went up to the eventual
pole-sitter and told him, "Do this for us." "Us" being the Indy Racing
League.
It's in the back of every full-time IRNLS driver's mind. Every driver who
doesn't call CART home knows Sunday is a chance to measure themselves
against the top team in the rival series most race fans consider superior since
open-wheel racing split into two factions in 1995.
A victory by Ray, Sharp, former Indy 500 winners Eddie Cheever and Buddy Lazier, or any other driver who's been in the series since its inception five years ago would go a long way toward validating their league -- whatever name it goes by these days. And don't think they know beating Montoya and his teammate Jimmy Vasser would silence more than a few
in the sport who consider the IRNLS a second-rate series.
Now, this "Us vs. Them" theme may not be the main story line on Sunday, at
least not with Al Unser Jr. back at Indy after five years. But one of "their
guys" has to win Sunday for the series formerly known as the IRL to go home
happy. It just wouldn't look good.
Go back one year to when Robby Gordon was leading the Indy 500 and appeared
to be on his way to winning. This was a guy who the day before had crashed and finished last
in CART's stop in St. Louis. How would that have looked for the IRL, who
annually hangs its hat on the winner of the Indy 500 for the rest of the
year, if the Indy 500 winner isn't around the rest of the year? It's tough to attract fans to your races that don't necessarily know much about the IRL when the winner of your series' biggest race isn't racing.
This all said, it's very difficult to count out the Chip Ganassi drivers --
even if the numbers suggest otherwise. It may be 2 vs. 31 (yes I'll count Gordon among the IRL this year), but those just may be the two best drivers CART
could have sent to Indy. Montoya is the series defending champion and Vasser
has started four Indy 500s and always runs well at the Brickyard.
Ganassi, however, does have as much if not more to lose on Sunday. Here is
the all-powerful Target team strutting around Gasoline Alley. What if his
teams fail to dominate? It won't look good.
And you have plenty of IRL drivers who are capable of winning, who also can't wait
to run with CART's best. Aside from the drivers already mentioned, Scott
Goodyear is a driver who has quietly gone through May and done everything
right so far. And don't forget Little Al, who make no mistake, is allied with
the IRNLS.
The IRNLS has positioned Unser to be the perfect ending to Sunday's
story. Not only would Unser in Victory Lane be a victory for the series, but
also complete the story line of Unser being "Back Home in Indiana." It would
also prove that Little Al is truly back. He won last month in Las Vegas,
but Indy is why Unser is still driving.
Team Menard, however, remains the IRNLS's trump card. Like Chip Ganassi in CART, John Menard is the IRNLS. At least as far as owners are
concerned.
Yes, A.J. Foyt is synonymous with Indy, but even he has switched
gears since the split and now focuses more on his new Winston Cup team than his
open-wheel program with Jeff Ward. Which, by the way, is too bad because this
could have been a great chance for Ward to really break through. Foyt has
been at Indy almost daily since open practice two weeks ago, but if a IRNLS
team, and I said team, is going to win this race it just might be Menard for
a change.
Menard has always proven they can win the pole, but on race day it's either
feast or famine. If Ray can keep his machine on the track for 500 miles,
he will be among the leaders at the end. The same for Gordon. This is not a
team that just rides around the track and is happy to be in the race. This
team needs to win this race. There is nothing John Menard wants more
than to reach Victory Lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And unlike last year, a win by either of Menard's drivers would be a win for
the IRNLS. Gordon may be competing in only this race, concentrating on his
Winston Cup program week to week, but he is no longer a CART guy in an IRL
race. I don't think anyone would feel as strongly about Gordon winning
Sunday, as they would either Montoya or Vasser.
For the past four Indy 500s, the winners have had to answer the question of
whether or not they would have spilled milk in Victory Lane were the CART
fellas in town. Well, I think you finally have at least two of CART's best
in town to lay at least a little of that question to rest.
The best thing that could happen for the IRNLS, and the Indy 500 for that
matter, is to have Al Unser Jr., Jimmy Vasser or Juan Montoya, and Greg Ray
battling at the front with 15 laps remaining. That would do the most to
bring this race back to the forefront of racing.
