Fried up and over the wall at Indy again
By Chris Corbellini, ABC Sports Online INDIANAPOLIS -- As chief mechanic Steve Fried climbs over the wall that nearly killed him at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he's as stone faced as Lincoln's in Washington. There's no wink, no wince, no smirk, no jerk, and definitely not a smile.
It's just after noon on Carburetion Day and Treadway Racing is having its Super Bowl pregame show right before Fried's eyes. Like a group of kids vacuuming the Persian rug as the parents pull into the driveway, five Treadway Racing mechanics work feverishly on Raul Boesel's No. 55 car before he begins his run. Insert piece here, attach hose there, make everything smooth.
Steve Fried is comforted by a safety official after being hit by a car after making a pit stop.
Boesel spins his right index finger in a circular motion as the hydraulic winch lowers the silver and blue bullet on its tires. 1-2-3-4 he spins his finger. Fried nods, and Boesel's gone. The mechanic goes back over the three-foot wall gingerly, left leg goes first, then the right.
"Hey, that went pretty good," Fried says of the final meeting before giving a thumbs-up to the crew.
"Man, that guy is always hammered with work," one of Boesel's mechanics says.
Better to be busy in an Indy garage than not to be around at all. More than any other mechanic, Fried is grateful to be back at the Speedway for Carburetion Day -- heck, the whole Indy experience altogether. Last year, Fried was slammed into the wall during the race like a discarded Styrofoam cup and nearly died from the accident.
The reason he remains so nonchalant about the wall now is that he doesn't remember the moment the lights went out at Indianapolis. Everything went black.
"It's good that I don't have nightmares about it," Fried says. "But I missed out on all the great pageantry. At least I'm going to relive it this year."
Fried only remembers waking up for his first-ever Indianapolis 500 at 4 a.m. to drive to the garage, putting on the fire suit and eventually bringing the car out to pit row around 9 a.m. He can't recall being jammed into the air by a 1,500-pound vehicle, or the numbing sensation of hitting the pit row asphalt with his face. There's nothing.
A national television audience remembers it as the gruesome image of last year's Indy. Then the chief mechanic for rookie Robby McGehee, he was clipped by Jimmy Kite's car in a chaotic moment on pit road. Kite was pulling out of pit row when he collided with rookie Jeret Schroeder, sending Kite back toward the inside pit wall. Fried struck the ground face first, suffering massive head and chest injuries.
While the Speedway medical crew quickly whisked him away to Methodist Hospital, McGehee and the rest of the crew was left wondering what happened. He did smack the ground pretty hard. His wife was in the stands. Was the man dead?
"It was obviously very difficult. The last thing I heard on the radio was, 'Steve is hurt bad,'" McGehee recalls. "After that, I called in every lap saying, 'Give me info.' I couldn't really focus on racing, to be honest. Everything was just ugly, my driving was innate. For about three-quarters of the race, they kind of lied to me and said he was awake in the hospital and watching the race."
McGehee rallied to finish fifth in the race, winning the Rookie of the Year trophy. He dedicated the performance and the trophy to Fried. The mechanic came out of unconsciousness two days later. After two months of swimming 1-2 miles a day, followed gradually by weight training, he was reunited with the team during the Colorado Indy 200 last August at Pikes Peak. Fried was still wearing an eye patch and he just had surgery on his left shoulder. His face was partially paralyzed, dulled. Still, he helped out where he could.
"The first thing I did was hug him and said, 'Great to have you back,'" McGehee says. "The first thing he said was 'watch my shoulder.' He did a great job coming back. He knew he was going to come back on the cars soon."
This year, Fried walks around pit row without a noticeable limp, and the patch that corrected his vision is gone, with only a slight scar evident behind his wrap-around shades. But by no means was it a full recovery. He has lost hearing in his left ear, and there is still some paralysis on the right side of his face. Nonetheless, he's back working with Boesel in the same garage as McGehee. Boesel starts this year's Indy 500 in the eighth row after a qualifying time of 222.103, the top speed of Bump Day.
And yes, Fried is one of the guys that will go over the wall this year, as the left front tire man.
"I saw him this morning pushing Raul's car, looking good," McGehee said on Carburetion Day. "He wanted more than anything to get back here, to get the whole program back together."
Boesel performed decently during his final practice on Thursday. The driver went
out and ran about 35 laps, with a top speed of 217.303. The best speed of the
day was Juan Montoya, at 218.257 mph.
"I was just really excited to get back out there," Fried says. "We did five pit stops [on Thursday] with no problems. It's good to be back."
The Indy Racing Northern Light Series has done a few things to make it safer for those who jump over the wall. The league moved the vent and air jack location so a crewman isn't in harm's way, for one. Furthermore, a new fueling system is being discussed that uses one man instead of the current two. The IRNLS also told its drivers and chief mechanics there would be disqualifications for hit-and-run accidents.
Come race time, it will be left up to IRNLS crews to protect themselves better. While helmets are mandatory for CART pit crews, it's up to the IRNLS crews' discretion to use them. Fried will be one of the few to wear one.
"Some guys don't like the helmets," McGehee adds. "I say, everyone should wear one. You didn't see what I saw at Indy last year."
