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| | Saturday, January 29 | ||||||||||
Special to ESPN.com | |||||||||||
| Attention race fans, the Indy Racing League is dropping the green flag this week. And guess what? It still needs you!
The fifth season of IRL racing begins Saturday with the Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla. If nothing else, the series is getting an early jump on the rest of the country's major auto racing series. Good thing, maybe it'll grab the fancy of a few more fans.
Drawing more fans is the No. 1 priority for the IRL, but what's new? As much as I hate to bite the hand that feeds me, open-wheel racing -- I'm talking both IRL and CART now -- is still struggling to find people to fill their stands and watch their races on television. I'll still call the IRL a new series, but 2000 has to be considered crucial.
Can Al Unser be a savior of the IRL? I'll say, "Yes," but then qualify my answer. Obviously, this is a driver who has won Indy twice. The IRL needs Little Al so people will identify that Al Unser Jr., is in the Indy Racing League and he will run at the Indianapolis 500. But he's also a guy who will be at 10 other IRL events this season, allowing fans to identify with exactly what the IRL has to offer. Unser gives the IRL a household name people know. Now as far as the perception of Unser's move to the IRL being out of necessity, I certainly feel Unser has struggled the past few years in CART. But Unser really, really wanted to run in the Indy 500. He could only do that in the IRL. With his latest career move, he becomes a top name again in an open-wheel series. That wasn't the case the past few seasons in CART. Hopefully Galles can get Unser back in the winner's circle, which is something Little Al needs in order to jumpstart his career. I really think this is the best move for Little Al. It is his best opportunity to be successful again. Not only is he reunited with Galles -- the guy who gave him his start in open-wheel racing and got him to the pennacle of winning the Indy 500 -- but I think Little Al needed the comfort he feels right now with Galles. He knows he's with someone who put him in Victory Lane, someone he's familiar with and someone who can do the most with Little Al's abilities right now. That said, I don't expect to see Little Al in Victory Lane right away. He just hasn't had enough time in his new IRL ride. He got used to the car in a private test session and then went down to Orlando for the IRL's open test session at the start of January. He wasn't too impressive -- just ninth-quickest overall. But, a lot of that testing was just getting used to the car. He's still getting used to IRL package, and isn't really comfortable. Based on Unser's open-wheel experience, however, don't be surprised to see him up to speed by Phoenix. Give him one good race under his belt, and another month of testing, and he'll be up to speed. I don't think anyone expects him to get in the car and win right away in Orlando, but by Phoenix, or at least Las Vegas, he should have a good grasp of how these IRL cars handle in traffic. Now, as for the race that brought him to the IRL? I think he certainly has a shot at Indy. You can never rule out an Unser at Indy. He's going to be so excited to get back to Indy and I know he's going to put his heart and soul into that one race. Give him a chance to get used to the IRL cars and if it clicks, and if he's at least been consistent over the first part of the season, at the end of the season I'd look for him to be among those challenging for the title. The Champion Team Menard and Ray have to be the favorites to win the championship again this year. This was the team that really clicked at the end of last season and they obviously went down to that January open test in Orlando and showed they haven't forgotten how to go extremely fast. This team didn't change a thing over the offseason. It's Thomas Knapp and Greg Ray, together again with John Menard's money behind them. If they can do what they did in their first year with Menard, what's going to stop them from doing it again this year?
It was just a month ago when it appeared as though the Indianapolis 500 would once again be a marriage of open-wheel racing. Not any more. Don't expect to see any more than three CART teams at Indy come May. And that has everything to do with the CART engine manufacturers telling their teams they didn't want them racing with IRL power plants. Those manufacturers spoke and and their teams listened. Only Ganassi is expected to make his announcement shortly that his drivers Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser will be at the Brickyard. But outside of the defending CART champion and his teammate, the Indy 500 will once again be an IRL party. Even defending champion Brack will have to watch the race after his new owner Bobby Rahal deemed the race too costly for his CART team. The lack of CART drivers at Indy doesn't really help or hurt the IRL. Sure, there was going to be a lot more attention paid to the Indy 500 had the CART teams come to Indy. But the IRL is approaching things as business as usual. The only loss is the attention that would have come from a CART vs. IRL battle at the Brickyard. What a great story it would have been if Rahal had taken his CART guys to Indy. It would have not only been the CART vs. IRL guys, but you would have also had the defending Indy 500 champion going back with a CART team! I must say I was dreaming about such a matchup. But, oh well ... maybe next year. The One to Watch Billy Boat and Brack have left Foyt's stable. Introducing Jeff Ward. Ward is a guy who bounced around a couple of teams, but has never was on what you'd call a top-tier IRL team. Well, now he's landed with Foyt and I think Ward is definitely a guy who will break into the winner's circle this season. I also have a feeling Ward is going to be contending for the IRL title this season. Ward is one of these drivers in the IRL who seems to be around the lead every race, but has yet to win a race. Everyone has had their eye on this guy. Aggressive and impressive, Ward is the one up-and-coming driver who was due to get a break. You had to be impressed at what he'd accomplished with limited backing. He caught Foyt's eye as well, and with the experience of learning from Foyt and using his owner's top-notch equipment, Ward is the one driver I'm telling you to really watch in 2000. He not only will have a breakthrough season, but will contend for the title. A new (old) sound The new 3.5 liter engines have received rave reviews from drivers after testing. But what I think everyone likes most about the new power plants is the traditional sound they produce on the track. It may sound silly, but the sound does make a difference when it comes to Indy car racing. Everyone is really excited about the new engines -- especially the sound. It really brings back the traditional sounds of Indy. They wanted to make the cars sound more appealing. Again, believe me when I say the sound of IRL cars is a big deal. Those 4.0 liter engines were really loud and sounded beastly. These new engines are music to everyone's ears at the track. As for the performance tests on the 3.5 liter engines, there haven't been any major problems. In fact, the speeds at the open tests in January were just a few miles off Scott Sharp's pole-winning speed at Disney last year. I wouldn't be surprised if the pole winner didn't all but catch up to Sharp's speeds by Friday's qualifying. Also new this season is the chassis. The chassis have a distinctive new look to them -- some even have compared them to a Formula One body style. They look good, but the real test will come on race day when we see what they do in traffic. Speaking of chassis, Riley & Scott was bought by Reynard. Two drivers -- Eddie Cheever and Buddy Lazier -- will be driving Reynard chassis this year. I have to feel that once those Reynard drivers get some time under their belts, they'll find themselves contending based on what Reynard has accomplished in CART. The Little Woman A look at the 2000 IRL season wouldn't be complete without at least mentioning 19-year-old Sarah Fisher. She won't be at Disney this week, but expect her in Phoenix with Walker Racing. Fisher debuted in IRL last season at Texas and had a good showing. She kept things clean on the track, ran a safe race and only engine trouble kept her from finishing the race. Walker, which also has a CART team, couldn't put an IRL deal together in time for Disney, but Fisher will be around for the rest of the season -- including Indy. And I think she'll be around for a while. Fisher said in Texas that she is not a fluke and really doesn't want to be compared with other women who've run either in the IRL or Indy. She's here to race and the one thing that impressed me the most about Fisher was the way she handled things with the media circus around her. She was very matter-of-fact, to the point, aggressive as far as telling people what she expected. | ALSO SEE Arute: Another IRL season begins at Disney Little Al's Diary: Ready for IRL debut Little Al going back to Indy as IRL's new headliner Delphi Indy 200 Breakdown  | ||||||||||
