Giaffone

Felipe Giaffone, 27, almost never got a shot at Indy Car racing.

"I started racing in 1987 in karts," Giaffone said. "My father wouldn't let me go to open wheels until I was 18."

The elder Giaffone was concerned with possible injury.

"I dreamed about Formula One, but I couldn't even mention it because my dad would go crazy," Felipe said.

Eventually, Giaffone got the green light from his dad and started on the road that has led him to fourth place in this year's Indy Racing League standings. After a stint in Toyota Atlantics and then Indy Lights, Giaffone tested for CART's Mo Nunn.

"My dream back then was a career in CART," Giaffone said. "There were some problems with Morris' sponsor, Hollywood cigarettes, because I was a rookie. They wanted a more experienced driver. That's when Morris told me why don't you go to the IRL."

Giaffone admits he knew little about the IRL. His cousin, Alfonso had run in the series for a while, but the newly created all-oval league was a series he did not follow.

Nunn helped Giaffone make a connection with Treadway Racing and together they stormed to the 2001 Rookie of the Year title.

"It was the wisest step I could have taken," Giaffone said.

A second-place finish in the June race at Texas, coupled with 10 top-10s, put him sixth in last season's standings.

"I was very surprised," Giaffone said. "The cars were so much fun to drive that I began to think, you know, this is going to be the place where I really want to be."

Giaffone took that message to Hollywood.

"I had to convince them to stay with me and not go back to CART," he said.

Nunn came with his supporter over to the IRL and has taken in the driver he first led to the series. Peter Parrott, Mo Nunn Racing's IRL team manger, sees shades of Rick Mears in his young driver.

"When I say he reminds me of a young Rick Mears, it's because Felipe will not over-drive a car," said the former Penske leader. "He gets as much out of the car as he can, but he will never take it over the edge."

Giaffone knows how that skill was developed.

"I think that comes from all the years that my father had to pay the bills if I wrecked a car," he joked. "I've been driving cars long enough to be smart enough to know that if you don't have a good car behind you, you're not going anywhere."

Giaffone says his key is getting a good baseline setup on his car.

"If I can get that in practice, then I know I have a little bit left for qualifying and a little bit left for times in the race, say when you must pass someone," he said.

That basic setup has rewarded Giaffone with six top-five finishes in the first nine races this season and has taken him close to winning his first Indy Car race.

"I would rather finish in the top five the whole season than win a race and struggle the rest of the season. I look at it this way," he said. "We've been knocking on the door since Nazareth. I had a chance there, at Indy and last weekend at Kansas. I think my turn will come."

When that first trip to Victory Lane does come for Giaffone, he will have his fretting father at his side.

"You know, I am so close to my father, he has taught me so much," Giaffone said. "But over the last couple of years he has started asking me the questions. Right now, I'm teaching my dad after all those years that he spent teaching me."