Down in the Pits: Brickyard gaining prestige
Since 1959, it has been an accepted fact that the Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the season and the most prestigious. However, the Brickyard 400 at the aging Indianapolis Motor Speedway has become a recent rival to the prestigious race in Daytona.
Many drivers consider the Brickyard to be equal to or more important than the Daytona race. There are approximately 50 entries for today’s race. Only 43 will start. Many of the aspiring drivers will be watching it with you on television. It seems like everybody that had a car or could fix another one up has put an entry into this race. One of the reasons is it’s a chance to run at the oldest speedway in the United States unless you count one of those pieces of crap that they’ve got up there called the “Miracle Mile.” Both are in need of a major facelift, but the Indy track has something that no other track has, a major league history known worldwide.
Up until last year the race paid close to a million dollars to win. With the influx of all the new money from the television people, I, along with most of the team owners and drivers, figured that the payoff would be around two million. Miraculously it dropped to about half of what it had paid the year before. It seems like Mr. George, who controls the Indy speedway, is learning a lot from Bill France: Take what you can get and give as little as you can.
The drivers don’t seem to care. They want the prestige of winning this race. That’s why there is so much competition and why all of the entries have appeared at one time or another to test on this track.
Normally I would pick Jeff Gordon, two-time winner of this race, to be the favorite, but this year, something is seriously wrong, and it’s not just wrong with Jeff Gordon’s impending divorce, but his team certainly needs a shot in the arm to get them moving. He was never a factor in last week’s race at Pocono. While the four-time champion has not lost any of his ability or his glitter, his performance has not shown its usual expertise.
Regardless of how George and NASCAR (France) conspired to hog the money, this will be one heck of a race. Look for Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd to make a heck of a run for it.
• I never talk about local racing because there’s so much of it I wouldn’t want to slight one track or another, but the fiasco that is taking place in Nashville between the HE’S and the SHE is ridiculous. Larry Woody, who is a writer for the Tennesseean, has taken a simple racing situation and blown it into a big story to promote a woman driver by the name of Deborah Henshaw. It seems like a group of drivers, of course all male, pooled some money to have her car inspected and it was found to be illegal. I don’t know what the injustice is in that. If the car had been inspected and it had been found legal, I’d see where there was a reason to complain. Suddenly it’s a big sexist thing according to Woodhead Woody. Heck, last week at least two drivers were disqualified for having illegal fuel.
Race drivers in all divisions have been cheating for years. Anybody that’s been around racing very long has seen protest after protest on the short tracks and maybe they have whined and cried, but that’s part of the game. After Henshaw was disqualified, she went and sat in the stands and cried like a baby, and then the news media blew it into great proportions. If she wants to be a race driver, then be a race driver, but don’t look for special privileges.
Sex, race or any other factor should have no bearing on who makes a race. It ought to be based on ability.