Teaming with Arie is big boost at Indy

Thursday, May 20, 1999 | 4:05 a.m.

Editor's Note: Sam Schmidt of Henderson is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month, preparing to qualify for his third start in the Indianapolis 500. This is the first in a series of columns he will write for the Sun as he prepares for the 83rd running of the classic auto race.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Each time I come to Indianapolis, it feels different.

It feels different this year because we have something to prove. Last year, I qualified sixth and was fighting for third in the race. I thought somebody else saw me and he didn't, and the ensuing accident took me out. This year, I'm with Treadway Racing, we're better prepared and the team is really starting to click. We have more motors than I can run out and a top-flight staff.

My teammate is two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, who is retiring from racing after this year's Indianapolis 500. Last year, we added Gary Bettenhausen to the team as a mentor and coach and it was a tremendous influence on my mental approach and the idiosyncracies of the Speedway.

Gary made 21 starts here so he knows his way around. I don't feel I have three years of experience here. With Gary's help last year and Arie's this year, I feel I have a lot more than that.

In general, they say basically the same thing. I was fortunate with Gary to take a ground-zero-up approach -- go out, walk the track, take a rental car around, talk about the entire learning process for this facility from scratch up to 221 miles an hour.

Now that I've got that experience, Arie's building on it with more specific details on the car. Gary's fantastic. I think he could get in a car and be faster than half the field right now.

Arie is in today's car and he feels the same thing that I feel. It's a benefit for the team to overlay the computer data to see what each of us is doing the same and differently, good and bad.

We're taking the same approach as my '98 team, concentrating strictly on race setup and long runs. It's different than Arie's. He's doing some development work and trying to do some whizzly stuff. Yet we've still been quick. Our goal is to get most of the race preparation worked out by Friday so we can concentrate on a qualifying setup Friday afternoon.

This strategy doesn't lend itself to a run at the pole but our overall goal is to have a large data bank in our team's computers for race setup and a second goal is to be in the top three rows of the 33-car starting field.

The experience with Arie this month has been tremendous. To do the appearances and fan appreciation things with Arie has been good for me. Even after 15 years, it's a priority for him to take care of the fans. Sometimes competitors forget the real reason they're here and what supports the industry.

I'm extremely excited. Can we win the race? Yes, we can. I'd like to see the Treadway repeat of '97, when the team finished 1-2 with Arie and Scott Goodyear. I'd like to follow Arie for 198 laps and give him the glory in his final '500,' then go and win the thing.

We have a very good foundation of guys, chassis, motor, engineering, pit stops. It's really the best situation I've ever been involved with.

And it takes some luck.