Front 3 rows are within reach

Friday, May 21, 1999 | 10:57 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 second in a series of columns he will write for the Sun as he prepares for the 83rd running of the classic auto race.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Well, it's almost here.

I surprised a lot of people when I qualified a year ago. I knew Friday afternoon we had a really good car. It appeared weather was going to remain consistent so I was praying for a low number in the qualifying draw. We drew No. 6. Our mind was made up Friday night that we were going to qualify immediately and not play the chess game. And we started on the outside of the second row.

It's similar this year with the Treadway team. Our race setup is a derivative of our qualifying setup. It makes it easy to go fast in both situations.

The downside is, unless we get really lucky, we don't have enough speed for the pole, but we should be in the running for the front three rows Saturday.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went back to what we thought was our A-1 setup. The good news is it repeated. We went 224 mph. We did another simulated run Thursday morning in case we have to qualify at 11:30 or so. Graciously, it repeated again and we ran 224.

The qualifier is weather. If we get a decent day, I think the pole is going to be in the 225s for a four-lap average. It'll probably take 219 to make it comfortably in the show. If you look at history, people have problems or mess up, or weather is a factor. I just think the tail end of the field will be 219 and 220 is safe.

But if I've got three laps at 218 on Saturday afternoon, I'm going to wave off. On Sunday, you know what you need by then.

The pole?

Obviously, Greg Ray has been running a heck of a lot and has a lot of information on different kinds of weather. In my book, he's the favorite.

I think you always need to be aware of A.J. Foyt here. His guys will be tough, somehow. Billy Boat's had problems but he'll be tough on Pole Day. Kenny Brack, Foyt's other driver, has been tough. Scott Goodyear has been running consistently high speeds every day. Then there's Tony Stewart.

And you can't forget my teammate. Mr. Arie Luyendyk will be a factor, for sure.

It all comes down to how everybody plays the chess game. There's about 10 people who could be on the first two rows.

Who's going to do it? It's going to be who's guessing right for the setup and weather conditions at the time they go out.