Columnist Richie Hearn: So far, it’s like the Windy 500

Richie Hearn

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 10:09 a.m.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of five columns by Indianapolis 500 driver Richie Hearn of Henderson, who is attempting to make his second Indy 500 start.

It's great to be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it's wonderful to be given another opportunity to race in the Indianapolis 500. I wish we were running a little bit faster but it's always fun to be here. I love driving on this track. It's a great place to be.

Practice hasn't been great; we are behind schedule. We didn't do any running on Saturday (opening day). We did 14 laps on Sunday, about 20 laps on Monday and approximately 20 laps Tuesday. We've needed to be running those days and now we're struggling to get up to speed because the weather conditions are bad.

The conditions have been anything but easy these last few days. It's either raining here or it's real windy. The wind has been especially tricky this week. It has constantly been changing directions out on the track. It will blow a certain way in one of the turns and blow a totally different direction in another turn. You can't count on it being consistent throughout the track, which makes it uncomfortable for me to push the car.

For this weekend (qualifications), we're going to need to do what needs to be done to make the field for the race. The team worked hard to make a gearbox change on Thursday and I didn't get back out on the track.

We're hoping for the best this weekend. We'll do whatever it takes and hopefully we'll be in the race on May 28.