Columnist Richie Hearn: We’re ready to go racing

Richie Hearn

Friday, May 26, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

This is the third in a series of four columns by driver Richie Hearn of Henderson, who will be starting his second Indy 500 Sunday from the middle of Row Eight.

The car feels all right. We only ran around 20 laps during the Carburetion Day practice session. We checked the gearing and it was close to where we needed it to be for the race. We basically just wanted to make sure that everything is running OK. The car feels well balanced. There were a lot of things I could have done to make it go faster but we didn't want to risk hurting the engine.

We practiced with the race motor and 20 laps here is 50 miles. I want to keep the motor in good shape. Plus I'm pretty sure conditions on race day aren't going to be this hot. You can really fool yourself if you start tuning the car for this weather. If it changes, it will kill you.

On Sunday, first of all, we want to concentrate on finishing the race. I'm going to start the race with a lot of downforce since I'm starting so far back. Hopefully the car will stay underneath me. If it does that then I'll be able to stay on the lead lap. If that works out, I'll be able to race at the end.

You have to put everything into perspective at Indianapolis. You can't start the race and go for it all at once. There will probably be some drivers who attempt that. If they do, hopefully they'll drop out of the race and there will be fewer cars for me to pass. We'll trim the car out as we go along. We'll just take it as it comes.

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