Columnist Jimmy Vasser: You aren’t done even after you have qualified

Jimmy Vasser

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 10:25 a.m.

Editor's note: Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas will start his seventh Indianapolis ' 0 on May 26 in a Dallara/Chevrolet fielded by Rahal/Letterman Racing of Hilli' d, Ohio. This is the fourth in a series of columns he will write for the Sun ' ring the three weeks of practice, qualifying and the race.

It's raining again in Indianapolis. That seems to be the theme this month and it is getting old for the entire garage area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I know some of the teams are starting to get nervous because they aren't in the race yet and time is running out. That's why I'm very thankful that we qualified on Saturday. It wasn't the speed that we expected but I feel we are safely in the field.

Now that we have the Miller Lite car in the starting lineup, you would think that activities would slow down for myself and the team. But that is just the opposite.

We seem to be busier than usual -- even with the rain. That is because we are doing so many things away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, we tested our Shell car at Mid-Ohio but it rained there, too. We were able to get in 45 laps on Tuesday and we had the fastest time (1 minute, 7.8 seconds) among the seven cars at the track.

At the same time that we were testing at Mid-Ohio, our boys at Indy were preparing two cars for this week. One is the backup car that we have run this week in race settings and with full fuel tanks. The qualified car is being completely stripped down and rebuilt and the race engine is being placed in the car. That car will not run at the track until Carb Day on Thursday.

I drove back to Indy on Tuesday night from Mid-Ohio as did a bunch of the crew guys. We had to be ready to get back on the track on Wednesday morning for the time trials in the Indy 500 Pit Stop Championship.

Our Miller Lite guys were very good again with their pit stop. Last year, Team Rahal won the Craftsman Pit Crew Challenge in CART and I felt good about qualifying for the Indy championship this Thursday.

We ran a time of 10.26 seconds to make the 12-team field for the Pit Stop Championship this week.

We were able to run 104 laps Wednesday in race trim and 50 laps on Thursday before the rain hit the track again. The day wasn't over though.

I had an appearance on RPM Tonight, a television interview with a local Indy station, a taped interview with ABC Sports for the race and a radio interview. I was able to get a quick dinner before heading to a bar promotion for Miller Lite. I signed autographs and took photos with the fans. That's always part of our racing -- promoting our sponsors.

We'll finish up our race preparation on the weekend and then try to relax for a couple of days. Then on Wednesday it starts back up again with dinners with the sponsors, practice and pit-stop events on Thursday and special appearances on Friday and Saturday. Auto racing is different than many pro sports since we can't exist without the sponsors on our team.

So while the two weeks after qualifying look slow to the racing fan, it is just as hard on the driver and the crew off the track. But I'm very anxious for the race and to be back on the track.