Columnist Jimmy Vasser: We had a gearbox full of neutrals

Jimmy Vasser

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

Editor's note: Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas finished 30th in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 in a Dallara /Chevrolet fielded by Rahal/Letterman Racing of Hilliard, Ohio. This is the last in a series of columns he wrote for the Sun.

I got a great night's sleep on Saturday before the Indianapolis 500. I got up about 7 a.m. Sunday and cruised into the track about eight. Usually, each driver gets a police escort to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday morning of the race.

But I just jumped into my rental car with a couple of friends and drove the back roads into the track. I guess when you have been in the race a while you know the quickest ways into the track. But with more than a quarter of a million people in attendance, traffic could be very difficult for a newcomer to the race.

I felt very good going into the race Sunday. Our Miller Lite team had been very methodical in its approach all month and we had a good, solid racecar.

Race morning is always a little busy in the garage area with sponsor people receiving garage tours.

I was able to relax in the back of the garage. I read the newspaper and talked to team members and friends. I got dressed for the race about 10 a.m. and took a ride to the pit area about 10:15. The Speedway wanted a photo of the 33 drivers at the starting line at about 10:30.

I was prepared for a long race since I was sure we had a car to finish and a good shot to win.

The field was really spread out at the green flag and I had a couple of rookies right in front of me, so I was a little more cautious then normal. It's a 500-mile race and I didn't want to get mixed up in something right at the start.

I was racing with Michael (Andretti), Kenny (Brack) and Dario (Franchitti) and they are guys I race with regularly on the CART series.

On the first pit stop, we added a half a turn of front wing to help the front end of the car stick better.

Our pit crew was awesome. We came in the pits in 19th and were ninth after all of the cars had pitted.

I got to seventh by the third pit stop and sixth right before the fourth stop on lap 80.

I had noticed that I was having trouble getting the car into gear on the pit stops since the throttle was sticking a little. That made the revs (RPMs) higher than normal and it was tough on the gearbox. We had a little trouble earlier in the month with the gearbox but it wasn't serious.

Each pit stop was harder on the gearbox. The car was really good on the track and I could see us moving up the field just liked we had planned. On the fourth pit stop, the gearbox was acting up and I clipped a pit air gun leaving the pits.

The officials made me go to the back of the lineup and that was about 14th -- the last car on the lead lap. I wasn't happy about it but I was more concerned about the gearbox. The green flag came out for the restart on lap 87 and I shifted to go. But all I had was a box full of neutrals.

The gears had been stripped and I was coasting along towards the pits.

It was very disappointing. We had a tremendous car and we were moving right to the front of the field. I thought we were right in the proper place as the race went on. But you can never anticipate a mechanical problem.

So it was a long walk back to the garage area. The crowd cheered as we left the pit stop and we did a bunch of interviews. At the garage, I went straight to the refrigerator and grabbed a Miller Lite and just sat down.

You always think about what would have been. Hey, on lap 80, we were ahead of (Helio) Castroneves, Paul (Tracy), Giaffone and Barron -- just about everyone who finished in the top 10.

It's a little frustrating when you are at Indy for the entire month and then it's over immediately. But that's racing, as they say.