Odds are against him, but Hearn just happy for ride

By Brian Hilderbrand

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

Richie Hearn will start Sunday's Indianapolis 500 from the 30th starting position in a car he had never even seen until seven days ago and in which he has made only 136 laps around the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Furthermore, Hearn said he isn't sure he has the car properly set up for Sunday's 500-mile race.

Although the odds may be stacked against Hearn, a 33-year-old Henderson resident, he said there is no place he would rather be on Memorial Day weekend than racing in circles at The Brickyard.

"Last-minute deals are not what you want to do, but I'll take what I can get as far as the 500 goes," said Hearn, who will be driving the No. 33 Lucas Oil G Force/Toyota for fellow Henderson resident Sam Schmidt.

"It's definitely worth doing. I love this track and I love this race and you want to be a part of it. You're still one of 33 drivers that are in the race. At the same time, being a competitor, you want to win the race so you have to balance those emotions out. Still, you're very excited to be part of the event itself."

Hearn will be making his fifth Indianapolis 500 start and his third for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Schmidt leased the car from legendary car owner Roger Penske a week ago and Hearn, with only 48 practice laps in the car, averaged 213.715 mph during his four-lap qualifying run on Sunday and put the car solidly in the field.

Although he will be making his first -- and, likely, only -- IndyCar start of the season, Hearn said it didn't take him long to get comfortable in the car. Whether that comfort level translates to the race, however, remains an unknown for Hearn.

"I'm fairly comfortable in the car -- it doesn't usually take me that long to get up to speed -- but we're just really kind of guessing on where we want to start the (setup) for the race because we had almost no practice with other cars on the track," he said.

"The car's pretty good by itself but that doesn't mean anything to me because you'll never be by yourself -- not starting 30th. That's probably the biggest issue right now, is how is the car going to react to the traffic. I think we're just going to have to make an educated guess and go with that."

Hearn's situation is similar to the one he was in last year, when Schmidt also leased a backup car from Penske Racing. With little practice time, Hearn qualified that car 28th and was running in the top 10 in the race when he was forced out of the racing groove by another car and hit the outside wall in Turn 2. The difference, Hearn said, is that Penske Racing had a competitive race setup in the car they leased last year to Schmidt.

"Last year, Penske had run that car all month long, side by side with the Dallara, and this year they put five laps on the car and then they stuck with the Dallara," Hearn said. "I was a lot more prepared last year because I had Gil's race setup on the car, which had been driven.

"This year, we're basically making an educated guess on the setup -- that's probably the biggest difference as far as where we're at compared to last year. The car is different, too, as far as the aero package, so we're just making an educated guess. Hopefully, we have a good starting point where we can at least work with the car in the race."

Hearn, whose career-best finish in the 500 was third as a rookie in 1996, has lofty expectations for Sunday's race despite his limited preparation time.

"Really, the goal is just to survive the first part of the race, more or less," Hearn said. "Hopefully, the (setup) is close and we can just tune it and let people make mistakes around us and not get caught up in anything too bad.

"My goal is to be near the top 10 with about 50 laps to go and you just have to work on it from there. If we could finish in the top 10, I would be extremely pleased. The car is a good car but I don't feel very prepared for the race at this point just because of the time we had on the track."

Whatever his result on Sunday, Hearn said he will be content to return to his Las Vegas race shop next week and resume his role as a team owner in the Pro Formula Mazda Series. Hearn recently opened the shop near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and already has hired one of three drivers he will be campaigning in the open-wheel series.

Even a top-10 finish on Sunday, Hearn said, is unlikely to lead to a full-time ride in the IRL IndyCar Series.

"Trying to get another ride in another race is not even worth my time," he said. "That's OK; I'm happy with just doing this race and the Mazda program. Owning that team is more my future than racing fulltime in the IRL, just because my age isn't favorable as far as getting full-time rides anymore.

"But I'd be happy if I just did this race every year -- that would be fine with me. I'd like to have something a little more planned where I was here the whole month, but I would be satisfied just running Indy every year."