Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Number of rookies in the field for Sunday's Indianapolis 500 - the fewest since 1979, when Howdy Holmes was the only rookie.

Previous Indy 500 starts for Al Unser Jr., who is the most experienced driver in the field for Sunday's race.

"It was inevitable that it would happen sometime. We'll talk, but I'm not going to be eating Kellogg's any time soon."

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch, on his wreck with younger brother Kyle Busch during the million-dollars-to-win NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch's car is sponsored by Kellogg's.

Richie Hearn will start Sunday's Indianapolis 500 from the middle of the last row - his worst starting position in seven Indy starts - in a car in which he has turned only 40 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since landing the ride last weekend.

And he couldn't be happier.

Hearn, a 36-year-old Henderson resident, would rather be racing in the Indy 500 and have the odds stacked against him than watching it on television. He learned that the hard way last year.

For the first time since 2001, Hearn opted not to go to Indianapolis last May and search for a team owner willing to put him in the race. Instead, he accompanied the racing team he owns to Connecticut for a pair of Formula BMW USA races in which his drivers were competing. Because the series was not racing on the day of the Indy 500, Hearn and his team watched the race in a restaurant bar near Lime Rock Park.

"I was not happy watching the race on TV last year," he said. "There are reasons why I wasn't there last year ... so I didn't even go, I just blew it off. It really doesn't bother you until you watch the race ... It didn't make me feel very good."

Although his Las Vegas-based team was racing last weekend in Utah, Hearn turned the keys to the shop over to an employee and boarded a plane for Indy on the eve of the first day of qualifying. It took him a week, but he landed a ride with Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals. He qualified the car the same day he took it on the track for the first time and will start 32nd in the 33-car field.

"Unfortunately, I don't have any full-tank (runs in the car) so I'm kind of flying blind a little bit going into the race," he said. "I'm going to have to take a setup from somebody else and just trust that it's going to be OK."

Hearn, who finished third in the 500 as a rookie in 1996 and sixth in 2002 while driving for fellow Henderson resident Sam Schmidt, is realistic about his chances on Sunday.

"If I can finish in the top 15, I'll consider that a pretty good day," he said. "I'm not really going to push it that hard. Really, the only way I'm going to get paid is to not crash the car. I've got to stay out of other people's trouble and not screw up in the pits and not have any mechanical problems."

So, if you're admittedly a long shot to be sipping milk and kissing the Borg-Warner Trophy on Sunday, why go through the hassle and expense of spending two weeks in Indianapolis in the hopes of landing a ride with an underfunded team?

"To be here on Sunday," Hearn said of race day at the famed Brickyard. "There's nothing like walking out on that grid before the start of the race.

"I just love (racing). It's what I've done since I was 8 and it's what I'm meant to do. As far as Indy itself, it's everything. I don't think there's ever been a driver who has competed there and not been attracted to it forever."

Tracy's back

Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy has been cleared to return to the Champ Car World Series for its June 10 race at Portland International Raceway after missing two races with a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebra.

Tracy, who finished third in the season-opening Vegas Grand Prix, said part of his rehab included cycling for more than 50 miles a day.

"It's been very frustrating," Tracy said of the injury. "We started the year with a strong result in Vegas and we knew we were starting to build momentum , but this injury completely interrupted our plans for the championship. "It's going to be tough, obviously, coming from behind in the points , but all we can do is go out there, win races, collect as many points as we can and see what happens."

Tracy is 15th in points and trails series leader Sebastien Bourdais by 47 points after three of 16 races.

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