As we are so often reminded, the Month of May used to be the centerpiece of the racing universe, but Tony George’s creation of the Indy Racing League in 1996 put a stop to that. Since then, CART has been trying to figure out how to remain in the American public consciousness during May while ceding the stage to NASCAR and to George’s watered-down version of the Indianapolis 500.
CART left the month of May open on the schedule this year to allow teams to participate at Indianapolis, but only Target/Chip Ganassi racing accepted the competitive and financial challenge. The IRL’s alternate chassis and engine rules meant a 2-car CART team faced a logistical nightmare as well as a minimum expenditure of $1.5 – 2 million just to try to make the show at Indy. That high price, along with the unresolved corporate entertainment and catering issues that emerged when CART last raced at Indianapolis in 1995 meant most sponsors weren’t willing to make that kind of commitment.
For decades, the 500 was part of a National Championship, but every May, a handful of small-timers showed up to go up against the regulars for a shot at the riches and glory on offer at the Speedway. Now the small-timers form the basis of the IRL, and the 4-time CART champion Ganassi team was portrayed in the media as cash-fattened giants swooping in to steal crumbs from the poor. Anything short of a Ganassi victory would be gleefully viewed by the small band of IRL faithful as the vindication of their league.
Those expectations created a lot of pressure for the Ganassi organization. And the timetable from when the project was announced on February 28 until the race itself on May 28 was intense with five CART races inside those 90 days, including trips to Japan and Brazil. Making things tougher physically, psychologically and logistically, CART’s April 9 race at Nazareth Speedway was snowed out and rescheduled for Saturday, May 27 – the day before the Indy 500.
Montoya, who had never been around the Brickyard in a racing car, raised a few eyebrows with his apparent indifference toward the venue after hitting 217 mph on his fourth flying lap during an April test. “When I thought of racing in the United States, I thought of CART – not the Indianapolis 500,” he commented. “So far, it’s been very simple to get around here. Everyone said it was really smooth and the fact that it’s a bit bumpy surprised me.”
By the time the Ganassi team’s attack on the month of May began in earnest on Monday the 15th, their rivals had already put in two days of practice on top of the three years of IRL-car experience they possessed. By contrast, Ganassi had a total of four days of testing – less than a thousand miles for each driver, according to Team Manager Mike Hull – when Vasser and Montoya went directly to the Speedway that afternoon for a shakedown run after the 20-hour flight from Japan. Vasser hit 220.146 mph in just 8 laps, with Montoya right behind at 219.213 mph.
“We weren’t supposed to go that quick,” Vasser acknowledged. “But it was such a nice day. I looked at Juan, he looked at me and said, ‘I think we should go fast.’ So we left the pits together and had a little fun. The cars felt great, just the way we left them three weeks ago.”
Throughout the week of practice, the Target cars were always in the top ten despite not turning a ton of laps. Montoya completed 217 laps prior to Pole Day and was fastest overall on Wednesday, Vasser managed 232 tours and was P1 on Thursday. But you always got the feeling that the drivers weren’t (ital) really (end ital) hanging it out.
The first significant problem of the week came on Friday as the team made final preparations for qualifying. Vasser’s car had electrical problems, costing Jimmy the valuable track time he needed to trim the car out for qualifying. While Montoya was putting in his heaviest workload of the week (83 of his 217 laps), Vasser only got 26 laps in his qualifying car.
Montoya earned a nice round of applause from the sparse Pole Day crowd of around 20,000 when he took over the top spot at 1:19 p.m. with a four lap average of 223.372 mph. “It’s pretty interesting getting four laps together, very different,” he said of his run. “We had a bit of understeer in Turn 1, but the car was good. We’ve tried a lot of things all week. Try this, try that. But every day we’ve been pretty fast.”
Vasser was the very next qualifier, creating a huge logjam in the interview bullpen and photo area. The American was disappointed by his average speed of 221.976 mph, which eventually left him seventh on the grid. “I’m not happy, but we’ll take it,” he commented. “When I was out qualifying, I wanted to come in after a couple of laps. Tom Anderson (TCGR Managing Director) said, ‘This place can bite you. Let’s get it in the show.’”
Two and a half hours later, defending IRL champion Greg Ray rained on Montoya’s parade by turning in a 223.471 mph average for his four laps to steal the pole. Ray had made his first qualifying attempt a few minutes prior to Montoya, but he pulled in after one lap because he said his car was “undriveable.”
Montoya began to show his hand on Carburetion Day, when he was easily quickest with a lap at 218.257 mph. He was upset with himself later in the day when the Target team lost out in the annual Pit Stop Competition because he couldn’t get the car in gear after the tire change.
Race weekend dawned at Nazareth Speedway, where the Ganassi squad was on edge because of the constantly changing weather. But the rescheduled Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix went off as planned Saturday afternoon, with Montoya and Vasser coming home fourth and seventh respectively. It was a typical 2000 Champ Car race for the Colombian, who led strongly, only to see an uncharacteristically poor pit stop and a broken front wing knock him back.
After a 3 hour and 9 minute rain delay, the 84th running of the Indianapolis 500 got underway the following afternoon, with pole man Ray giving Montoya an aggressive chop into Turn 1. The CART star was content to stalk his IRL counterpart until they go into heavy traffic. On lap 27, Montoya snatched the lead in Turn 1, only to lose it back again to Ray in 2. But the Target car got a good run down the back straight and repassed the Menard machine.
Ray soon headed to the pits for his first scheduled stop, followed a lap later by Montoya. Now, as the crews went to work, the Ganassi team showed their secret weapon. Having run together coming into the pits, Montoya suddenly had a 10-second lead over Ray after a full out lap. All afternoon, Montoya’s crew serviced their man 3 to 5 seconds faster than the competition.
Vasser, meanwhile, was struggling with a loose car after he and Engineer Julian Robertson elected to race with very little downforce. “Juan’s setup was diametrically opposite to mine,” he later said. “We got out-engineered.”
As Vasser drove flat-out to maintain his position as he raced with Buddy Lazier, Robby Gordon and Eliseo Salazar, Montoya cruised at the front. Every time he pitted, his crew extended his advantage.
“The car was perfect. We didn’t have to risk anything,” he said.
Finally, after a restart on Lap 162, Montoya got a scare. 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier suddenly looked very racy as he made a couple of moves on the Colombian into Turn 1. But Juan was able to respond and pull away.
“When Lazier got close to me, we were OK because we knew we had something in our bag,” Montoya said. “But when we started to push, I said, ‘Uh-oh.’ One time, he had a run on me, so I went really deep into (Turn) 1. After leading as many laps as we did, I wasn’t going to give in then.”
By the time the checkered flag fell, Montoya led by 7.184 seconds after leading 167 of the 200 laps as he became the first rookie since Graham Hill in 1966 to win the Memorial Day classic. It was the most dominant Indy performance in recent memory, reminiscent of Mario Andretti’s run in 1987 when he led 170 laps. But Mario failed to finish that day.
“I think it will take time to realize what I just won,” Montoya admitted. “It’s so exciting, I can’t believe it. It’s not only a win for me, or for Chip or for Jimmy, but for every person on the team.”
Vasser worked throughout the afternoon to balance to his car, but he never got it totally to his liking. “Sometimes it was awful, sometimes it was more than awful and sometimes it was OK,” he said. “We struggled and made some mistakes in the pits. We fumbled a few times on our team, and we paid for it.
“The best driver and the best team won,” he added. “We came here as a team to win the race. It wasn’t Jimmy Vasser, but it was Montoya. He’s a great driver, and this is a great team.”
Late in the race, Vasser and his Tom Anderson-led team gambled on fuel strategy and actually led five laps. But Montoya, running a normal strategy, handily blew past into the lead on Lap 180, and Chip Ganassi’s dream of a 1-2 finish evaporated with four laps to go when Vasser was brought into the pits for a necessary splash-and-go, dropping him to a seventh place finish.
“It was a gamble that was worth trying at the time,” he said. “We weren’t going to win the race from where we were with the car we had.”
The Ganassi team didn’t have much time to celebrate the victory, because it was back to business as usual on the FedEx Championship Series trail just at week later at the Milwaukee Mile.
“We did take Monday off,” said Hull. “That’s basically because we got out of Nazareth clean, with four cars having four wheels in the right place. I think Tuesday there were a bunch of Target/Ganassi guys with headaches, but that’s well-deserved.”
“I’ll tell you what the key is,” stated the winning team owner. “It’s people like Tom Anderson, Mike Hull and (Indy Manager) Andy Graves. We asked a lot out of our people in the last few weeks, whether its been testing an IRL car or racing in Japan or flying to race in Nazareth before the crack of dawn. And they all responded.”
In many ways, the manner in which Ganassi’s team turned the Indianapolis 500 on its head was just as impressive as when Roger Penske commissioned the infamous Mercedes-Benz 500I pushrod engine that powered his team to its record-setting 10th win at the Brickyard in 1994. But rather than exploiting a unique technological advantage, Ganassi beat the IRL regulars at their own game by buying the same off-the-shelf equipment available to anyone.
“They raised the level of competition to a whole new level,” noted IRL champion car owner John Menard. “It’s certainly going to raise some questions about the ability of IRL teams to compete with CART. But they were the best of the best, a very powerful and organized team.”
“Anything short of winning would have been a failure,” Anderson admitted the day after the race, acknowledging what CART fans had been thinking all month long. “We always hade enough money and talent to do the job. It was just a matter of time. I’m still in awe that it’s been pulled off.
“My biggest relief,” he added, “is that we’ll be able to show our faces in the Milwaukee paddock and hold our heads high.”
