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Petty Beats Gordon to Indy

Yes, I did it again.

I asked Jeff Gordon what I ask him at least once a year: Any chance you might fulfill the destiny I, and countless others wish for, and go for the milk that awaits an Indianapolis 500 winner?

As he has before, America's most accomplished active driver pretty much closed that (garage) door.

"I respect those cars, that track, and the other competitors too much to think that I could go and be competitive," said the four-time NASCAR champion, who first gained national attention on USAC's legendary Thursday Night Thunder TV series. "If I wanted to just ride around half-speed, yeah, I could do it. That's not how I do things. If I do it, I want to do it right and until something changes that I think that would happen, I'm going to enjoy being a spectator."

So, sadly, Gordon won't be there for Sunday's 93d running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the start of the Speedway's Centennial Era celebration. Forty years ago, though, the fantasy for fans like me was to see a blue No. 43 accelerating toward Pat Vidan's green flag . . . with Richard Petty's famous smile visible, given the open-face helmets of that era.

Petty says that never came close to happening. "We were in stock cars . . . that was our business," he remembered.

"(I) used to listen to the race on radio when I was a kid. Anyhow, we always was able to watch the race because we was at Charlotte (for NASCAR's 600). Up in the (trackside) condo, we was able to watch the race, then wait for our race."

Now . . . finally . . . the King has his first official involvement in the Great Race. John Andretti, who used to drive for Petty in Sprint Cup, pieced together a program. Petty is listed as "co-owner" of the blue-and-red No. 43 IRL machine, fielded by the veteran Dreyer & Reinbold team, but a crash made the effort vulnerable to a second-weekend qualifying attempt.

Andretti got Petty to attend the 500 for the first time last year. "You see all the hullabaloo that goes on to begin with," said Petty, "all the people wandering up and down pit road, singing, 'Back Home in Indiana,' all that. It was really everything I expected it to be. So I was impressed with that. A lot of times you build things up, and once you go to them you're kind of disappointed, because maybe you set your standard too high. But this one covered everything that I ever thought about. So I think I got kind of caught up in it.

"I said (to Andretti), 'I'll do anything I can for you.' He was like 'John Petty' to us. Even though his name was Andretti, he got to be part of our family."

The question, of course, is just what is Petty's role?

"I don't have that much time," he admitted. "The Cup stuff (Kasey Kahne, A.J. Allmendinger, Reed Sorenson, Elliott Sadler) is the No. 1 priority. I will try to do any of the PR stuff that I can to help.

"I'm gonna tell you, I'm not doing too good a job with my stock cars, so I don't think they're looking for my expertise in the Indy Cars, OK? I'm just here to observe and learn, really. I'm interested. I've always been interested in the mechanism of an Indy Car over a stock car. Even though our (NASCAR) cars now are designed from the ground-up, they are still crude compared to what the rules let them do at Indy, with the downforce and suspensions. If you are mechanical person, it's interesting stuff."

Since Petty won 200 Cup races and seven championships, how will he measure success in his Indy 500 debut?

"If John can run the whole race and finish, it will be successful. We're serious with this deal. We've got a good car. We've got a good crew. It's going to be up to John now. We're just gonna turn him loose with it.

"It's another page in the Richard Petty book. I don't think it will take up a whole chapter."

[ Next column: June 1 ]

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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)