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IndyCar
PRUETT: Don’t Hate The Player, Hate the Game
What’s in the best interest of Andretti and Foyt might not be what's best for the history and legacy of the Indy 500.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and his wife, Beccy, deal with the shock of being bumped from the Indy 500 on Sunday. (LAT)
What does the IndyCar paddock think of Monday's announcement that Andretti Autosport has bought Bruno Junqueira's ride at A.J. Foyt Racing for Ryan Hunter-Reay, who failed to qualify on Sunday?
Here's a quick heat check from Twitter:
@jimmyvasser: @BJUNQUEIRA I'm very sorry about this. Foyt sells out to Andretti? The world is ending soon. This rule needs to be changed.
@jimmyvasser: Bump day is now officially a joke. Lying to the fans again! They won't understand when they tune in on race day.
@alex_lloyd: @BJUNQUEIRA So sorry for you. You are the Indy master.
@NZRconsulting: @bjunqueira a class act.
@JustinWilson22: I really feel for @BJUNQUEIRA he deserves so much more but as far as I can remember it's always been fastest 33 cars. This is not a new thing
@RyanBriscoe6: This is terrible for @BJUNQUEIRA, but don't be hard on @RyanHunterReay this is not his doing, he's a good guy and deserving driver.
@katherinelegge: So who's ride does Conway get if RHR gets Junky's...? It's certainly a drama filled 500 this year.
@TommyKendall11: I am as free-market as a guy gets, but if ever a place owed someone something, it is IMS and @BJUNQUEIRA 1X broken back, 2X broken heart :-(
@dariofranchitti: @BJUNQUEIRA very sad for you. As always, you got in and did a great job. I hope you get the full time ride you deserve.
One driver had more to say than 140 characters would allow.
"It's called 'Checkbook Bumping,'" Paul Tracy told SPEED.com. "It stinks and it shouldn't be allowed."
Tracy, who missed the 2010 Indy 500 after struggling to find enough speed in his GEICO-sponsored KV Racing entry, shares many of the thoughts that his fellow drivers and plenty fans have conveyed about the Andretti/Foyt deal.
"It's flat wrong,” he continued. “To hire someone, in these times now, and to virtually pay guys nothing…you're out there risking your life, hanging your neck out to qualify…you're minus five on the rear wing and you're hanging on for dear life to put four laps together to get in the deepest field ever at the Indy 500, then they tell you they're pulling you out to put in a guy who didn't qualify? It's just wrong."
After taking it on the chin last year, Tracy said he wouldn’t even consider driving a car in the Indy 500 if he hadn’t qualified it himself.
"Somebody asked me last year if I was going to try and get in someone else's car, and I said no. Absolutely not. I never even considered it. To take somebody else's ride who qualified isn't right. I didn’t like it the first time it happened to Bruno at Conquest. I can certainly understand the circumstances where he was brought in to try and qualify a car in case [Alex Tagliani] didn't make it, but that wasn't the deal this time. He wasn't a backup plan for Foyt. I don’t think it should be allowed, but I don’t make the rules.”
The driver who will start 23rd in the Indy 500 this Sunday didn’t see eye-to-eye with PT on the subject.
“You have to look at the big picture, and you can quote me on this, big time,” said 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan. “We should not judge anybody, because we never know what might happen to us. But… You have to have dignity, and that must be said. You have to act with dignity in how you handle things like this. I hate this situation for both of the drivers. What Ryan did for me at Indy last year…not a lot of people would do that for you.
"I drove on Bump Day last year using his gearbox because he helped me when I was down. And I hate this for Bruno. He’s a good friend. But you’re talking about a one-off race for Bruno, and you’re talking about a full-time guy like RHR with a big sponsor that’s new, and it would be a big loss if he wasn’t driving in the race. It’s the biggest race of the year. You gotta look at the big picture, man.”
What does the man at the top think about the deal?
“The first thing I did was look back on tradition,” IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard told SPEED.com, “and saw that this has been happening for a long time. At least 40 years. It happened with [Alex Tagliani] in 2009, it happened with Dick Simon back in the day, it happened in the 1980s. It’s nothing new. My opinion is that this isn’t something that just started today between A.J. Foyt and Michael Andretti.”
Bernard, who inherited a sport with many problems to solve, doesn’t view what took place on Monday with the same nostalgia that so many of us draw from. For him, the Hunter-Reay-for-Junqueira deal was a business arrangement that is currently allowed in the rules, and nothing more.
“Here’s what I look at. I look at the fact that Ryan Hunter-Reay is one of the best drivers we have. Is this about the best drivers? When people say this is about the best drivers in the world, I don’t look at this [as] something against Hunter-Reay. You look at all the Andretti cars, and they all went through hell. I think Ryan had a bad day with his engineers, but these are the same guys who’ve also done incredibly well at Indy over the years with whatever teams they’ve been on.
“All I’m getting at is that all it takes is a bad day at Indy and you can miss the show, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t belong there anymore. If the car had the speed, Ryan would have been in the top 33. If we were talking about A.J. taking a check to put somebody in that had no business of driving at Indy, maybe I’d see it differently.”
Kanaan’s opinions echoed those offered by Bernard.
“It’s in the rules. They didn’t do anything different today. What I want people to understand is that I have mixed feelings about it, because while I’m not happy about what happened for either guy, understand that we are the employees. We have nothing to do with it. If they tell me to drive the 82, or the 41 or the 33 or the 1, that’s what I’m going to do, or I’m going to lose my job. Yeah, it looks a little weird, but it’s in the rules. We’re following what’s in there.”
TK also suggested that fans should share their thoughts with Bernard and the IndyCar Series.
“It’s in the rules at the moment, so we can’t complain about it for this year. It’s done. Accept it. If we’re just talking about rules, they are doing nothing wrong. If people really hate it, like the single-file restarts, then speak up and tell the series you want it changed for next year. Make your voice heard. Tell them you want it changed if that’s what you want. Judgment is not made by me, not by you, but by other people. Tell those people what you think. That’s my best advice.”
Despite Bernard’s somewhat hard-line approach to the situation, he says the health and growth of the sport is what he chooses to focus on.
Here's a quick heat check from Twitter:
@jimmyvasser: @BJUNQUEIRA I'm very sorry about this. Foyt sells out to Andretti? The world is ending soon. This rule needs to be changed.
@jimmyvasser: Bump day is now officially a joke. Lying to the fans again! They won't understand when they tune in on race day.
@alex_lloyd: @BJUNQUEIRA So sorry for you. You are the Indy master.
@NZRconsulting: @bjunqueira a class act.
@JustinWilson22: I really feel for @BJUNQUEIRA he deserves so much more but as far as I can remember it's always been fastest 33 cars. This is not a new thing
@RyanBriscoe6: This is terrible for @BJUNQUEIRA, but don't be hard on @RyanHunterReay this is not his doing, he's a good guy and deserving driver.
@katherinelegge: So who's ride does Conway get if RHR gets Junky's...? It's certainly a drama filled 500 this year.
@TommyKendall11: I am as free-market as a guy gets, but if ever a place owed someone something, it is IMS and @BJUNQUEIRA 1X broken back, 2X broken heart :-(
@dariofranchitti: @BJUNQUEIRA very sad for you. As always, you got in and did a great job. I hope you get the full time ride you deserve.
One driver had more to say than 140 characters would allow.
"It's called 'Checkbook Bumping,'" Paul Tracy told SPEED.com. "It stinks and it shouldn't be allowed."
Tracy, who missed the 2010 Indy 500 after struggling to find enough speed in his GEICO-sponsored KV Racing entry, shares many of the thoughts that his fellow drivers and plenty fans have conveyed about the Andretti/Foyt deal.
"It's flat wrong,” he continued. “To hire someone, in these times now, and to virtually pay guys nothing…you're out there risking your life, hanging your neck out to qualify…you're minus five on the rear wing and you're hanging on for dear life to put four laps together to get in the deepest field ever at the Indy 500, then they tell you they're pulling you out to put in a guy who didn't qualify? It's just wrong."
After taking it on the chin last year, Tracy said he wouldn’t even consider driving a car in the Indy 500 if he hadn’t qualified it himself.
"Somebody asked me last year if I was going to try and get in someone else's car, and I said no. Absolutely not. I never even considered it. To take somebody else's ride who qualified isn't right. I didn’t like it the first time it happened to Bruno at Conquest. I can certainly understand the circumstances where he was brought in to try and qualify a car in case [Alex Tagliani] didn't make it, but that wasn't the deal this time. He wasn't a backup plan for Foyt. I don’t think it should be allowed, but I don’t make the rules.”
The driver who will start 23rd in the Indy 500 this Sunday didn’t see eye-to-eye with PT on the subject.
“You have to look at the big picture, and you can quote me on this, big time,” said 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan. “We should not judge anybody, because we never know what might happen to us. But… You have to have dignity, and that must be said. You have to act with dignity in how you handle things like this. I hate this situation for both of the drivers. What Ryan did for me at Indy last year…not a lot of people would do that for you.
"I drove on Bump Day last year using his gearbox because he helped me when I was down. And I hate this for Bruno. He’s a good friend. But you’re talking about a one-off race for Bruno, and you’re talking about a full-time guy like RHR with a big sponsor that’s new, and it would be a big loss if he wasn’t driving in the race. It’s the biggest race of the year. You gotta look at the big picture, man.”
What does the man at the top think about the deal?
“The first thing I did was look back on tradition,” IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard told SPEED.com, “and saw that this has been happening for a long time. At least 40 years. It happened with [Alex Tagliani] in 2009, it happened with Dick Simon back in the day, it happened in the 1980s. It’s nothing new. My opinion is that this isn’t something that just started today between A.J. Foyt and Michael Andretti.”
Bernard, who inherited a sport with many problems to solve, doesn’t view what took place on Monday with the same nostalgia that so many of us draw from. For him, the Hunter-Reay-for-Junqueira deal was a business arrangement that is currently allowed in the rules, and nothing more.
“Here’s what I look at. I look at the fact that Ryan Hunter-Reay is one of the best drivers we have. Is this about the best drivers? When people say this is about the best drivers in the world, I don’t look at this [as] something against Hunter-Reay. You look at all the Andretti cars, and they all went through hell. I think Ryan had a bad day with his engineers, but these are the same guys who’ve also done incredibly well at Indy over the years with whatever teams they’ve been on.
“All I’m getting at is that all it takes is a bad day at Indy and you can miss the show, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t belong there anymore. If the car had the speed, Ryan would have been in the top 33. If we were talking about A.J. taking a check to put somebody in that had no business of driving at Indy, maybe I’d see it differently.”
Kanaan’s opinions echoed those offered by Bernard.
“It’s in the rules. They didn’t do anything different today. What I want people to understand is that I have mixed feelings about it, because while I’m not happy about what happened for either guy, understand that we are the employees. We have nothing to do with it. If they tell me to drive the 82, or the 41 or the 33 or the 1, that’s what I’m going to do, or I’m going to lose my job. Yeah, it looks a little weird, but it’s in the rules. We’re following what’s in there.”
TK also suggested that fans should share their thoughts with Bernard and the IndyCar Series.
“It’s in the rules at the moment, so we can’t complain about it for this year. It’s done. Accept it. If we’re just talking about rules, they are doing nothing wrong. If people really hate it, like the single-file restarts, then speak up and tell the series you want it changed for next year. Make your voice heard. Tell them you want it changed if that’s what you want. Judgment is not made by me, not by you, but by other people. Tell those people what you think. That’s my best advice.”
Despite Bernard’s somewhat hard-line approach to the situation, he says the health and growth of the sport is what he chooses to focus on.
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