{"id":1318,"date":"2015-05-27T20:06:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T03:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynstjames.com\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2015-06-18T08:47:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T15:47:09","slug":"month-of-mayhem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynstjames.com\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"Month of Mayhem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015_95_Start_1600x701\"<\/a>\u00a0Twenty years ago, the defending champions failed to qualify for Race Day. A first-lap, first-turn crash left one driver unconscious and several others rattled. In the final laps, a driver named Goodyear, on Firestone tires, had the lead one moment and agony the next \u2013 all without ever slowing down. This was the 1995 Indianapolis 500.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Story by John Schwarb
\nDesign by Zach Hudson | Video by Chris Cross
\nIMS.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the 79th Indianapolis 500 crawled under caution with 10 laps to go, Jacques Villeneuve danced his car left and right down the backstretch in a tactical chess game.<\/p>\n

Eighteen cars remained on the track, but that moment belonged to just two, the leader and the follower: Scott Goodyear, a 35-year-old native of Ontario, Canada, and Jacques Villeneuve, a 24-year-old from Quebec.<\/p>\n

The view of the leader\u2019s rear wing was familiar for Villeneuve. The previous year, at the 1994 Indianapolis 500, Villeneuve was a surprising runner-up. Sitting second a year later was even more of a surprise because he was in that slot after rebounding from a two-lap penalty, levied after he passed the Pace Car on Lap 36 of 200.<\/p>\n

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Goodyear, meanwhile, was right where he belonged. He led in what might have been the single best car in the field, a Reynard chassis with a Honda engine and Firestone tires that qualified on the front row and stayed among the leaders all day. Coming into the 1995 \u201c500,\u201d Goodyear had five starts and a runner-up story like no other: In 1992, he had driven from the 33rd and last position on the grid to within a whisper of winning, losing to Al Unser Jr. by 43 one-thousandths of a second in the race\u2019s closest finish.<\/p>\n

But in 1995, everything had fallen Goodyear\u2019s way, and he sat 10 laps from racing immortality. Other title hopefuls had crashed out or otherwise lost sight of the lead in the trying 500-mile test of car, driver and team. Still lurking was the intentionally distracting Villeneuve, trying to win more on guile than speed.<\/p>\n

Villeneuve’s blue and white No. 27 Reynard\/Ford Cosworth darted left and right, filling Goodyear\u2019s mirrors. Villeneuve would lurch up to the leader\u2019s rear wing, then fall back. The Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car \u2013 on the track following a Lap 185 accident by then-second place car Scott Pruett \u2013 continued well ahead, driven by U.S. Auto Club official Don Bailey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just decided to put pressure on Scott to see if I could make him crack,\u201d Villeneuve said.<\/p>\n

Goodyear kept his mind on what was ahead, not the car behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just making sure that everything is as it needs to be, getting ready for the restart,\u201d he said. \u201cListening to the team, they\u2019re telling you how many more laps before you go green. Looking at the track to make sure there\u2019s nothing else that the cleanup crew has missed. You\u2019re just getting ready for when they tell you it\u2019s going to be green next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment arrived. The Pace Car worked through Turn 3 and the short chute, the field still well behind. But as it took its final sweeping curve of Turn 4, it had company.<\/p>\n

Goodyear was there, and he was on the gas.<\/p>\n

THE FIRST WEEK: SPEED AND STRUGGLE<\/h5>\n

The story of the 1995 Indianapolis 500 begins with the 1994 Indianapolis 500, which was more rout than race. Team Penske arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that year with a secretly built Mercedes Benz-branded Ilmor pushrod engine, and teammates Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi dominated in qualifying first and third, then combined in the race to lead all but seven laps. Unser Jr. drank the winner\u2019s milk after Fittipaldi crashed with 15 laps to go.<\/p>\n

A year later, as drivers and their caravans filed into the infield at 16th and Georgetown to set up for May 1995, Penske was once again expected to be the team to beat. It had the pedigree: Three of the four previous \u201c500\u201d titles belonged to Penske. It had the talent: The 1995 Penske drivers were Al Unser Jr., who had won in 1994 and 1992, when he was driving for Galles-Kraco Racing, and Emerson Fittipaldi, the 1989 and 1993 winner. And it had the momentum: The team was heating up in the 1995 IndyCar season. Fittipaldi had won the series race prior to the Indianapolis 500. Unser had won the race before that.<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s first laps in practice for the 1995 Indianapolis 500 came on Day 2 of the Month of May, on Sunday, May 7. Fittipaldi and Unser each turned laps in Penske Mercedes, but the fastest cars that day were both from Team Menard: Arie Luyendyk, the 1990 winner, and Scott Brayton.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how it stayed all week. Brayton and Luyendyk took the top two spots on the speed chart every day but one, working together with their Buick V-6 engines to log the fastest laps in the history of the Speedway. They were a hair short of 235 mph. On Day 6 of practice, two days before Pole Day, a record eight drivers exceeded 230 mph. A Brazilian named Andre Ribiero was turning the fastest laps ever for a rookie; Goodyear was setting marks as the fastest Canadian ever seen at Indy.<\/p>\n

Notably absent, however, was any show of strength from Team Penske. Through the first six days of practice, Unser sat 28th on the speed chart. Fittipaldi was 29th.<\/p>\n

RICHARD BUCK<\/strong> (Chief mechanic for Unser): \u201cUSAC saw the domination of the 1994 Indy 500 and made some adjustments, which sanctioning bodies do. They made one set of adjustments, but there was another set of adjustments that came down in that motor for Indy, and that put us in a box. That was the package we had elected to go with based on the initial communications, and then more adjustments were made before we got there.\u201d<\/p>\n

RICK RINAMAN<\/strong> (Chief mechanic for Fittipaldi): \u201cYes, we didn\u2019t have that engine, but we surely felt capable of doing the same thing. The big disappointment was not getting up to speed, realizing that maybe we didn\u2019t have as good a car as we thought we did. The engine was doing all the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

AL UNSER JR.<\/strong>: \u201cThe handling of the car went away. We just couldn\u2019t put our finger on it. We had enough power \u2013 we just couldn\u2019t get the car going through the corner. From the middle on out, it would understeer. When we were trying to fix the understeer, then it started making the entry too quick. We just couldn\u2019t get it working.\u201d<\/p>\n

JOHN CUMMISKEY <\/strong>(mechanic for Unser): \u201cWe didn\u2019t get any help from USAC \u2013 that was pretty evident straight away. Had a lot of issues with the pop-off valves. I remember going to the pop-off valve office every day, multiple times. After a while, it didn\u2019t make our lives easy. There were certainly some bad feelings from the year before.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUCK<\/strong>: \u201cWe struggled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rules were no surprise as the month began. But Penske\u2019s inability to succeed in spite of them? That was a shock.<\/p>\n

POLE DAY: THE NO-SHOWS<\/h5>\n

In 1995, drivers had two weekends available to use as many as three qualification attempts to put their cars on the grid for the Indianapolis 500. But there was only one Pole Day, one chance to get the cherished No. 1 position. Winning the pole at Indy represented both a meaningful and mythical advantage \u2013 on Race Day it meant glorious, traffic-free clean air at the front of the pack, and for two weeks leading up to the race it meant valuable hype and publicity for a team and its sponsors.<\/p>\n

Al Unser Jr. won the pole in 1994, giving Team Penske its sixth pole in nine years.<\/p>\n

As had been the custom in recent years, rain delayed the proceedings on Pole Day on Saturday, May 13, and a qualifying time wasn\u2019t posted until 4:49 p.m. by rookie Alessandro Zampedri.<\/p>\n

Nine minutes later, Arie Luyendyk laid down a four-lap average of 231.031 mph in gusty conditions. Some 20 minutes after that, Luyendyk\u2019s teammate Scott Brayton turned a 231.604 mph qualifying effort.<\/p>\n

When the first run through the qualifying order ended the next day, the fastest front row in race history became official. Brayton was on the pole with Luyendyk alongside him, and Scott Goodyear took the third spot with his 230.759 mph average. Behind those three, 22 more drivers had successfully qualified for the race, with the slowest effort from Eliseo Salazar, with a 225.023 mph average.<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s two cars were not among those qualifiers. Neither had even made an attempt. Roger Penske first arrived at the Indianapolis 500 as an owner in 1969 and, save some rainout years, 1995 was the first time his team \u2013 among the richest in resources and talent in motorsports \u2013 had not had a first-weekend qualifier.<\/p>\n

ROGER PENSKE<\/strong> (to the Indianapolis Star in 1995): \u201cIt\u2019s nothing to do with power and speed. It\u2019s strictly trying to be able to put your foot down and drive through the corners. We haven\u2019t given them a chassis that they can maximize the car in.\u201d<\/p>\n

CUMMISKEY<\/strong>: \u201cAt that point we were scrambling so much just to figure something out. The managers and their engineers had their hands full. We all had our hands full.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNSER<\/strong>: \u201cWe really weren\u2019t panicking at that time. We honestly thought we could get the car working during that second week of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUCK<\/strong>: One of the beauties of building your cars and having your own engine package was when you got it right, it was awesome. But when you had some things wrong, you were the only ones to sort it out. That first weekend was a blur.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE TIRE WAR: \u2018GET BACK TO INDIANAPOLIS\u2019<\/h5>\n

Firestone had left IndyCar racing and the Indianapolis 500 after 1974, turning the series into a one-tire sport. For 20 years, every team raced on Goodyears, and the tire owned a 23-year \u201c500\u201d winning streak coming into 1995.<\/p>\n

But that year also marked the return of Firestone. A number of teams used them in 1995, including Patrick Racing, which fielded just one car driven by veteran Scott Pruett. He had spent the previous year helping Firestone get ready for its comeback at Indy, logging nearly 14,000 miles of testing.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s work was already paying off: Coming into May, Pruett led the season standings. And as May wore on, Firestone\u2019s reputation grew.<\/p>\n

Team Menard\u2019s top two qualifiers carried Goodyear tires, while third-qualifying Scott Goodyear and four more of the top 12 cars on the grid had Firestones. After a two-decade hiatus, the tire war was back at Indy.<\/p>\n

DALE HARRIGLE<\/strong> (Bridgestone Americas manager of race tire development): \u201cIn 1988, Bridgestone Corporation bought the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. One of the things Bridgestone did after they had bought Firestone was go to the dealers and ask, \u2018What could we do to reenergize the Firestone brand?\u2019 A lot of our tire dealers said, \u2018Get back to Indianapolis.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

SCOTT PRUETT<\/strong>: \u201cThirteen thousand eight hundred test miles was the number, and you know what? I dug it. You make out of it what you want. I always kept my eye on the prize. I knew the harder I worked, the more deliberate I was, the harder I drove, the more consistent car I drove, the better product I could develop to go racing with. Over all those miles, my focus was, I\u2019m doing all these miles in 1994 to go racing in 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n

ROBIN MILLER<\/strong> (associate sports editor of the Indianapolis Star): \u201cI remember calling Pruett in the middle of July or August in \u201994. \u2018Hey, is the tire a piece of (expletive)?\u2019 He said, \u2018A piece of (expletive)? Yeah, write that, then nobody\u2019s going to want it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

HARRIGLE<\/strong>: \u201cA lot of the chatter around Indianapolis was that the Firestone tires were only good for a couple laps, that we didn\u2019t bring a race tire, we brought more of a qualifying tire. We knew we brought a race tire.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRUETT<\/strong>: \u201cWe were confident of what was coming. Then when we got there, it was \u2018Wow, this is going to be good.\u2019 We knew we had a better tire. I could go anywhere I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCOTT SHARP<\/strong>: \u201cThe package was really good at that point in time for the Firestones, especially the Firestone Reynard cars. The Lola\/Goodyear package wasn\u2019t the package to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n

DERRICK WALKER<\/strong> (Owner, Walker Racing, ran Goodyears): \u201cOurs would only have a few laps in them, and then they\u2019d start to degrade. The rumors \u2013 stuff filtered out about what pressures they were running, how consistent their stagger was.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRUETT<\/strong>: \u201cCheater tires, illegal chemicals, they were only available in Japan, they aren\u2019t legal over here, they were doing illegal stuff in Japan to build these tires for the Speedway. Every sort of negative spin on the fact that Bridgestone\/Firestone was doing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

HARRIGLE<\/strong>: \u201cIt was quite fun. They referred to the soft tires as \u2018gumballs,\u2019 and we had actually talked about getting one of those gumball machines from a grocery store and putting it in the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n

JIMMY VASSER<\/strong>: \u201cAs the month went on, you could see that Firestone was getting stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHEEVER<\/strong>: \u201cIt was nothing that we could do to change as a team. It was a non-discussion. We had what we had. I didn\u2019t have the option of getting it. Unless there was a way to get (owner A.J.) Foyt to change tires, and I don\u2019t even think God could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

HARRIGLE<\/strong>: \u201cThere were plenty of people in the garage that were convinced that we were going to have to pit on Lap 10, we were going to have to pit on Lap 15. But from the testing we did, we knew what the tires would be capable of. We were confident that we would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE SECOND WEEK: CALLING IN FAVORS<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Photo: Al Unser Jr. and Roger Penske, the winning driver and owner of 1994, failed to make the field a year later.<\/em><\/p>\n

After its dominating effort on Pole Day, Team Menard\u2019s garages were closed on Monday, May 15, as the run up to the second qualifying weekend began. A large sign on one door read \u201cGONE FISHIN\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less enjoyable fishing was going on in the Penske garages. After failing to qualify either of its drivers on the first weekend, Penske moved away from its \u201995 Mercedes. Unser\u2019s 1994 winner was back on the track after being parked in the basement of Roger Penske\u2019s Toyota dealership in Downey, California. Fittipaldi drove it in what a team spokesman said was \u201cto baseline a setup for comparison\u201d to the \u201995 cars. In a busy day of 59 laps turned, Fittipaldi\u2019s top speed was 220.745 mph.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a Reynard chassis was borrowed from Roberto Guerrero\u2019s team, and Unser drove it for 44 laps. His top speed was 218.050 mph.<\/p>\n

Wednesday was a washout at the Speedway, but there was big news from Penske\u2019s garage: 1986 Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal and his Rahal-Hogan Racing team would loan their backup Lolas, a twist from the previous year, when Rahal had borrowed a Penske car to make the 1994 field.<\/p>\n

The next day, Fittipaldi began working with the Lola. On Friday, he turned a lap at 227.814 mph, faster than many of the cars that had qualified the previous weekend. Penske announced that it would no longer be using the Reynards.<\/p>\n

BOBBY RAHAL<\/strong>: \u201cThe tables turned. We gave him two of our cars \u2013 our backup cars, which was kind of risky. If we needed them, he had them. But Roger had helped us out when we needed it the year before, so we returned the favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

CUMMISKEY<\/strong>: \u201cWe were thrashing like crazy. That Reynard was a piece of junk. I remember trying to get that thing to where it was just safe enough to drive around the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

RINAMAN<\/strong>: \u201cMyself and Richard Buck went with Roger over to Rahal\u2019s motor home, trying to hash out what we could do. Rahal wanted to help us. I can remember sitting in that motor home \u2013 \u2018This is what we can do, the weather is going to play a factor, do we jump in a new car that we haven\u2019t worked with and try to get it up to speed?\u2019 That was the intense part of it. Once the decision was made, then it was smooth sailing, everybody knew the job that they had to do, and we got to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNSER<\/strong>: \u201cThe Lola was a pretty good car. We got it dialed in pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUMP DAY<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Photo: A chalkboard on the Pit Lane showed Fittipaldi\u2019s fate at the end of Bump Day.<\/em><\/p>\n

Five more cars filled positions on the starting grid on the third day of qualifying for 1995. But still, none belonged to Team Penske.<\/p>\n

During qualifying attempts, teams can \u201cwave off\u201d their try if the speeds are undesirable, reserving that turn if they still have attempts remaining and time allows at the end of the qualifying session. Team Penske waved off Unser\u2019s first attempt Saturday, May 20, after two laps in the low 224s. On Unser\u2019s second attempt, he and the Lola improved from 223.959 in the first lap to 225.434 mph in the second, only to have the engine let go on the third lap and force the team into another wave-off.<\/p>\n

Fittipaldi showed more speed in his third-day attempt with what would have been a mid-225 average but was waved off on the final lap by Roger Penske, who felt the same speed would be achievable on Bump Day, when a race position could be ensured. Thousands of fans turned out to see if he was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cBump Day,\u201d as Sunday\u2019s final day of qualifying was then known, represented the last chance to earn a spot in the race. Once all 33 spots in the field were filled, other teams could \u201cbump\u201d their way in ahead of slower cars. Bump Day meant desperation, gamesmanship and keeping an eye on the clock.<\/p>\n

At 6 p.m., a gun would be fired. At that point, the field would be locked for the 1995 Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n

The day opened at noon Sunday, May 21, when Carlos Guerrero became the 31st qualifier. Davy Jones made an attempt, but waved it off.<\/p>\n

Then, for the next five hours, no one rolled into the qualifying line. Teams might be desperate for a spot \u2013 but not desperate enough to run their laps during the day\u2019s top temperatures, when engines had to work harder and cars recorded slower times.<\/p>\n

By 5 p.m., the sun was fading, the track cooling. At 5:07 p.m., Scott Sharp qualified his car for owner A.J. Foyt. Next came Fittipaldi, whose run of 224.907 in a Lola put him \u2013 and, for the first time all month, Team Penske \u2013 on the grid.<\/p>\n

The first \u201cbump\u201d came at 5:19 p.m. when Jones jumped into the 32nd spot on the grid at 225.135. Fittipaldi moved to the 33rd \u201cbubble\u201d position.<\/p>\n

Stefan Johansson was next out, but after two subpar attempts, his team waved him off. Another driver, Marco Greco, tried but was also waved off by his team.<\/p>\n

Unser\u2019s try at 5:31 p.m. was doomed with a 221.992 mph first lap after his pop-off valve \u2013 that same piece of equipment that had led his team to multiple visits to the U.S. Auto Club office that month \u2013 blew atop the engine, releasing air from the engine and killing its power. His third and final attempt wasn\u2019t enough to make the field.<\/p>\n

Jeff Ward, Greco and Davey Hamilton tried again, and all were waved off. Fittipaldi inched closer to making the race.<\/p>\n

At 5:48 p.m., Johansson still had one attempt remaining. He had driven a \u201994 Penske Mercedes in the opening week at Indianapolis, but his team, Bettenhausen Motorsports, abandoned the same car that Team Penske did, in their case in favor of a \u201994 Reynard\/Ford Cosworth that had been driven in the 1994 Indianapolis 500 by Mauricio Gugelmin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Johansson\u2019s first lap was 224.826 mph.<\/p>\n

His second was 225.739.<\/p>\n

His third was 225.921.<\/p>\n

His fourth and final lap was 225.705, for a four-lap average of 225.547. Johansson landed 31st on the grid, bumping Emerson Fittipaldi out of the top 33. The difference between the two cars\u2019 qualifying efforts was less than half a second over the 10 miles.<\/p>\n

The gun for the session sounded at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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