Month of May - 33 Biggest Controversies

It’s the Month of May!!!

Image courtesy of IndyStar.com

In just under four weeks, the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race will take place in Speedway, Indiana. Defending race winner Dario Franchitti will attempt to tie the record for most 500 victories by securing his fourth trip to victory lane.

But there is so much more to the Indy 500 than a race. It is a tradition. It is a lifestyle. It is a legend.

It is the greatest spectacle in racing.

In the days leading up to this year’s running, hopefully ESPN and public access media will help portray the excitement and meaning of the Indianapolis 500.

But I doubt they will. So I’ll gladly take the reins, because until you have physically been there and been a part of the festivities, you cannot fully understand what Indy means – to the drivers, to the fans, to Hoosiers…to everybody.

But what is it that makes Indianapolis so awesome? Is it the traditions? The drivers? The innovations? The memorable moments? The things you do while at the race? The bricks? The milk?

The answer is all of the above.

And with that, it’s time to begin this year’s “Month of May” series leading up to race day on May 26. Each day, a different topic about the race or about Indianapolis will be discussed. For example, topics can include the greatest drivers, greatest races, greatest traditions, best things to bring to the track, best race week activity, etc. Each of these topics will then be ranked to create special “fields of 33.” I hope you enjoy, and I hope you learn something about Indianapolis and the Indy 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Today, to start the Month of May, we will look at some of the biggest controversies surrounding the Indianapolis 500 over its now 100 years of existence. With any big event, especially the biggest single day sporting event in the world, there is bound to be some controversial moments as racers will do whatever it takes to get their name on the Borg-Warner Trophy. But it’s not just the drivers and owners that have those moments…check out our Field of 33 Indy 500 Controversies.

Row 11

33. 2000-01 – Pole-sitters finish last. Greg Ray sat on pole for the 2000 race.  The first 66 laps went caution-free until Ray’s car was pushed up the track by a wind gust into the outside wall, making him the first car out of the race.  This would just appear to be bad luck until the next year when polesitter Scott Sharp crashed in the first turn of the race. Thankfully, Bruno Junqueira was able to be on pole in 2002 and not finish last.

32. 2000s – Danica’s weight gives an unfair advantage. Robby Gordon left IndyCar because he felt that Danica Patrick’s 100-pound frame gave her an unfair advantage over her competitors who weighed at least 40 pounds heavier. He refused to race until the weight difference was balanced. This caused a stir as a few pounds can mean a huge difference when the machine itself is only about 1,500 pounds.

28. 2012 – A sad day for Lotus. Lotus had a terrible 2012 season, but the worst part of it came at the Brickyard. Only 33 cars attempted to qualify, meaning both Lotus-powered entries made the field. However, at their qualifying speed, they would be lapped within seven or eight laps. Did those cars deserve to be on the track at all? Was it a safety issue? IndyCar allowed them to race, but both were black flagged for not maintaining race speed by lap 20.

Row 10

30. 1992 – Roberto Guerrero crashes from pole. On a cold race day, the coldest on record, Guerrero spun into the infield wall while warming his tires up on the parade lap. It seemed like just a basic mistake by a young driver, but others speculate as to what really knocked out the fastest qualifier.

29. 1994 – Penske’s Mercedes engines. Roger Penske took full advantage of the USAC rules that allowed for increased displacement in “stock block” engines. The end result, Mercedes brought engines with over 1,000 HP, over 150 more than most other competitors. Penske boys Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser, Jr., dominated the month. The cars were deemed too fast and rules would be made to fix the flaw. How good was the engine? Neither Penske car made the 1995 field because the chassis (the same from 1994) was that bad and this time the power plant couldn’t push them to victory. There are arguments that this engine led to the CART/IRL split.

28. Florence Henderson. She’s a native Hoosier and a friend of the Hulman=George family. But her singing gives us all a reason to wear our earplugs long before the green flag drops.

Row 9

27. 2009 – Helio’s perfect Month of May. Helio Castroneves missed the first few races of the 2009 season as he and his family faced tax evasion charges. Once he was cleared of all charges, he went out and put together the perfect May: pole position, pit stop challenge champion, Indy 500 champion. It’s a great story of resilience. However, conspiracy theorists (especially those from NFL backgrounds) I’m sure will try to say something seems fishy about such a perfect story…

26. 1979 – 35 Starters. The USAC denied entries by the start-up CART series, including Teams Penske, Patrick, and McLaren. Several cars were disqualified during time trials due to illegal exhaust pipes. There was a grey area in the rules here, and eventually a fifth day of time trials was installed. If any of the 11 DQ’ed cars could qualify faster than the slowest car already in the field, then they would be allowed to participate. Only Bill Vukovich II and George Snider went fast enough, creating a field of 35.

25. 1981 – Qualifying nightmare. Rain forced a three-day qualifying session. Every car must be given one opportunity to get on pole, but those attempts came on very different days and thus may have provided an unfair advantage. The polesitter qualified on the third day. The fastest qualifier in the field also qualified on the third day but started 20th. Those who got their one mandated attempt on day one were at a disadvantage.

Row 8

24. 1982 – Cogan takes out Foyt and Andretti. As the field approached the green flag, Kevin Cogan (starting from the middle of the front row) suddenly swerved right and bounced off of A.J. Foyt’s car. He then slid into Mario Andretti, taking both out of the race with him. Both Foyt and Andretti were furious, Foyt calling him “Coogan” and Andretti calling him a child “doing a man’s job out front.” Some blame polesitter Rick Mears for bringing the field up to pace too slowly. Who knows why this happened, but it was a sad day to see two former winners out before the green flag dropped.

23. 1996 – Fastest laps of all time, no pole position. Arie Luyendyk put up a one-lap record (234.742 mph) and four-lap average record in pole day qualifying, but his car was announced as seven pounds underweight that night, and so it was disqualified. He took the track the next day and shattered all records, putting up a fast lap of 237.498 mph and a four-lap average of 236.986 mph. The record stands, yet he started 20th in the race.

22. 2007 – Rain delay costs TK. Tony Kanaan led on lap 113 when the rain began. The race was official and could have been called right then. Instead, the track crew began work to dry the race surface. After over three hours, the race restarted. A crash on lap 162 brought out the yellow with Dario Franchitti leading. The rains came yet again and the race was halted for good. Instead of fan=favorite Kanaan winning an Indy 500, Franchitti won his first of three races.

Row 7

21. 1967-68 – Granatelli Turbines. Parnelli Jones led 171 laps in the 1967 race, but a tiny part broke in the last few laps to deny him of victory. They returned the next year and dominated the race yet again, but this time leader Joe Leonard and teammate Art Pollard each snapped a fuel pump with less than ten laps to go. The cars were not reliable, but they were fast. In fact, too fast, as the USAC would essentially make the engine “ruled to death” so it could never be used again.

20. 2005 – Danica’s Crash. In her rookie season, Danica spun and crashed under yellow as the field accordion-ed in front of her. She broke off her front wing but was able to race still. She entered the pits to change her nose, but she also got tires and fuel. The pits should have been closed, allowing her only to fix damage, not to take fuel or change tires.  She would go on to battle for the win with Dan Wheldon, but had to save fuel in the end and finished fourth.

19. 1981 – Whittington Brothers Qualifying Issues. One of the side controversies in the 1981 qualifying race involved the Whittington Brothers getting their qualifying opportunity. Officials ruled that they were not in the qualifying line in time and thus didn’t get a pole qualifying opportunity. The entire qualifying that year was just odd, and led to rule changes and clarifications.

Row 6

18. 1966 – Spin and NOT win. Defending champion Jim Clark thought he was the rightful winner in the 1966 race. Clark spun two different times during the race, but never made serious contact with the wall or another racer, never stalled the car, and was able to drive back to pit lane. However, he ended up being scored behind race winner Graham Hill, who admitted to being “puzzled” and “surprised” to be the winner. No official action was ever taken, but in the end  it was apparent that a car that never passed a car all day won the race because officials omitted one of Clark’s laps.

17. 2011 – Hunter-Reay Driver Swap. Ryan Hunter-Reay could not qualify his Andretti Autosport machine into the Centennial Running of the Indy 500. However, A.J. Foyt came to the rescue, ordering Bruno Junqueira (who qualified 19th) out of this car so that Hunter-Reay could race. The move startled and angered many, including Junqueira who had qualified and not raced in a prior Indy 500.

16. 1972 – Refueling in the Wrong Pits. On lap 188, Jerry Grant pits from the lead for tires and fuel. He overshot his pits and ended up in his teammate Bobby Unser’s pit box instead. The lost time in the pits brought him down to second place. For taking fuel from the wrong fuel tank, Grant was later disqualified.

Row 5

15. 1976 – The Indy 255. All it takes is 101 laps to be an official race at Indianapolis. On lap 100, a light drizzle brought out the yellow. On lap 103, the downpour began. The red flag waived, and the race was stopped at about 12:42 local time. At 3:00 the track was dry and ready to go racing again, but with cars lining up ready to restart, the umbrellas came out again. The race ended having completed only 255 miles of the scheduled 500.

14. 1995 – Pace Car Ruins Goodyear’s Day. After Jacques Villeneuve had been penalized two laps for passing the pace car, more officiating issues cost another racer. With ten laps to go and Scott Goodyear in the lead, the field went down to take the green flag. Second place Villeneuve held back as the pace car had not entered the pits yet. Goodyear kept going, and was ruled to have passed the pace car and was black-flagged. He ignored the black flag and eventually officials stopped scoring him. Villeneuve ended up winning the Indy 505 with his two extra laps. Goodyear said it best, though: “I think everybody throughout the world knows who won this race.”

13. 1993 – Fittipaldi Drinks OJ, Not Milk. The milk tradition is one of the best parts of Indianapolis. Upon entering Victory Lane in 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi drank orange juice (to support Brazilian citrus industries) instead of the traditional milk. He eventually did take a sip of milk, after being prodded three times from the presenter and after the cameras were turned off.

Row 4 – The 1997 Row

12. 1997 – Five Cars Out Before Green Flag. On the final pace lap, one of the cars in row five decided to warm up his tires some more. The result was all three (Stephan Gregoire, Affonso Giaffone, and Kenny Brack) from row 5 being out of the race. Allessandro Zampedri and Sam Schmidt had car trouble and were also out before the green flag dropped.

11. 1997 – White Flag, Green Flag? With two laps to go and Arie Luyendyk leading teammate Scott Goodyear, Tony Stewart brushed the wall in turn 4. The car was very lightly damaged, and he continued on, but the yellow flag came out. As they came around to receive the white flag under yellow, USAC officials suddenly displayed the white AND GREEN flags. The race was back on and nobody knew it. Luyendyk responded the quickest and took off, yet the lights around the track all were blinking yellow, allowing Arie to drop a nice F-bomb on live TV in disgust. The botched restart was just another ugly flaw to the 1997 race.

10. 1997 – 35 Starters. In the midst of the IRL/CART split, starting grid positions were set aside for the top 25 cars in the IRL season standings. Since only 23 of the 25 entries accepted births for the 500, 10 at-large bids were up for grabs at the start of qualifying. Due to the “25/8 Rule” officials expressed concern that the “fastest 33” cars would not start the race. Three bumped cars posted qualifying speeds faster than eight of the entries that were locked in. They ruled to reinstate any bumped car if they were among the “fastest 33,” allowing Lyn St. James and Johnny Unser to make up a 12th row. The “25/8 Rule” was removed following this race.

Row 3

9. 2010 – Crash Saves Dario. Dario Franchitti leads with just a few laps left, but he is in ultimate fuel save mode. Laps 197-199 are only in the 190-200 mph range instead of the 220 that he qualified. Dan Wheldon is hard charging and just three seconds back when the white flag flies. Wheldon saved fuel early and is running full rich. At this rate, he will catch Dario by turn 3. However, as the white flag flies, Mike Conway has one of the most spectacular crashes in Indy 500 history at the exit of turn 3, turning a possible dramatic finish into a checkered flag under caution. Controversy, well more like debate, exists over whether Dario could have held off Wheldon, who finished second for a second straight year.

8. 1991 – Mario Stalling for Michael. With eleven laps to go, Rick Mears is lengthening his lead on second place Michael Andretti. Suddenly, Mario Andretti stalls at the entrance to the pits, forcing a yellow flag situation. Many felt that Mario stopped the car on purpose to force a yellow flag to bunch the field back together, thereby giving his son a chance at the win. Michael couldn’t keep up with Mears at the restart, however.

7. 2011 – Wheldon Passes Crashed Hildebrand. Turn 4, lap 200. J.R. Hildebrand goes high around a slowing Charlie Kimball. He gets into the marbles and hits the wall. He keeps his car going towards the checkered flag and crosses as the yellow flag comes out. Second place Dan Wheldon was hard-charging and passed Hildebrand after he had hit the wall but before the yellow flag came out. Wheldon won the race. However, controversy over whether or not the pass was legal erupted. He made the pass before the yellow came out, so the pass was legal. However, the yellow SHOULD come out AS SOON AS POSSIBLE after an incident occurs. It was nearly eight seconds after Hildebrand hit the wall that the yellow finally came out. So Wheldon should NOT have been allowed to pass Hildebrand. However, in the end, rules stated that a fully functioning car does not have to stay behind a malfunctioning or damaged car. Wheldon was free to make the pass and did so before reaching the yard of bricks.

Row 2

6. 1963 – Oil Leak Doesn’t Bring Black Flag. Lotus just missed getting their first Indy 500 victory when Parnelli Jones held off Lotus’s Jimmy Clark to win the ’63 Indy 500. However, it was later revealed that Jones’s car had been leaking oil, and protocol suggested he should have been black flagged. Controversy ensued, but you never hear about it because Colin Chapman (Lotus man in charge) did not want to cause a stir. In fact, few even knew about the leak to begin with. They kept quiet, and they were rewarded when Clark got to Victory Lane in 1965.

5. 1981 – Unser vs. Andretti goes to the courts. Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti exited the pits on lap 146 under caution. Unser sped up on the apron and passed over a dozen cars before “blending in” as required. Andretti passed a couple of cars too before blending in. Unser would go on to get the checkered flag. However, the next morning, he was issued a penalty for passing under caution and the race was awarded to Andretti. Roger Penske, Unser’s car owner, filed a protest. The point where a car had to blend in was vague. It wasn’t until October that the USAC reinstated Unser as the victor.

4. 2010-12 – Beer or Water? The past three years have been some of the hottest on record for the Indianapolis 500. It left many having to ask the most important question: do we pack more beer for the race or water instead? Much controversy ensued over this hot-button topic. In the end, more water was taken to the track than in previous years, but the beer was packed just as heavily as always!

Row 1

3. 1996 – The CART/IRL Split. Between the 25/8 Rule, the CART veterans claiming that IRL young bloods would cause a “big one,” and the CART US 500 being the one with the big wreck, things just were messy in 1996. The split was on. The US 500 wreck (started by Jimmy Vasser) collected much of the field, so much that the red flag flew and drivers were allowed to use their backup cars. Vasser won the US 500 and exclaimed “who needs milk?” It wasn’t until 2000 that CART would return to Indianapolis. CART (now ChampCar) was absorbed into IndyCar in 2008. Open wheel racing has been on a decline since the 1996 race.

2. 2002 – Helio Castroneves vs. Paul Tracy. With two laps left, Castroneves is low on fuel and battling a full-rich Tracy. As they entered turn four, Tracy made his move on the outside. At the same time, a crash in turn 2 brought out the yellow. Tracy thought he had cleared Castroneves when the yellow came out (replays sure look that way as well). However, Castroneves was awarded the victory and ran out of gas before reaching Victory Lane. Tracy and Team Green were denied the opportunity to protest. To this day, Paul Tracy (and many others worldwide) believes himself to be the victor of the 2002 Indianapolis 500.

1. 1911 – Did Harroun Really Win? We have to go all the way back to the inaugural 500-Mile “Sweepstakes” for the top controversy. Immediately after the race, Ralph Mulford protested that he should have been scored as the winner. He claimed that he passed Harroun when he pitted the now famous Marmon Wasp. Officials noted that Mulford’s next stop allowed Harroun back by. Mulford claims he did not get credit for his lap in the pits. The protest would be thrown out, and the first and biggest controversy in the history of the 500 was born. It certainly wasn’t the last.

The Field of 33

Row 1	1. 1911 – Did Harroun really win?	2. 2002 – Helio Castroneves vs. Paul Tracy	3. 1996 – The CART/IRL Split
Row 2	4. 2010-12 – Beer or water?	5. 1981 – Unser vs. Andretti goes to the courts	6. 1963 – Oil Leak doesn’t bring black flag
Row 3	7. 2011 – Wheldon passes crashed Hildebrand	8. 1991 – Mario Stalling for Michael	9. 2010 – Crash saves Dario
Row 4	10. 1997 – 35 Starters	11. 1997 – White Flag, Green Flag?	12. 1997 – Five cars out before the Green Flag
Row 5	13. 1993 – Fittipaldi drinks OJ, not milk	14. 1995 – Pace Car ruins Goodyear’s day	15. 1976 – The Indy 255
Row 6	16. 1972 – Refueling in the wrong pits	17. 2011 – Hunter-Reay driver swap	18. 1966 – Spin and NOT win
Row 7	19. 1981 – Whittington bros qualifying issues	20. 2005 – Danica crash	21. 1967-68 – Granatelli Turbines
Row 8	22. 2007 – Rain delay costs TK	23. 1996 – Fastest laps of all time, no pole position.	24. 1982 – Cogan takes out Foyt and Andretti
Row 9	25. 1981 – Qualifying nightmare	26. 1979 – 35 Starters	27. 2009 – Helio’s perfect Month of May
Row 10	28. Florence Henderson	29. 1994 – Penske’s Mercedes engines	30. 1992 – Roberto Guerrero crashes from pole
Row 11	31. 2012 – A sad day for Lotus	32. 2000s – Danica’s weight gives an unfair advantage	33. 2000-01 – Pole-sitters finish last