Familiar Names Rolling at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS — There will be a familiar ring to the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500 this year, thanks in good part to the familial nature of auto racing.

As the cars roll out today for the opening round of qualifying for the race May 28 -- weather permitting -- there will be two Andrettis driving, along with an Unser, a Foyt, a Cheever and a Luyendyk.

The Andrettis are Michael, 43, who temporarily stepped away from managing Andretti Green Racing to again seek his first Indy 500 win, and his 19-year-old son Marco, making his first attempt. His grandfather, Mario, won the race in 1969.

Former winners Al Unser Jr., 44, and Eddie Cheever, 48, also have left retirement to tackle the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway one more time.

Larry Foyt, 29, son of racing icon and team owner A.J. Foyt, will make his third attempt. Another rookie is Arie Luyendyk Jr., 24, whose father won the race twice and holds the track’s one-lap speed record of 237.498 mph, set a decade ago.

All their names conjure the racing heritage and marquee value that the speedway prizes, especially compared with a few years ago, when the 33-car field seemed dotted with relative unknowns.

Those were the early years of the Indy Racing League, which was started by IMS President Tony George a decade ago in a split with what is now the Champ Car World Series.

But on a more practical level, the presence of the Andrettis, Unser and the other familiar names also is likely to foster a more compelling race when they line up with the IRL’s current stars.

Those drivers include defending Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL champion Dan Wheldon, two-time winner Helio Castroneves, his teammate and two-time IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr., 2004 race winner Buddy Rice and last year’s pole-sitter Tony Kanaan.

Castroneves has won two of the IRL’s first three races this year and is leading the IRL standings.

Then there is Danica Patrick, who became a singular sensation a year ago by nearly becoming the first woman to win the legendary race.

They’ll all be gunning for the pole position, and spots 2 through 11, when qualifying starts today. A second round is scheduled Sunday for positions 12-22, and final time trials to fill out the 33-car field are next weekend.

But the weather, so often a key variable here, is again causing problems.

Practice was rained out Friday, with gusty winds and temperatures that never climbed above the 40s. Similar conditions are forecast for today and Sunday.

If pole day is washed out today, track officials probably will try to qualify 22 cars Sunday, as they did last year when Kanaan won the pole with a speed of 227.566 mph for Andretti Green Racing.

Depending on the weather, there also is the possibility that 11 cars will qualify Sunday and 11 more Monday.

Even if the rain holds off long enough for a dry track, the cold could hamper qualifying because temperatures below 50 degrees here are generally considered unsafe for the drivers.

Qualifying speed is determined by the drivers’ average for four laps. Officials also have designed a complicated procedure in which qualified cars can be “bumped” from the lineup by faster entrants on each of the four days of time trials.

In practice this week, most of the top speeds were set by the IRL’s regulars.

Hornish was fastest Thursday, posting the month’s quickest lap of 226.789 mph for Marlboro Team Penske.

Fast speeds also have been posted by Castroneves, Kanaan and Wheldon, who this season drives for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

But Patrick, a member of the Rahal Letterman team, hasn’t kept pace so far.

“We’re struggling,” she said Friday. “I’m not real fast right now. We’re figuring out how to make it work.”