Rain washed out practice for the 2010 Indianapolis 500, the first Indianapolis 500 practice day to be completely rained out since Thursday, May 8, 2008.
Rain fell steadily on the Speedway throughout this morning, and IZOD IndyCar Series officials canceled the day’s track activities at 2:30 p.m. (ET).
DAY 3 NOTEBOOK:
Veteran race strategist and team manager John Anderson will call the race for Andretti Autosport driver John Andretti in the #43 Team Window World car. Anderson has a history with his driver and significant success with the Andretti team as the race strategist for drivers Paul Tracy, 2005 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, and 2007 winner and Indy Racing League Champion Dario Franchitti.
JOHN ANDERSON: “I brought John out here to the Speedway (in 1988). We worked together for his first Indy 500 race, and here we are back together many years, too many years, later. I’m enjoying it, and I really appreciate the chance to work with the team like this. (The past three races) I’ve been working with Tony Kanaan. I had spoken to John earlier - before he did the deal with Michael - about the possibility of doing something for the ‘500,’ so we got back together. Tony brought in Steve Horne, who owned Tasman Motorsports. Steve’s working with Tony for this one, and I’ve shuffled over to John. I’m looking forward to Race Day.”
Two-time Indianapolis 500-winning chief mechanic Owen Snyder III is working this month with A.J. Foyt Racing. Snyder was chief mechanic for winners Al Unser Jr. in 1992 and Eddie Cheever Jr. in 1998.
OWEN SNYDER III: (About working with A.J. Foyt): “It’s pretty special. I kind of always wanted to do this. The guy is so sharp. You just can’t imagine the knowledge that he has gained over the years. He just knows. I always wanted to find out first-hand, and you never know about a guy until you work with them or for them, and it has been pretty good so far. Of course, Anthony (Foyt) is happy, and we have been fairly quick, so that makes it a lot better.” (Some people in your position might approach this with a little trepidation): “That’s true! I have been around long enough and have heard all the stories and have seen a lot of them with A.J. and I know how he is, but when it is time to get serious and go to race, we have a real good group of guys working on Anthony’s car. So we get serious, get the work done, and give the answers he wants, and it is going real good so far. I’m just having a real good month. Now it is just been a couple of days, so that could change. I just want to learn. Shoot, I’m almost 50 years old; There are a lot of things I have to learn, too.” (About A.J. Foyt IV coming back to drive at Indy): “I’ll tell you, we found out yesterday that he is back for the right reasons. He isn’t back just to get his name out there or because of his name. He genuinely wants to come and race here. We saw the serious side yesterday when the track went green. He is racer. This is an experienced team, and the good thing about A.J. is that he uses all that experience. He just remembers that a lot of things go full circle. Yeah, there are a lot of new developments out there, but a lot of it gets back to things that happened 10, 15, 20 years ago, and A.J. has been through it all.”
Indianapolis 500 veteran and KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser talked Sunday about his team’s preparation for the 2010 Indianapolis 500.
JIMMY VASSER: “I think we’re pretty well prepared. We do have one rookie with Takuma Sato, but he sure picked it up like a veteran today. We’re just getting started here. This place can be tough, or it can be the greatest of ease sometimes. We’re very excited. We’re stepping it up with four cars, and we have the personnel to do it right.” (On having Paul Tracy and Barry Green on the team): “You know, it’s kind of an interesting pair there with Barry and P.T. We have GEICO on board for the second year in a row, so there’s good continuity there. We’re just getting started, but certainly the ingredients are there to do very, very well.” (On his overall feel for the team right now): “There have been no real surprises yet. I’m sure there will be. Everything seems to be going very smoothly. We’re fairly happy with the cars right now. There’s no reason to believe we can’t run these things up front.”
Newman/Haas Racing driver Hideki Mutoh talked today about the popularity of the Indianapolis 500 in his native Japan.
HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 06 Formula Dream/Panasonic): “To win the Indy 500 would change my life, for sure. And not because I am Japanese and would be the first to win the race; your nationality doesn’t matter. If you win the Indy 500, it is huge. I think I could retire after such a huge accomplishment. The first time I saw the Indy 500 was when Nigel Mansell was in the 1993 race. I watched Formula One as a child, and when he came to race Indy cars for Newman/Haas, I started watching Indy car racing. That was also the first Indy 500 I saw. The Indy 500 is one of the biggest races in the world, so it means a lot to compete in it. Last week, I was in Japan and there were over 100 media at Honda’s press conference for the Twin Ring Motegi race, and they asked me about the Indy 500 and the Motegi race. The race (Indianapolis 500) is on live in Japan on Gaora network at 3 a.m. or something like that and my family and friends are going to watch the race. They will finish watching the race around 7 a.m. and I think that is a good time to drink some milk!”
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