Photo Credit: IMS
Even though Team Penske’s Will Power, last year’s Indianapolis 500 runner-up managed to post the third fastest overall lap on Wednesday, the second full day of practice for the 100th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the fact that none of their four drivers were able to post a lap faster than 18th among laps run without a tow, is bringing back bad memories from 21 years ago for the Captain. Although it is a part of Indy 500 lore, it is still very hard to believe that a team with the resume of Roger Penske’s squad at Indy with 16 wins, actually failed to qualify a single car for the 79th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 1995.
And why not? Penske’s drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser, Jr. had won the last two editions of the race, three if you also include Little Al’s 1992 victory with team owner Rick Galles. Also entering the month of May in 1995, the team came into the Brickyard with victories in each of the last two CART championship events. Al Jr. won on the streets of Long Beach and Emmo claimed the win at the Penske-owned one-mile oval at Nazareth, Pennsylvania. After Penske simply blew the competition into the weeds in 1994 with the specially-built Mercedes Benz engine, the team came into Gasoline Alley in 1995 with an update of their own Penske chassis and a more conventional Mercedes Benz engine, but not the same big bang push rod power plant essentially using the same Ilmor engine Penske used to win a majority of the other CART events in 1994. Of course, not everything about the 1994 Penske chassis was solid however. It was often criticized for being slow in the corners, a fact that was camouflaged by the 240 MPH straightaway speeds.
Things though were different in 1995. No longer running the special engine, the handling deficiencies of the car were greatly exposed during the first week of practice. Neither Unser, Jr. nor Fittipaldi managed to post a lap over 225 MPH with the company car and both elected not to make a qualifying attempt during the first weekend of time trials. With the fact on the wall that the 1995 Penske chassis was not the ticket to success, Fittipaldi pulled out on Monday of the second week,the same year old car Little Al used to win the 1994 event. Unfortunately, Emmo was unable to find with it and that car was also parked.
With bad weather also limiting track time, Penske then looked at the customer options used by a majority of their rivals in CART. Their first pick up was to acquire Pagan Racing’s backup car, a 1994 Reynard featuring Mercedes Benz power. Although Roberto Guerrero managed to run over 225 MPH during the opening week with the car, Al Unser, Jr. could only hit 218 on Tuesday. With Wednesday and most of Thursday wiped out by rain, Team Penske looked to Rahal-Hogan Racing for assistance. Ironically, a year previous Penske had aided Rahal in his quest to avoid suffering a second straight did not qualify at Indy, when the 1986 Indy 500 winner was unable to get the all-new Honda engine up to speed. Rahal used the Penske chassis offered to him to make the show and then finished third on race day. In 1995, Rahal returned the favor to the Captain loaning a 1995 Lola-Mercedes car/engine package.
The acquisition seemed to pay dividends immediately. After the rain moved out of the Indianapolis area on Friday, Fittipaldi quickly reached lap speeds over 228 MPH, a speed that would put him solidly in the field. With Unser. Jr. still unable to find speed with the 1995 Penske chassis, the team acquired a second Lola from Rahal-Hogan. On the third day of time trials, Unser managed to eventually find enough speed to make two qualifying attempts, but neither was fast enough to accept and were both waved off. Fittipaldi meanwhile, appeared to be on the verge of making the field during happy hour, after posting three laps in the 225.5 MPH range. However, worried the speed might not hold up on Bubble Day, Roger Penske turned down the effort.
Entering the final day of qualifying with neither car in the show, Fittipaldi finally qualified his Lola at 224.907 MPH, well off the pace he showed the previous day. Eventually, the ultimate nightmare scenario came into play during the final hour of qualifying time when Unser, Jr. took to the track and Fittipaldi was on the bubble. Ultimately, a 221 MPH first lap doomed Little Al’s chances to qualify, while Stefan Johansson eventually bumped Emmo out of the field.
Even though the chances of failing to qualify for the 100th Indy 500 are virtually out of play with only 33 car-driver combinations currently in Gasoline Alley, it is still hard to imagine how a dominant can suddenly struggle and appear somewhat human. Penske suffered through 1995 and even Andretti Autosport failed to qualify two of their own drivers in 2011. The moral of the story, any time you show even the smallest weakness you can be exposed.
Disclaimer: Views on this article are those of the author and may not reflect the thoughts of others on the OnPitRoad.com staff.
