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Does anyone know the circumstances surrounding why Scott Goodyear started the 1992 Indianapolis 500 P33 ?? Seems like he had a wicked fast car. I don't understand how he qualified so poorly. Even though he lost the race to Little Al, I would have to say that is one of the all time legendary drives going from P33 to P2 at the end with a great shot at P1.
Scott is in the Motorsports Hall of Fame and rightfully so.
from wikipedia
Quote:
Scott Goodyear actually was bumped from the field during qualifying. His team, Derrick Walker Racing, put two cars into the field, one for Goodyear and one for Mike Groff. At the close of qualifying, Goodyear (the team's primary driver), was bumped. Before the race, Walker replaced Groff with Goodyear as the driver for the lone car in the field. Due to the rules, the car had to start from the 33rd (last) position.
I'm still puzzled though why his car would even be in the position to be bumped if it was fast. Where did Groff's car qualify originally??
Also remember the race was Michael ANdretti's and it had high attrition. It was terribly cold and there were lots of spins and accidents because of cold tires. Michael Andretti dominated but dropped out with 11(?) laps to go or so to set up the finish. I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishments, because to finish first you must first finish of course. All were driving in the same conditions and Little Al and Scott Goodyear came out on top.
To follow up on Alex's comments - I am not sure "wicked fast" would describe Goodyear's car that year - although he did drive a good race. Remember he was edged out by a Galmer - not exactly the cream of the car crop in 1992....
The car is qualified into the race - not the driver, but rules state if a driver different to the one who qualified takes the car for the race, he must start at the back. It happened a few years ago with Felipe Giaffone and Raul Boesel IIRC
Goodyear's car couldn't be described as wicked fast, well, I guess it could be, just not as wicked fast as some others. Goodyear, driving for the small budget Walker team, had a style that suited Walker well. He drove fast and smart and more often than not would bring the car home in one piece. This all came together nicely, albeit one lap short of perfectly, for him in the '92 race.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, the car that Goodyear finished in, the one that Groff qualified, was the teams one year old back up car (and\or had an older generation Ilmor engine?). Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Goodyear luck at Indy:
One lap\draft short, possibly, of winning in '92.
Passed the Pace Car before it entered the pits in '95 on a late restart resulting in a black flag. He actually finished the race in first but they had stopped scoring him because he ignored the flag.
Finished second to Luyendyk in '97 but I remember him claiming something about getting mixed signals from race control on a very late restart (2 laps to go?), enabling Luyendyk, who was leading at the time, to go unchallenged when the race was back underway.
I wish Goodyear was still racing because I really don't care for him as a commentator.
3 times runner-up, now that's cruel.
Well at least Scott wasn't regularly announced as "slowing down in the backstretch" see: Andretti :)
I think Scott could be placed on that list of greatest drivers never to win Indy.
Was he actually ever in a major team? He always seemed something like "the next big thing", but I guess it never really happened.