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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.
the 1992 Galmer car was short of downforce, which made it a pig on smaller ovals and road courses, but the lack of downforce (and the associated drag) made it very quick around Indianapolis. Also, 1992 was the last year before they changed the track in the corners to introduce a grass area between the bottom of the track and the entry/exit road. Before 1992, the driver of an understeering car could dive below the yellow line onto the apron to balance out the understeer. You could see drivers doing that a lot up to and including 1992. After 1992, the "dive low" option was no longer available, which hurt cars with insufficient downforce (including the Buick-engined cars, whose taller engine package created more drag and "hid" part of the rear wing, limiting their downforce).
Scott Goodyear was snake bitten at Indy, that is for sure. Great guy, nice guy, so-so commentator but at Indy, he knew what he was about.
What happened to that race was as Alex described. The cold weather wreaked havoc on the hotfoots and people who had no patience for the grind that is 500 miles, and in the end, it was Scott and Jr. His car just cornered better than Al's, but Al had the grunt on the straights....and it was just a shade slow. Walker made great adjustmetns all day and got Scott up there, but I remember him just slowly climbing up as the unwary and unlucky spun, crashed or slid to the back....
1992, was extremely cold on race day. Probably the coldest day I remember on race day for the 500.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChicagocrewIRL
Scott had taken over the car from his team-mate, and thus he started 33.
The race featured a ton of crashes including top drivers like Mears, Mario, Emerson, and the pole sitter Roberto Guerrero (on the pace lap!). I happened to be in turn two for most of the race, and that was where a lot of the crashes occurred (aling with turn four). Jeff Andretti's career was basically finished with his big shunt in turn two.
Michael Andretti was driving away from everyone, in fact the only person to pass Michael was Al Sr. who passed Michael on a restart, but was passed again a few lpas later. (Al might have been unlapping himself if memory serves).
After Michael dropped out, there were few top contenders left, and infact, if not for a botch past stop, Al Sr. might have won again in a back up role (he had replaced Nelson Piquet after his bad crash in practice).
That set up the dramatic finsish between Goodyear and Al Jr. All the yellows kept the cars bunched up.
The Galmer chassis did with at Long Beach with Danny Sullivan driving, after he bumped Al Jr. out og the way. I think the chassis was decent, but after Long Beach, Al and Danny did not speak to one another, which hampered development.
I'm meeting with Scott this week, to discuss his high's and lows at the speedway. One of the nicest guys in racing, up there with the Mears gang.
IIRC, The sponsor (McKenze?) came with Goodyear, so he got to take his team mates seat. Wally Dallenbach qualified a car for Mario one year when he had to race at Monaco during qualifying. Many forget Scott had a Porsche factory GT1 LeMans ride in 1996...
Another bit- The Galmer didn't have room in its nose for the transponder like the other cars so it was placed in the sidepode, so the official differential between the two cars doesn't jive when you figure it all out in seconds, feet, and inches.