Auto Racing Capsules: From wheelchair, Schmidt inspires others at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Sam Schmidt’s blue eyes never stop moving. They dart from one side to the other: checking out what’s going on over in that corner of the garage, keeping a lookout for those who might not see him coming, and always — always — searching for the next opportunity.

His body may be motionless below the shoulders.

But, oh, there’s so much going on behind those eyes.

"I don’t have time to get depressed. I don’t have time to think about what I can’t do," said Schmidt, parked in one of the few quiet spots in the bustling paddock at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "I just have to figure out how to do what I have to do."

Schmidt was a rising star in the IndyCar series when a devastating crash more than 11 years ago pulverized two vertebrae in his back and left him a quadriplegic. Some people might have folded. He went all-in — Schmidt lives in Las Vegas, after all — and turned those awful cards into a winning hand.

Yep, there’s plenty he can’t do anymore.

But, oh, there’s so much he can do.

Schmidt started a foundation that raises money for those trying to find a cure for catastrophic spinal injuries. He reached out to others in a similar predicament, spreading the word that life doesn’t have to end when the arms and legs stop working. Most important, he turned his passion for racing in a new direction, starting his own team.

"Sam’s brain is unbelievably active," said defending Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti. "You realize he’s a very, very smart guy. He loves racing, and he paid a huge price for that love."

Make no mistake, Schmidt would have preferred a nice, long career behind the wheel to life in a wheelchair.

"I’d be lying if I said I don’t have bad days," he said. "I remember like yesterday what it was like to go around this place at 220 mph. When a driver is talking to me and I can’t use my hands to describe what I would feel and how they should react, it frustrates the heck out of me. I do miss it.

"But," he added, "I guess this is kind of the second-best thing."

There was nothing second-best about Schmidt’s fledgling team during 500 qualifying. Alex Tagliani turned four laps around the historic speedway at more than 227 mph, putting the No. 77 machine on the pole for Sunday’s race. Schmidt, the guy goes only as fast as a chair will take him, choked up as he celebrated the stunning accomplishment with his Canadian driver.

Tagliani was moved as well. He’s racing for a higher purpose these days.

"I think he sees himself driving through me," the pole-sitter said. "Being able to contribute a bit to his joy means a lot to me. Now, I want it to happen every weekend. It flames a desire inside of me."

Schmidt was on top of the world as one millennium gave way to another. He had just witnessed the birth of his son. He was coming off his first career victory — at Las Vegas, no less — and a fifth-place finish in the 1999 season standings. He even had the look of a star, embracing the spirit of his adopted home by growing Elvis-style sideburns.

His life was headed up, up, up.

Then, just six days into the 2000s, it all came crashing down.

During a routine winter testing session at the Disney World speedway near Orlando, Fla., Schmidt’s car slammed into the wall and crushed his spine. He doesn’t remember that day or much of what happened for the next week, which he considers a blessing. When he awoke, everything below his neck seemed lifeless. He needed help from a machine to take his next breath.

"The original doctor in Orlando told my wife, ‘Just find him a nursing home. He’ll be on a ventilator the rest of his life,"’ Schmidt recalled.

Within six weeks, he was breathing on his own. Then he got started on a new life.

There was an aborted attempt to get into the Indy Racing League as a car owner. When the money dried up, he dropped down into the Indy Lights development series, building a powerful team that won championships year after year. Then, just before the start of this season, he learned that the financially ailing FAZZT team was up for sale.

"The best way to describe Sam is he’s an opportunist," said Townsend Bell, who will start fourth on Sunday in Schmidt’s other car, the one-off No. 99 entry. "He gets motivated by opportunity. There is something that someone else maybe didn’t see, but Sam sees it. It’s simply incredible when you think about what he’s accomplished."

Schmidt scoots around the garage like he owns the place, controlling his wheelchair with subtle taps to his headrest. He moves through the crowds with amazing precision — veering to his left, darting to his right, stopping suddenly when someone walks out in front of him. He wears a Bluetooth in his ear to answer his cell phone. He uses a special system to monitor the Internet and his emails.

"The physical side is what’s really amazing," Bell said. "He’s so self-sufficient going around the track, cruising around, answering his phone. When I’m not around him physically but we correspond by phone or email, I don’t even remember (he’s paralyzed). He’s typing away in an email and then you realize, ‘Oh yeah, he can’t actually type."’

Back in January, the two of them met in San Francisco to discuss a business deal. All Schmidt asked was for Bell to rent a van and pick him up at the airport. Unfortunately, the vehicle had a low-hanging center console that forced Schmidt to tilt his head awkwardly to one side for the entire, hour-long drive — which ended up being even longer when Bell missed an exit.

"I said, ‘Sam, this is ridiculous. Let’s go back and try to get another van,"’ Bell recalled. "He’s like, ‘No, no, I’m fine.’ His head was jammed up into the ceiling, but he said, ‘I do it all the time.’ ... He was on the phone the whole time, just chatting away."

Schmidt stays as busy as possible so he doesn’t have time to fret over what he can’t do. He’s up at 6 a.m. every morning. He’s go, go, go until he finally dozes off sometime around midnight. Then he gets up and does it all over again.

"The days lead into weeks and then months, and the years flip over faster than I can imagine," Schmidt said. "I can’t imagine it’s been 11 1/2 years. That just seems remarkable to me."

He’s encouraged by all the progress that been made in spinal research the last few years, but increasingly impatient that more hasn’t been done. He keeps the pressure on his foundation, more convinced than ever that it’s just a matter of time before a cure is found — if enough money is raised to do the necessary research.

Schmidt hasn’t given up on the ultimate triumph.

"I work out every day," he said, his eyes turning steely and focused, "with the thought that I will get out of this chair."

IndyCar’s evolution includes NASCAR-like feel

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Controversial new rules. Grumpy drivers. Back-room deals. Twitter feuds. Upstart outfits trying to make a name for themselves.

Is this IndyCar or NASCAR?

The lead-up to Sunday’s 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 has taken a page from NASCAR’s unique mix of soap opera and speed. When team owner Michael Andretti isn’t taking heat for buying Ryan Hunter-Reay’s way into the race, his son Marco is being attacked for taking to twitter to defend the old man.

Simona De Silvestro — arguably the best female driver in the series — is making fans say "Danica who?" for her cheek-biting toughness as she tries to drive with two badly burned hands. Unlikely pole-sitter Alex Tagliani is breathing much-needed life into a sometimes staid garage with his blunt and heavily French-accented honesty.

And then there’s double-file restarts, implemented this spring a year after it was introduced by its stock car brethren, the latest step in what some purists consider the "NASCAR-ification" of open-wheel racing.

The move was designed to create added drama as the 33-car field thunders down the front stretch to take the green flag. Whether it works on an oval remains to be seen, though the across-the-board blowback from the normally laid-back drivers has been considerable.

Tagliani calls it "a terrible idea." Former 500 winner Dan Wheldon thinks it could lead to the race "being remembered for all the wrong reasons." Defending race and series champion Dario Franchitti believes it’ll turn the 500 into a "lottery."

Team owner Chip Ganassi understands the concerns. His advice? Get over it.

"I go back to when you watch an NFL game and then you watch a college football game, it’s the same game; they play by pretty much the same rules," said Ganassi, a three-time 500 winner as an owner. "To a certain degree I think we need to appeal to all auto-racing fans. When you’re trying to appeal to all auto-racing fans it has got to look the same so they know what they’re looking at."

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard defended the move, arguing several high-profile owners came to him with the idea, not the other way around.

"I’m talking to team owners and drivers who have won out there on that track many times, and they always say ‘We race to the rules and what they told us to race to,"’ said Bernard, who recently completed his first year on the job. "The team owners wanted this, and some of the biggest racers ever, four-time Indy 500 winners, have told me that it’s a good change."

Bernard disputes the series is turning into NASCAR-lite. There are no plans to amend the points policy the way NASCAR did in the offseason. The same goes for going to a "championship Chase" format.

Ganassi, who also runs a two-car NASCAR Sprint Cup operation, isn’t against any idea that could help make IndyCar relevant year-round, no matter where the idea comes from.

"The good thing about NASCAR is they’re not afraid to tweak and refine and really get to the core answer, it’s something the fans want to see," said Ganassi. "We can’t do it overnight, but it’s something we need to work on."

Bernard is concerned with viewership, but he’s more concerned about putting a compelling product on the track 17 times a year. Double-file restarts are part of a larger plan to develop a more level playing field in a series dominated by deep-pocketed teams such as Ganassi’s.

Not everyone is convinced it will work, at least not on the sport’s biggest day. There’s only room for one groove on the narrow 2.5-mile oval. If a driver ends up on the outside during a restart, avoiding the debris that marks the treacherous high line will be difficult.

"Our cars have wheels open, and they have wings," Tagliani said. "NASCAR, they start and somebody has a bad start, he bumps, he pushes somebody in front, nothing happens. There’s two grooves, they go side-by-side and everything’s cool."

The design of the IndyCars makes bumping to find room at 220 mph an undesirable option, though the drivers acknowledge they’re powerless at this point.

"I just drive the car," said Paul Tracy. "I’m the monkey that they put in there."

Still, he’s one of several drivers hoping to borrow a page from NASCAR’s signature event, the Daytona 500.

"The Great American Race" provided NASCAR with an unexpected jolt when longtime owners the Wood Brothers, a former power team relegated to part-time status in recent years, won their first race in a decade.

Tracy is among a handful of occasional IndyCar drivers and teams trying to do the same at the Brickyard. Wheldon and Townsend Bell also find themselves on the starting grid with a legitimate opportunity to break the stranglehold Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske have had on the sport for the better part of a decade.

"I really do think you can see an upset this year," said Wheldon, who won the 500 in 2005 and will start sixth on Sunday for owner Bryan Herta.

The drivers, even those from Ganassi and Penske, allow that having a fresh face to break up the traditional storylines isn’t a bad thing. And although the talk about parity and restarts won’t die down soon, 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon has a theory of what the race will look like if there’s a restart with 10 laps to go.

"All hell’s gonna break loose," Dixon said.

Yep, sounds like NASCAR.

-- Will Graves

Notebook: De Silvestro sore but ready to go for Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Simona De Silvestro’s carefully bandaged hands held up fine during the final practice for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

That doesn’t mean they didn’t hurt.

"It’s pretty painful, especially when you’re behind people and rocks start hitting your hands," said De Silvestro, who posted a fast lap of 222.735 mph during the hour-long session Friday.

The 22-year-old De Silvestro became one of May’s biggest stories following a frightening crash during practice on May 19. Her No. 78 car went airborne while coming out of turn 3 and cartwheeled down the track, catching on fire after finally coming to a stop upside down.

De Silvestro sustained second and third-degree burns but managed to qualify 23rd two days later. Her gritty performance has made her a fan favorite. Shortly after making her way off the track, she gamely signed autographs for folks lined three-deep outside her garage.

She has been undergoing treatment at Indiana University’s Methodist Hospital and credited the staff for "doing everything they can to make it comfortable."

Well, as comfortable as gripping a constantly vibrating steering wheel at breakneck speeds can be.

"It feels good, the car feels good and that gives you a lot of confidence for sure," De Silvestro said.

To be honest, she’s anxious to get out on the track so she can stop talking about her hands. She finished a respectable 14th in her first Indy 500 a year ago and has been turning heads this season by starting the year off with consecutive top 10-finishes.

Barring a setback, she doesn’t see any reason why she won’t be behind the wheel on Sunday. Even if that doesn’t happen, she’s earned the respect of her fellow drivers.

"What Simona’s done has been impressive," said 2005 Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon. Paul Tracy called her "super brave."

She’s hoping on Sunday they will call her "winner."

"There’s only one Indy 500," she said. "I’m going to be out there for sure."

HUNTER-REAY’S ‘WEIRD’ DAY: Ryan Hunter-Reay just laughed when asked if it felt "weird" driving the No. 41 car during practice on Friday.

"Weird is an understatement dude," Hunter-Reay said, shaking his head.

Not that anything seemed amiss when he slipped behind the wheel of his new ride. Hunter-Reay posted the seventh-fastest time during practice on Friday with a fast lap of 223.930 mph, a solid performance considering he sat in the car for the first time shortly before the engines fired.

Hunter-Reay found himself at the center of a firestorm earlier this week when Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti made a deal with A.J. Foyt to have Hunter-Reay replace Bruno Junqueira in the 41 when Hunter-Reay failed to make the field with his No. 28 car. Junqueira qualified 19th before the decision was made.

The move is not unprecedented, but Hunter-Reay allowed he wasn’t exactly pleased with the ensuring dustup, saying "this isn’t the way I wanted to get in the race."

Yet he knows it’s a move that saved the jobs of several crew members at Andretti Autosport, and he looked right at home in the cockpit of his new ride even if the number on the wing wasn’t the one he’s used to seeing. He credited the hybrid crew of Andretti and Foyt workers for helping him make a seamless transition.

"Both teams did an excellent job preparing the car, especially the Foyt guys," Hunter-Reay said. "That’s the fastest we’ve been all month. Right now we’re pretty happy with the car."

Still, it wasn’t an ideal situation. Shortly after practice Hunter-Reay huddled with Andretti crew members while Foyt’s team worked on the 41 in another garage 300 feet away.

"We all wish Bruno were here, but the guys around me are pros and we’ll get on with the job," Hunter-Reay said.

PIT BOSS: Ryan Briscoe didn’t have the fastest car during qualifying. He’ll take some solace in having the fastest pit crew for Sunday’s race.

Briscoe’s team outdueled Dario Franchitti’s team to win the Pit Stop Challenge on Friday, one of the highlights of Carb Day.

"These pit stops are going to help us get to the front," said Briscoe, who will start 26th on Sunday. "It’s so important every single race, and this race more than any other because we’ll be having six, seven, eight, maybe nine pit stops and it can make a big difference."

The team picked up a check for $50,000 for its efforts and regained a bit of confidence lost during an unusually slow qualifying effort. Not that it will matter on Sunday when the green flag drops.

"This is a place where you have to put that behind us," said Penske Racing president Tim Cindric. "Come Monday there won’t be a lot of talk about where everybody started; it’s going to have a lot to do with how you executed on race day."

HOT START EXPECTED: The cool, somewhat gloomy conditions at the track for Carb Day will make way for plenty of sun this weekend.

The temperature when the green flag flies shortly after noon is expected to be in the 80s, with the thermometer likely hitting 90 during the afternoon. The conditions will make the track slick and handle very differently than the benign conditions on Friday.

"It’s going to be strange and hard a little bit because we haven’t really run in that type of weather this month," said Helio Castroneves. "But it’s not like it’s the first time we’ll run in the hot weather. We’ll do what we can."

-- Will Graves

Newgarden wins crash-marred Freedom 100

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Josef Newgarden won the accident-filled Indy Lights Freedom 100 on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden, from Hendersonville, Tenn., took the checkered flag under caution following a crash-marred race that ended with two drivers being taken to a local hospital for evaluation. Esteban Guerrieri was second, with Victor Garcia third.

Jorge Goncalvez lost control of his No. 4 car between turns 1 and 2 with three laps remaining and smacked into the interior wall before sliding down the track upside down. He tossed the steering wheel before rescue crews arrived and was awake and alert before being transported to IU Methodist Hospital.

Gustavo Yacaman also was taken to IU Methodist with neck pain after wrecking halfway through the 40-lap event. Nearly half of the 18-car field failed to finish.

NASCAR

Step down moves Sadler to the top of the standings

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Elliott Sadler will be on standby for Paul Menard on Sunday, just in case the 20 stitches closing a cut in his foot prevent him from completing the Coca-Cola 600.

It’s the closest Sadler will be to a Sprint Cup race so far this season.

After a dozen years racing in NASCAR’s elite division, Sadler had to take a step back to get his career on track. He’s now one level down, in the Nationwide Series, driving on Saturdays for Kevin Harvick Inc.

Make no mistake, Sadler is hardly slumming.

He’s running up front again, contending for wins for the first time in years, and goes into Saturday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway leading the Nationwide standings.

"The biggest adjustment he’s had to make is just to get comfortable racing in the top five every week," Harvick said. "That’s just something he hasn’t got to do over the last several years. Winning races, you don’t necessarily forget how to do that, but you forget how many small things come with that to be able to compete on a week-to-week basis."

Sadler had his share of good days at the top level, beginning with his 2001 victory at Bristol driving for the Wood Brothers. It led him to a ride at Robert Yates Racing and a breakthrough season in 2004, when he won two races, earned a spot in the inaugural Chase for the championship and finished a career-best ninth in points.

Sponsorship issues eventually made the situation at Yates shaky, and Sadler bolted in the middle of the 2006 season for Evernham Motorsports. That’s where things went bad. Evernham sold majority interest in the team to George Gillett, and a merger eventually morphed Gillett-Evernham Motorsports into Richard Petty Racing.

All those business deals made Sadler the odd man out, and he once had to threaten to sue to stay in the car when the team tried to dump him.

Sadler kept his ride, but layoffs and money woes took its toll and the team was not competitive. Sadler’s performance suffered — he had only 16 top-10 finishes over the last three years — and nobody at his organization wanted to hear about his problems.

"I see all you guys in here with your cool computers and you probably have the latest and greatest technology," Sadler told reporters. "Say I give you a story right now to break, it’ll be the biggest story ever and I give one of you guys a computer and I give one of you guys a hammer, a chisel and a stone. I want you to write the story before the other guy finishes it. If not, I don’t want to hear no excuses, you should be able to do that.

"That’d kind of be the same thing I went through."

RPM was restructured and scaled down to a two-car organization this season, and Sadler was sent on his way. But he refused to sign with an underfunded race team, and had no interest in being a start-and-park driver.

In looking for the most competitive ride, he found Harvick, who offered him a chance to get in stellar equipment again. After a rocky opening three weeks, Sadler has scored seven top-5 finishes in the last nine races.

"They’ve got the top-five stuff down ... the next step is to take it to the next level and start winning some races," Harvick said. "It’s been a great process to see it evolve, and I’m very happy with what the team has done and with what Elliott has done."

Under a new rule that only allows drivers to race for one championship, Sadler doesn’t have to worry about Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski in his push for his first NASCAR championship.

Sadler said he feels no pressure to win the title.

"This is fun for me. I show up every week with a chance to run up front, get a top-five, lead laps and sit on poles," he said. "This is not pressure. This is what we’re supposed to do. Pressure is showing up with a knife at a gunfight for three years. That’s pressure. This is fun.

"I have learned this sport is a whole lot more fun when you have a team around you and a supporting cast around you that believes in you and wants to do well week in and week out."

But Sadler does miss the Sprint Cup Series. Only he refuses to take any old ride just to be racing on Sundays. It probably won’t be with KHI, since Harvick has said repeatedly he has no plans to take his team up to the top level.

Harvick can, however, help Sadler prove he can still drive in the Cup Series.

"If my career ended as a Nationwide driver, would I be happy? Heck no," Sadler said. "My goal is to one day made it back to Sprint Cup, because I feel like I can drive circles around half the guys over there, if I was in their equipment or in the same situation they were in.

"My goal is to win a championship this year in the Nationwide Series, maybe next year, and if something good comes along, go back."

-- Jenna Fryer

Formula One

Ferrari's fading F1 hopes need a boost in Monaco

MONACO (AP) — Ferrari's fading Formula One season needs a boost at the Monaco Grand Prix, and Fernando Alonso's encouraging form in practice has raised hopes he can beat Sebastian Vettel on Sunday.