Indianapolis 500's rookie winners still have much to learn

INDIANAPOLIS – Few people were as emotionally unprepared to win the 100th Indianapolis 500 as the one who did.

Few in the field had less of a grasp on the meaning of the event.

Of the magnitude.

Of the history, of what was to come, of how his life would change.

Of how to enjoy what may well stand as his greatest day in racing.

As a rookie, Alexander Rossi extracted everything he could from his himself, his car and certainly his final tank of fuel, but he didn’t get nearly as much out of the moment as he should have.

Rossi has begun to see that now. Indianapolis Motor Speedway veterans say that vision will only be become clearer with time and experience.

For a driver to win in his first try is a blessing, but the failure to fully realize that is the accompanying curse.

“Part of the reason the motivation to win it again is so much more is that there are things I would do differently after the race,” said Rossi, a 25-year-old Californian preparing for his second 500.

“Going in now, I have that desire that everyone else in this field had to win, something that you think about all year. You pull into the speedway, you get those special feelings. Last year I didn’t have that because I didn’t have the understanding of the race and the significance.

“For sure, there were some things lost on me that I don’t think would be if I was fortunate enough to win it again.”

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A year ago, Rossi became the 10th driver to win the Indianapolis 500 in the first time he competed.

Four drivers — led by two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso — will have the opportunity to become the 11th in the 101st running scheduled for Sunday.

Rookie winners were common in the earliest years of the 500, with Jules Goux in 1913 and Rene Thomas in ’14 quickly following Ray Harroun, who triumphed in the inaugural event in 1911.

Frank Lockhart won in his first attempt in 1926, a start he wasn’t supposed to make.

A board-track racer from Ohio, Lockhart practiced as a relief driver for Peter Kreis, went faster and then drove in the race when Kreis came down with the flu (that’s the official story, anyway). Lockhart passed his way from 20th to fifth in three laps, according to his Motorsports Hall of Fame biography, and led 95 laps in a race shortened from 200 to 160 because of rain.

When a broken connecting rod knocked Lockhart out of the ’27 race, the door was opened for a second consecutive rookie winner, George Sounders.

Louis Meyer earns an asterisk for ’28. He won that year in his first start but had previously raced in relief.  

One more freshman won before  World War II hiatus, Kelly Petillo, who led 95 of the final 100 laps of the 1935 race. While his racing fame came early, Petillo became infamous years later with arrests for assault, drunkenness, attempted rape and attempted murder and a 10-year prison sentence. Petillo skipped parole for more than a year before being captured on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1959.

Grand Prix champion Graham Hill failed to qualify in his first entry at Indianapolis in 1963 but came back three years later, qualified for the first time and won after teammate Jackie Stewart lost oil pressure with eight laps to go.

It would take 34 years and a strange set of circumstances before there would be another first-time starter in victory lane after the Indianapolis 500.

The formation of the Indy Racing League as an alternative to the prevailing CART series in 1996 sent factions of teams and drivers in separate directions until Chip Ganassi became the first big CART owner to come back in 2000.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the 24-year-old Colombian who had won the ’99 CART title for Ganassi, led 167 laps and coasted to a 7-second victory over Buddy Lazier.

The next season Team Penske returned, too, and Helio Castroneves led teammate Gil de Ferran across the line for a victory in his maiden race.

“When I came in it was in different times,” said Castroneves, who then won the 500 again in 2002 and ’09 as a regular in what has become the Verizon IndyCar Series.

“We were racing CART, didn’t have time to take advantage of the whole thing. It was very limited. We were finishing one practice, flying to another place, finish in another place and come back here. It was very hectic.

“The second year, since we stayed here, then I was able to understand how big this is. And still, I have the same feeling. It still brings a huge smile to my face.”

Montoya, who took side trips to Formula One and NASCAR before returning in ’14 and winning in ’15, clearly appreciated his second victory more than his first at the time.

But he also makes the case that his lack of an emotional connection to the race may have helped him win the 500 as a rookie

“I don’t care about traditions, I don’t care about the history of racing, I just want to go out there and race,” Montoya said. “That’s going to play into Fernando’s strength, as well.

“But if you take somebody like Josef (Newgarden), who grew up here and has been here a million times, come race day, ‘IT’S THE INDY500!’ For myself or Fernando or somebody like that, yeah, it’s a big deal but it’s not such a big deal.”

For every first-time winner, there’ve been plenty of drivers who narrowly missed in their first try, who needed numerous starts before reaching victory lane or who raced for years and never won the 500.

Marco Andretti's whose family has only his grandfather Mario’s 1969 victory to show for 61 collective starts. He led with only a few hundred yards to go in his first start in 2006 before being edged by Sam Hornish Jr.

“It’s a highlight, yeah, but this is a place where second place isn’t like any other place,” Andretti said. “Any other place you’re on the podium, you got good points, it’s a good weekend. This is a place where you’re a winner or not, right?

“That’s why you saw the disappointment. I got criticized for it. But I still feel the same way about it. Not being victorious since then kind of proves my point.”

Andretti’s former teammate Tony Kanaan lost five years to the CART-IndyCar rift and then needed 12 tries before winning.

“I’m not saying (drivers such as Rossi) don’t appreciate it,” Kanaan said, “but for me to have waited so long when I did it, it’s like when you’re a little kid and you want that toy and your parent says you’ve got to wait, you’ve got to wait until Christmas or wait until your birthday, and when you get it, it’s like, ‘Wwowwwww.’ ”

Kanaan’s win in 2013 was then-rookie Carlos Munoz’s first runner-up finish. Munoz placed second again last year as Rossi went an almost unimaginable 36 laps from his final pit stop to the checkered flag.

“Everyone forgets about who finishes second,” Munoz said.

“Everyone remembers who won the race. ... No one is going to remember how you won it, but for sure your face is going to be on the trophy.”

Because most of Rossi’s formative years were spent with Formula One as his ultimate goal, he hadn’t spent as much time thinking about Indy the way a third-generation driver such as Andretti or a native Hoosier such Ed Carpenter have.

Landing in IndyCar with Andretti Herta Autosport in 2016 was a fallback when Rossi’s career in Europe stalled after five starts with the back-of-the-grid Marussia team.

That contributed to his lack of understanding of Indy and his unpreparedness to appreciate the moment. Rossi appeared more awkward than elated to be on racing’s biggest stage.

“I’ve never won a race when you get out of the car and there’s a wall of photographers, of people in front of you,” Rossi said. “How do you deal with that?

“I’d know (now) that was coming, so it wouldn’t be such a shock. The happiness I truly was feeling probably would come out, because it wouldn’t be such an overload of senses and emotions in an instant.”

Alonso hopes to have such problems.

The 35-year-old Spaniard has won 32 Formula One races as well as the 2005 and ’06 titles and is comfortable enough in his place that he could give up racing in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday. Still, Alonso knows he has so much to learn if he is going to win Indy.

“And just even very normal things that for everyone else will be straightforward, for me, I don't know ... if we change something on the car, where to find (the controls) on the steering wheel and things like that," Alonso said after final practice Friday.

“So simple things that I am still running behind a little bit, but today I think we put all the ticks in all the boxes.”

Well, all but one.