Robby Gordon's remarks about Danica Patrick's 100-pound weight giving her an advantage in the Indianapolis 500 over heavier drivers would carry more weight if he were speaking of a road or street race, rather than a big oval.
So says Phil Casey, senior technical director of the Indy Racing League, under whose rules the 500 is conducted.
"That's the way it's always been at Indianapolis, back to when USAC [the United States Auto Club] set the rules," said Casey, a former Indy car builder and chief mechanic before joining the IRL.
"At Indy, with the throttle wide open most of the time, a car retains maximum velocity, so weight would make only an insignificant difference. Things are different in Formula One, or a street course like Long Beach, where a lot of quick starts and stops put more demand on the fuel consumption."
Gordon was quoted before the race as saying that Patrick's size gave her such an advantage that he would refuse to race against her. After criticism of his comments hit the newsstands and airwaves, the volatile driver from Orange tried to smooth the waters.
"The only thing I was saying was that I have a problem with the rule, not any particular driver," he told Associated Press. "I've been impressed with Danica from the first time she got in an IRL car earlier this year, and I certainly did not mean to disrespect her or any other driver."
Patrick, weighing 100 pounds, finished fourth. Dan Wheldon, a 157-pound Englishman, won and collected $1.57 million.
The weight issue is not new at Indy. A few years ago, two-time champion Arie Luyendyk, 5-11 and about 175 pounds, complained about 120-pound Jimmy Kite, and Gordon said that he and Paul Tracy had discussed the problem with IRL officials.
In other series, such as Formula One, Champ Car and the National Hot Rod Assn. drag races, the car's minimum weight includes the driver. NASCAR, with its 3,400-pound Nextel Cup and Busch series cars and Craftsman trucks, does not put its drivers on the scales.
Champ Car weighs its drivers before the season and uses a formula to equalize the weight factor for each race, most of which are on road or street courses.
Lighter drivers make up the difference by putting ballast in their cars.
"Ballast can become a safety issue," Casey said. "Where do you put it where it might not fly around in an accident? For instance, you would need about 60 pounds in Danica's car, and that's a lot of loose weight. She had the same chassis and engine as Kenny Brack and was on the same team, and he ran quicker than she did [in qualifying], so I don't see the problem."
