Kenny Brack

Doors flew open, bumpers tore loose, and cars spun wildly and zipped around a Home Depot Center course that resembled some bizarre outdoor pinball machine during the X Games' marquee event on its final day Sunday. But the rally car racing super final was not all that super. That's because the actual final -- after the highly entertaining but not always competitive early rounds -- pitting defending champion Travis Pastrana and former Indianapolis 500 champion Kenny Brack ended in a sputter.

Doors flew open, bumpers tore loose, and cars spun wildly and zipped around a Home Depot Center course that resembled some bizarre outdoor pinball machine during the X Games' marquee event on its final day Sunday. But the rally car racing super final was not all that super. That's because the actual final -- after the highly entertaining but not always competitive early rounds -- pitting defending champion Travis Pastrana and former Indianapolis 500 champion Kenny Brack ended in a sputter.

Regarding Mr. Kowalchuk's commentary on A.J. Foyt's driver, Kenny Brack, winning the Indy 500 [Viewpoint, June 5], I offer these thoughts: Presumably the superior drivers and technology he refers to reside in CART. The 27 entrants in the CART race at St. Louis included only 12 drivers who have competed at Indy and only one former winner, who did not qualify for the race the last time he was there. The 1998 CART champion was busy May 30 in Barcelona, finishing 20th in a field of 22 Formula One cars.

Last Monday evening, Kenny Brack was home in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, planning for the next gig with his rock band, Kenny Brack and the Subwoofers, when the phone rang. It was Bobby Rahal calling. "How about coming to Indy and driving Buddy Rice's car for us in the 500?" the co-owner of Rahal Letterman Racing said. Brack put down his guitar and started packing. It had been nearly two years since a horrifying crash had nearly taken his life.

After one of the most frightening accidents in Indy car history left Kenny Brack with multiple injuries Sunday, the Swedish driver was in serious but stable condition Monday as he recuperated from surgery in a Dallas hospital. "It was great to see how Kenny was in such good condition after the surgery," said Bobby Rahal, owner of Brack's car. "He came through with flying colors. The doctors are very optimistic."

Kenny Brack used a pit stop under a yellow flag Sunday to win the Mexico Grand Prix, getting his first victory of the year in the final race of the Championship Auto Racing Teams season. Series champion Cristiano da Matta finished second while pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira recovered from a bad start to finish third. The victory put Brack in seventh place in the point standings. Junqueira, Brack's Chip Ganassi teammate, earned $500,000 for finishing second in the CART series.

Rick Galles' crew earned $40,000 for beating Eddie Cheever's team in the Coors Indy Pit Stop Challenge. With Kenny Brack in the driver's seat, the Galles crew changed four tires and simulated a fuel-hose connection in 14.284 seconds. Cheever's group, with Eddie himself in the cockpit, took 15.133 seconds. The runners-up won $10,000. It was Galles' second consecutive victory and the Albuquerque, N.M., team's fifth in the past nine years.

Last Monday evening, Kenny Brack was home in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, planning for the next gig with his rock band, Kenny Brack and the Subwoofers, when the phone rang. It was Bobby Rahal calling. "How about coming to Indy and driving Buddy Rice's car for us in the 500?" the co-owner of Rahal Letterman Racing said. Brack put down his guitar and started packing. It had been nearly two years since a horrifying crash had nearly taken his life.

Kenny Brack returned the favor for Buddy Rice when the 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner was named Wednesday to replace last year's winner in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Panoz-Honda for next week's race. A year ago it was Rice winning the 500 as a sub for Brack, who had suffered multiple injuries in an accident at Texas Motor Speedway at the end of the 2003 season. Brack has not raced in an Indy car since, but after five laps was up to 220 mph and had a 225.774 before he called it a day.

One of the most tantalizing races in modern Indianapolis 500 history turned on a splash of fuel Sunday. Robby Gordon needed it. Kenny Brack didn't. With one lap remaining and Gordon apparently headed for the checkered flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the off-road racing veteran from Orange, Calif., abruptly turned down pit row for enough methanol to go the final 2 1/2 miles. Brack, a soft-spoken Swedish driver recruited by A.J.

Kenny Brack returned the favor for Buddy Rice when the 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner was named Wednesday to replace last year's winner in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Panoz-Honda for next week's race. A year ago it was Rice winning the 500 as a sub for Brack, who had suffered multiple injuries in an accident at Texas Motor Speedway at the end of the 2003 season. Brack has not raced in an Indy car since, but after five laps was up to 220 mph and had a 225.774 before he called it a day.

On a cold and damp Indiana day with changing winds and slippery footing that defied qualifying calculations, substitute driver Buddy Rice and the Rahal-Letterman Racing crew picked up speed Saturday where others lost it, enough to win the pole for the 88th Indianapolis 500. Driving as a replacement for the injured Kenny Brack, Rice averaged 222.024 mph for four laps in the Argent-Pioneer Honda-powered G Force, nearly 2 mph faster than he had run in practice.

After one of the most frightening accidents in Indy car history left Kenny Brack with multiple injuries Sunday, the Swedish driver was in serious but stable condition Monday as he recuperated from surgery in a Dallas hospital. "It was great to see how Kenny was in such good condition after the surgery," said Bobby Rahal, owner of Brack's car. "He came through with flying colors. The doctors are very optimistic."

Kenny Brack used a pit stop under a yellow flag Sunday to win the Mexico Grand Prix, getting his first victory of the year in the final race of the Championship Auto Racing Teams season. Series champion Cristiano da Matta finished second while pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira recovered from a bad start to finish third. The victory put Brack in seventh place in the point standings. Junqueira, Brack's Chip Ganassi teammate, earned $500,000 for finishing second in the CART series.

It doesn't make much sense, but Kenny Brack is CART's champ car rookie of the year. How can that be? Brack, 34, is an Indianapolis 500 winner, a former Indy Racing League champion and a veteran of three years in the European Formula 3000 series. In motor racing, however, a driver new to a series is a rookie. Nigel Mansell was CART rookie of the year in 1993 when the British veteran was the reigning world Formula One champion. He also became the first to win the CART title as a "rookie."

It has been three years since Kenny Brack drove on any circuit other than an oval. During that period he won the 1998 Indy Racing League championship and the 1999 Indianapolis 500. Not bad for a driver from Sweden who grew up in road racing and street racing, turning right as well as left. This week, in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, he will return to his roots. "I'm very excited about racing at Long Beach," Brack said of Sunday's CART FedEx championship race.

It doesn't make much sense, but Kenny Brack is CART's champ car rookie of the year. How can that be? Brack, 34, is an Indianapolis 500 winner, a former Indy Racing League champion and a veteran of three years in the European Formula 3000 series. In motor racing, however, a driver new to a series is a rookie. Nigel Mansell was CART rookie of the year in 1993 when the British veteran was the reigning world Formula One champion. He also became the first to win the CART title as a "rookie."

After Sweden's Kenny Brack clinched the Pep Boys Indy Racing League championship almost by default Sunday, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk put on a brilliant display of high-speed racing for an estimated 30,000 fans to win the Las Vegas 500K at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Brack, who entered the year's final race with only two challengers, Davey Hamilton and Tony Stewart, had a bad day himself, but not as bad as Hamilton, who crashed, or Stewart, who finished 30 laps behind Luyendyk.

Regarding Mr. Kowalchuk's commentary on A.J. Foyt's driver, Kenny Brack, winning the Indy 500 [Viewpoint, June 5], I offer these thoughts: Presumably the superior drivers and technology he refers to reside in CART. The 27 entrants in the CART race at St. Louis included only 12 drivers who have competed at Indy and only one former winner, who did not qualify for the race the last time he was there. The 1998 CART champion was busy May 30 in Barcelona, finishing 20th in a field of 22 Formula One cars.

One of the most tantalizing races in modern Indianapolis 500 history turned on a splash of fuel Sunday. Robby Gordon needed it. Kenny Brack didn't. With one lap remaining and Gordon apparently headed for the checkered flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the off-road racing veteran from Orange, Calif., abruptly turned down pit row for enough methanol to go the final 2 1/2 miles. Brack, a soft-spoken Swedish driver recruited by A.J.