Bruce Martin
Special to FOXSports.com
INDIANAPOLIS — What makes the “Month of May” at the Indianapolis 500 so unique is the format just to make the race.
As Rick Mears loved to say, the Indianapolis 500 is actually two races.
There is Race Day on Memorial Day Sunday as 350,000 fans jam the world’s largest sporting stadium for the largest, single-day sporting event in the world.
But the first race is for the Indy 500 pole, as drivers go on a nerve-wracking, danger-risking, thrill ride just to make the starting lineup over a 10-mile, four-lap run around the 2.5-mile oval.
Unlike most races where the fastest lap constitutes the qualification speed, for the Indianapolis 500 it’s a four-lap average. That requires equal amounts of skill, precision, strategy and bravery.
For the driver that has the fastest four-lap average and wins the Indianapolis 500 pole, it’s bigger than winning most races on the regular season schedule. And for the next week leading into the buildup for the race, they are known as the “Fastest Driver at the Indianapolis 500.”
That’s quite an honor for any race driver and nobody held it more often than the great Rick Mears.
The third driver in Indianapolis 500 history to win the race four times, holds the record for most Indy 500 poles with six. That earned the Team Penske driver from Bakersfield, California the nickname, “Rocket.”
He could have also earned the moniker, “The Van Man.”
During Mears career, the series sponsor at the time, PPG, gave the Indy 500 Pole Winner a customized van.
“I think I ended up with four of them,” Mears told FOX Sports. “I gave one to my brother and they’ve moved around from time to time, different places, different people.”
Of all the great drivers that have competed in the Indianapolis 500, Mears is the only one that has the record for most wins — an honor he shares with AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Helio Castroneves — and most poles with six.
There is a driver at the Indianapolis 500 this weekend that could tie Mears at the top of the pole list. Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing has five poles entering Saturday’s Indianapolis 500 Qualifications.
If Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Honda is fast enough on Saturday to advance into Sunday’s Fast 12, then he gets a chance to race his way into the Fast Six that will determine the pole for the 109th Indianapolis 500.
“People will look back on Scott Dixon someday like they look back on Rick Mears,” Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull told FOX Sports. “Rick did it in such an easy manner, the expectation was he was going to get it done.
“I was lucky enough to be around some of that to watch it and it was a pleasure to see what he did.”
When Mears won his first Indy 500 pole in 1979, his four-lap average was 193.736 miles per hour. He went on to win the first of his four Indy 500 wins.
Mears would also win the pole in 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, and 1991.
When Mears won his final Indy 500 Pole in 1991, his pole winning speed as 224.113 mph for four laps.
Ironically, that wasn’t the fastest qualifying speed in the race. That went to second-day qualifier Gary Bettenhausen, whose four-lap average of 224.468 mph was faster than Mears, but the rules back then awarded the pole to the fastest driver on the first day of qualifications.
A lot has changed since Mears retired at the conclusion of the 1992 CART INDYCAR season.
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Today’s qualification format for the Indy 500 is a two-day process where each driver gets multiple attempts and do-overs to improve their chances to advance into Sunday’s round when the pole is decided.
But the skill and approach that Mears used to become the “Pole Master” in his career is very similar to what makes Dixon so great in his generation.
“I think Scott is really, really good when he understands, when he makes that call, that the people that work on his race car here will have it right for him,” Hull said. “I think that is a big thing.
“When Rick Mears rolled the car for Roger Penske, he had a lot of confidence in the people that were telling him that the car was capable of what he was capable of it. It’s an equal thing.
“Let’s face it ,Roger Penske has a lot of gravity in lots of ways but one of them is he puts a massive amount of trust in his driver and in an equal manner so does Chip Ganassi who owns this team he puts all the faith in the driver to drive what the team gives him.
“The disappointment only comes if either side of that equation misses.”
Hull calls race strategy on Dixon’s timing stand and has experienced tremendous success with the driver including six INDYCAR Series championships and a win in the 2008 Indianapolis 500.
Just as Mears looked at the Indy 500 as two races starting with the run for the pole, that’s the same approach for Dixon.
There is tremendous pressure on trying to drive an Indy car as fast as possible, while conserving the tires to have proper grip for all four laps.
Plus, with long days of practice in the week heading into qualifying, the preparation is intense.
“It’s a lot more going into the pole for the 500,” Dixon told FOX Sports. “Obviously, there is the race, but the trickle-down effect for just car speed in general for the race itself is big.
“It’s just all the small details.
“Gone are the days where it’s four, five, 10 big things. Now it’s just hundreds of small details that kind of get you fighting over hundreds of a mile an hour.
“I think as far as a group, the amount of effort that goes into Indy 500 qualifying is insane.”
For Mears, he thrived on the insanity of Indy 500 qualifications. He was the calmest driver on pit lane and approached his ability to go fast like a master surgeon.
“The precision that it takes, the no mistakes and the consistency to get the four laps in, I rate it pretty high in my own rating,” Mears admitted to FOX Sports. “For the race, it’s the safest place to start in that respect. You figure if you can start on the front row, especially the pole, but even the front row, if anything happens, more than likely, you’re not going to be involved in it unless you caused it.
“That’s really one of the stats that I’m really most proud of.”
In his career, Mears was known for his coolness. Dixon displays the same personality as Mears and has earned the nickname, “The Iceman” for his coolness under fires.
At 72, Mears remains a part of Team Penske as a mentor and key advisor to the race team. At 44, Dixon has plenty of speed left in him and has earned his place as one of the all-time greats in IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500.
Two great champions who share tremendous mutual respect and admiration.
“Scott does a great job around here qualifying, and I wouldn’t put it past him to get six poles and tie my record,” Mears said. “He looks like he’s got a good shot this month.
“But it’s like the race, you never know until the checkered flag falls, so you just got to wait and see.
“He’s one of the best we’ve had in the business, whether it’s qualifying or racing or whatever. Across the board, the championships he’s won and obviously the way he can work his way through a race and fuel mileage.
“He’s a ‘racer,’ period. He’s ranked right at the top, as one of the best.”
Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsports writer and contributor to FOXSports.com. Follow him on X at @BruceMartin_500.
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