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Off-Season Thoughts: A very Sharp blow

At the time of my first exposure to the Indy Racing League, I was 14 years old and living in St. Louis, Mo. Up to that point, I had been a NASCAR fan for several years and for all of them, I was a Dale Earnhardt guy. I didn’t take it very well when he died, but I ended up still being a fan of the sport. Still, there was something missing.

Eventually, I found it in an infomercial.

The IRL was coming to Gateway International Raceway for the first time that summer and apparently, they had fed the local TV stations a 30-minute spot to hype up the race. The centerpiece of the ad was a montage of races from the 2000 season and at the end of it was Scott Sharp’s dramatic win over Robby McGehee at Texas Motor Speedway in June.

My jaw dropped at the margin of victory for that race: .059 seconds. Now, I had also been watching CART for some time and as much as I liked Alex Zanardi, I just didn’t see wins decided by that little of a margin over there. I wasn’t able to get my parents to take me to the inaugural Gateway Indy 250, but I decided to keep an eye on this upstart league.

And the rest is history. From there, I’ve watched the league evolve, devolve, take steps forward and take steps backward for seven years. I smile when I see progress and I shake my head when they mess up.

I’ve been shaking my head a lot lately. The departure of three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. to NASCAR was a bit sad, but expected. Dario Franchitti’s jump to the stock car series, however, was not and when Scott Dixon’s fuel tank ran dry on the final lap of the season at Chicago, I couldn’t help but feel my heart sink as Franchitti took both the Indy 500 and series titles south.

Scott Sharp’s jump to the American Le Mans Series was probably going to come in due time. He is after all 39 years old and open-wheel racing isn’t always kind to the over-40 set. But by taking his sponsor, Patron Tequila, with him to the ALMS, he deals the IRL another big blow. Somewhere along the line, something happened that soured the liquor company’s relationship with either the Indy Racing League, Rahal Letterman Racing, or both. Why else would Sharp and Patron sue RLR to get out of their contracts — and cite lack of competitiveness from RLR as a reason to do so? That can’t be the only reason why.

I’ve been scouring everything from news sites to message boards for a possible explanation, but so far no official source — Sharp, Patron, RLR or the IRL — has stepped forward with one. We can be pontificating about this for either another day or for several months before somebody speaks. But we do know that this cannot be good for sponsors looking into the IndyCar Series for exposure, especially since Patron appeared more than happy to be a partner with the circuit throughout 2007.

Personally, it will be very strange not to see Sharp and his No. 8 machine back in the IRL. He’s the last man standing from the series’ inception in 1996 and was one of the league’s first champions as he shared the ‘96-97 crown with Buzz Calkins. He served as a proud and willing ambassador for the league, both in its fledgling days and in its rise to being America’s top open-wheel series. In a league that has ebbed and flowed since its birth, Sharp was a rare constant. And while some fans and drivers have marked him as a repeat offender in terms of blocking, there are many more that consider him a favorite.

One of my favorite moments in recent years was his victory at Kentucky in 2005 that shattered a 40-race winless streak and several years of bad memories with the dying Kelley Racing team. His face said it all: Joy. Relief. Happiness. Vindication. It had been a brutal period for Sharp on the racetrack and to pull off that upset victory with the Fernandez Racing team (which ended up going under themselves one year later) was proof positive that he still had it. He said:

“Sure, there are dark times; sure, there are people doubting you. Sure, you doubt yourself when you have people telling you that you can’t drive the car anymore. I just feel when I get in the car I try to go 100 percent. But this makes up for a lot. I can’t thank everyone enough.”

I think I’ll remember that day as long as I recall that commercial when he and McGehee introduced the IRL into my world. If you look in the link, you’ll see a photo of him wrapped in the American flag. To me, it’s an encapsulation of all the IRL’s hopes and dreams. On some days, they have seemed so close to reality. On others, they have seemed so far from fruition.

But thanks to him, I’m in this crazy world. And seven years later, I still enjoy being in it.

Thank you, Scott.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.