Friday favourite: When Indy set up a comeback more satisfying than victory

“I never felt I won anything before I had actually won it, except one time,” says 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack, “and that was when I made the comeback to Indy in 2005.”

Brack had broken both ankles, a leg, his sternum and back in the 2003 Indy Racing League crash at Texas that appeared to have ended his career. But when his replacement at Rahal Letterman Racing, the 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice, suffered a concussion and a partially torn spinal ligament in his neck in a practice crash ahead of the 2005 race, it was Brack who made a heroic return.

‘Brack sets stunning pace on Indy return’ declared Autosport as the Swede marked his return to the cockpit on Bump Day by setting the fastest qualifying speeds of the entire field, at an average of 227.598 mph. Poleman Tony Kanaan – his place already locked in as Brack lined up 23rd – was at pains to point out that the more favourable conditions Brack had enjoyed were worth an additional 2mph. But it’s little wonder on that day at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway that Brack felt on top of the world. It scarcely mattered that come race day he retired on lap 92 with a loose steering arm and never raced an open-wheeler again.

“When I stepped out of that car after qualifying with the fastest speed in the field, after what I had been through – I was dead 18 months earlier at Texas – I had the feeling that I had won the race and the race hadn’t really started yet,” he says. “That’s the first and only time in my whole career that I felt that.”

The four-corner IMS oval is a deceptively tricky circuit. It’s also a track that takes on an entirely new form when over 200,000 people are packed into its grandstands on Memorial Day Sunday and the build-up takes on all the pomp and circumstance befitting of a ‘Triple Crown’ event. To Brack, now McLaren Automotive’s chief test driver, it’s a place that holds special memories.

While not physically demanding, running a trimmed-out car at 225mph while battling “unpredictable” track conditions due to changeable temperature and wind makes it a richly rewarding circuit to get right – whether over a qualifying lap or when chasing down the win and closing on the leaders, as Brack did in 1999.

Brack set the fastest qualifying time of the whole field on his return in 2005

Photo by: Sutton Images

“You’re battling with the elements more than anything, it’s a really complex place to run,” he says. “To be fast and to try to figure out what you need for the race in terms of car set-up and other things, it brings another dimension that you don’t really find elsewhere.

“When you’re there doing tests and stuff, you still have the physics and the elements and all of that. When you come there for a race, it’s a bit different because when you have all those people in the grandstands, I don’t know what it is, it is a different place.

“Of course the atmosphere is lots different when you have all the spectators there, it’s a very big event, the military is right behind it, it feels like the whole of the US is behind it. Most of the drivers are pretty good at focusing on the business they need to do, but they are probably a bit affected by it and also the crews and the mechanics. Things happen there that you wouldn’t maybe expect and see at other places. It’s quite a pressure to be racing there.”

"I’ve experienced good things at Indy and also bad things at Indy - it’s quite a big difference between those two things!" Kenny Brack

Brack’s first encounter with Indianapolis didn’t get off to a great start in 1997. That year, the oval racing rookie was embroiled in a multi-car collision before the start, capping a month of May with a rookie race engineer that was “a little bit like the blind leading the blind”.

“That race was one of the toughest mentally for me in probably my whole career really,” he says. “I remember the car wasn’t feeling great all month, we couldn’t figure out how to get this car predictable so that I could use it properly. And at speeds of 220-230mph next to a concrete wall, that can be pretty daunting when you don’t feel that you have the car to trust underneath you. Every day I was wondering if this was going to be the last day of my life, because that was the feeling, that this was really, really dangerous. Every night I said a thank you to the universe that I was still alive, sort of thing. It was a really difficult start.”

But things improved in 1998 when he joined four-time Indy winner AJ Foyt’s team – then one of the benchmarks in the fledgling IRL – and “all of a sudden the car was set-up in a way where it was predictable”.

“AJ with all his knowledge was a huge help,” says Brack. “Back in those days obviously there was a little bit of telemetry and data to look at, but not like today. Knowledge had to be amassed over a number of years getting the experience, and he obviously was very good at that. The car that year was fantastic for me. I’ve experienced good things at Indy and also bad things at Indy - it’s quite a big difference between those two things!”

Brack built a strong partnership with four-time Indy winner Foyt, and claimed victory at the Brickyard together in 1999

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

He started third and led 23 laps in the opening half of the race, but “we ran out of fuel somewhere in the middle of the race so we could never recover from that” and he finished sixth. But Brack was a growing force on ovals and three wins later in the year at Charlotte, Pikes Peak and Atlanta yielded the 1998 IRL title.

Come 1999, after crashes in the opening two races of the season, Brack only qualified eighth but came on strong in the race and led the most laps (66). When Mark Dismore crashed on lap 169, all the leaders came in but Robby Gordon (Team Menard), who had pitted on lap 161, stayed out. He charged away at the lap 175 restart as Jeff Ward (Pagan Racing) stole second from Brack, but he rallied and retook second with 12 laps to go.

“We knew that it was going to be really tough to make it to the chequered flag,” recalls Brack, “so I was concerned about stretching the fuel to the end first of all. And of course also if there’s a yellow then we all could make it on the fuel, including Robby.

“But there was no yellow, so as we were counting down the last laps, we all expected Robby to pit because if we were close on fuel then he must be running on fumes. So it was a relief when he finally pulled into the pits, although we were expecting it. But expecting and seeing it isn’t the same thing!”

Winning the 500, Brack says, was “a fantastic feeling because it’s a big preparation going into Indy and you don’t know really what you’re going to battle with”.

Brack on his way to winnning the 1999 Indy 500

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

“The only thing you do know is you’re going to battle all the elements with temperature changes and wind changes and all that stuff which has a huge effect on the set-up and feel and speed of the car,” he continues.

“You have to do your best to figure out a race set-up that will deal with these elements the best way. But it was a dream come true to win and also to do it for AJ Foyt, who by that time had become a little bit like a dad for me I guess. We both shared this uncompromising drive to win and that was quite a great relationship.”