"BEECHLER WAITS PATIENTLY            
FOR OTHER SHOE TO QUALIFY"                   

Published, in edited form, in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, May 19, 2001 ©

         Perched on an idle golf cart in street clothes in Gasoline Alley late this week, Donnie Beechler has patience written all across his clean-shaven face.

         The handwriting looks suspiciously like A. J. Foyt's.

         "You know we've got strict orders on what to do out there," he notes, only half-kidding, after a few laps at near-qualifying speeds in the car owned by the ex-driver whose own lack of patience is as legendary as Bobby Knight's, "so I haven't really hammered the car that much."

         That is how patience is spelled out this week for Beechler, a three-time Indy 500 veteran, and his legendary car owner, even though neither really believes in it when the green flag is flying. But that is the name written on the wall this week for Beechler, who had to wait a week and a half just to join the battle for a spot in the 2001 Indy 500 on May 27.

         He only got on the track with Foyt's third car, the white-and-violet number 14T, on Thursday, and only has until Sunday to find enough speed to elbow his way into the 33-car starting field. He knows the field, which currently has just one opening left in it, will be full when and if he gets his shot at his fourth straight start in the Memorial Day weekend classic.

         Before the 40-year-old driver from Springfield, Ill., even gets his chance to bump someone out of the race lineup Sunday, he will have to ratchet up even more patience and wait for one of Foyt's regular drivers, Eliseo Salazar, to qualify for the race. "Yes, Salazar has to get in the race before I even get an attempt," he says, his words as patient as any racing driver can manage.

         "So, I'm pulling for him like no one else," he adds, smiling widely and pumping a fist that seems just a little impatient in front of him.

         So, Beechler knows the priorities that have been set for the Foyt racing stable this weekend, and he isn't the top one yet. "The main objective right now is to get Salazar in the race, get him up to speed," he notes from his golf-cart waiting station in front of the Foyt garages.

         "They've got a brand-new car, so they've got some bugs they need to work out. But, come Saturday, I think once he gets confidence in that car, then I hope we'll bring the third car up to speed a little more. And then we'll see what happens Sunday."

         The whole waiting for Sunday's sunrise actually started long before last week for Beechler, when he got an unexpected phone call from the Indy 500's first four-time winner. "A couple of months ago, A. J. had called me and just wanted to know how my career was going," he recalls. "It really was kind of on hold at the time due to financial circumstances."

         The circumstances were that his old team, Cahill Racing, had let him go and then brought in another driver who had sponsorship money in his wallet.

         Still, after the surprise phone call, Beechler and Indy still weren't on each other's dance cards for 2001. Then, a chance encounter at a restaurant near the speedway, where Foyt and Beechler and his family happened to be eating at the same time, made them potential partners for May. "A buddy of mine came over to our table," he relates. "He had been chattin' with A.J. and said, 'Hey, don't make any plans for the Speedway.'

         "Right then, I'm like, 'Man, I wonder what's going on there?"

         Last week, Beechler found out. "I talked to A.J. a few days ago in the garage here, and he kinda confirmed what he said in the restaurant, that if he got Robby Gordon and Eliseo in the show pretty solid he would bring out a third car for me," he explains this week.

         Then his patience got a real test last weekend. "This kinda got a strange twist to it because now Robby's in pretty strong, but then Salazar was in good - he was runnin' 223s and 222s on his qualifying run -- and then had an engine expire on him on the last corner," Beechler says, his smile doing an instant replay of his weekend moment of ultimate frustration.

         "So, actually, I thought I was done Sunday. When the motor expired on Eliseo Sunday afternoon, I thought I might as well pack up and go home. I came back over to the garage just to confirm what had happened and see if there was anything going on, and A. J. said, 'Just relax, don't worry. We'll work on something; just hang in there with me.'"

         Beechler did, and waited three more days. And patience, as they sometimes say, provided its own reward. "So, this week is here, and we're getting some cars shaken down," he says from his golf-cart perch. "We've got them going, and hopefully we'll be up to speed and get a chance to qualify Sunday."

         That will, of course, require one more stern dose of patience for the dark-haired driver who finished 12th at Indy last May. But the waiting hasn't drained him of his optimism. "One good thing about A. J. Foyt is the fact that their cars don't need much tweaking," he notes, confidence becoming the new word scrawled across his face in his own handwriting.

         "When they're there, they're there. We haven't been here for a year, I haven't been in an Indy-car since October, but the cars are really nice and it just takes a few laps of myself kinda getting acclimated to the track again."

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 Copyright 2001 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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