"GREG RAY HAD INDY
COVERED -- FOR A WHILE"

Published in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, May 25, 1998 ©

[*Third-place, News Writing, annual writing contest of American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association, May 1999*]

         Greg Ray hardly looked like a winner back in the Genoa Racing Team garage after Sunday's Indy 500.

         His face, usually well turned-out and ready for the cover of a slick magazine, had been drained of almost all its color. His black racing uniform was peeled down to his waist, revealing only a plain white T-shirt underneath.

         He leaned wearily against a metal cabinet, head down, like a batter left waiting in the on-deck circle without a chance to step up to the plate and hit a game-winning home run.

         He hardly sounded like a winner, either.

         "It's devastating," the Indy sophomore from Plano, Texas, said, his voice nearly as drained as his face. "My bubble's pretty well popped."

         The post-race look and sound of Ray were so pale mostly because he knew he had everything it took to win Sunday's big race -- except the luck.

         "The car was there; we pulled out a five- or six-second lead comfortably," noted the front-row starter who had put his black No. 97 Dallara-Aurora on the point for 18 of the 500's first 31 laps. "I felt like it really was our day. I just knew how well the car felt and how well I felt, how focused I was."

         But, just after Ray had led the way across the line on the 31st lap, he was distracted by a gut-wrenching sound from somewhere behind and beneath his comfortable seat in the Genoa Racing machine.

         "I knew exactly what happened when it happened," the 31-year-old Texan reported. "Fifth gear exploded. Fifth gears never break; I don't think I've ever broken a fifth gear in my entire life, especially on an oval, until today."

         The uncommon breakage sent Ray slowly to the pits, then quickly to the garages, where his crew repaired the gearbox. He returned to the race 19 laps in arrears and ran another 136 laps before the gearbox -- this time second gear -- went to pieces again.

         That didn't do much for Ray's usually upbeat outlook, either.

         "The car was still very, very good," he said of the car that was possibly the fastest of the whole day at Indy. "Again, the only car that passed us all day long was Tony Stewart, and that was only because of traffic.

         "We passed Arie Luyendyk. We passed Buddy Lazier. We passed Eddie Cheever, the winner. We had this field covered."

         No wonder Ray's appearance, words and posture had that defeated look in the team garage after the race was said and done.

         "It was my race to lose," added Ray, who only lost the early lead to Stewart for one congested lap, "and, unfortunately, the mechanical gremlins, the gods, frowned on us today."

         They had frowned on him last year, as well, ending his first start at Indy after only 48 laps.

         Perhaps the one good thing that came out of Ray's impressive but abbreviated performance Sunday was the potential to attract sponsors or financial benefactors to his dollar-challenged, one-race-at-a-time team.

         "I do feel like we've probably caught a wave," he said, a bit of the color seeping back into his face, "I can't tell you how happy I am for this small team and the sponsors, and I think a lot of people are going to stand up and take notice.

         "We didn't win today. We finished 18th, but I think we made a hell of an impression."

         Ray, who had started in the middle of the front row Sunday, said he hoped the effort would reap enough new money to get him and his team beyond the next Indy Racing League event June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway.

         "We're definitely racing at Texas," he insisted, some renewed confidence propping up both his voice and his body language. "From the prize money and sponsorships, we'll get through that race very well.

         "Then we'll regroup on what to do and see what opportunities come to us between now and then."

         Translated, that meant Sunday's sparkling speed run by the black No. 97 could at least make Ray look like a potential winner. "I think people will see what happened and see that, deep down, we had a good experience for this team," he explained.

         "However," he then added, a hint of a winning smile returning to his magazine-cover face, "a victory would have been better, with a million-seven and a little bit of milk at the end."

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 Copyright 1998 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of Greg Ray Racing

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