Quote:
Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith
If they are underfunded would they even make it to race day? As for an inexperienced driver and team, they have to start somewhere, take 1969. That was Penske's first ever 500, with Rookie driver Mark Donohue. They finished 7th and went on to win the 500 in '72.
In the April 13 The Racer Mailbag, Marshall Pruett recounts what it was like to be a crew member at his first Indy 500 in 1997, with a small team on a shoestring budget. So taking those two examples I would say yes.
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Bring the cars back to that level and we can talk, can you bring up a single entry within the last 2 chassis that showed up with an underfunded car and did anything? Cause they are plenty who have just been field fillers in the last 5 seasons. Nothin screams professional like RWR showing up in the field, hell there have been teams without pole day setups, just rolling in with race setup and hoping. Plus again, how many of those sponsors KNOW 33 is a sacred number? I'll put everything I own on less than 25% know and half of them could not care any less. If they cared, they would be on that car at a discounted rate given the 33rd car seems to be the sacred cow for the media. Free attention for them even if the car sucks, but they aren't there