1,000 Greatest Drivers: Ray Harroun

It's gonna be May.

The NASCAR and IndyCar races weirdly echoed each other in that the first thirds of the IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen were some of the most boring racing I’d seen in a while until awkwardly-timed cautions screwed over certain drivers who hadn’t pitted yet while rewarding others who had. That made both races passable, but I wouldn’t say either of them were good exactly. I’m normally one who is annoyed by unnecessary cautions, but it was certainly egregious when AlexanderRossi’s hybrid failure caused his car to stop on track directly past the start-finish line and IndyCar refused to call a caution because they didn’t want to mess up the pit cycle. AND the pit cycle ended up being messed up anyway as the top two drivers Álex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood (who were running away with the race as usual) did not pit while David Malukas and Christian Lundgaard amongst others did. Even though Malukas might be the most overdue driver for a win since at least Lando Norris, I didn’t really want him to win this one ‘cause quite frankly, he didn’t deserve it and I was not looking forward to people saying the race was rigged because Penske owns both Malukas’s team and the series. I wasn’t surprised Christian Lundgaard passed Malukas since he was always a better road racer, but I must admit I am surprised that Malukas has been the fastest Penske driver on every single road course from the drop. What the hell has happened to Scott McLaughlin? Lundgaard’s pass was almost the only interesting thing in the entire race, although I guess some schadenfreude addicts were happy to watch Mick Schumacher spin out Santino Ferrucci. As someone who also hates Ferrucci’s politics, I didn’t really feel that. I just feel Schumacher has been well over his head all season, and I’m enjoying Dennis Hauger utterly dominate him for Rookie of the Year. If anything, I’m enjoying this as a counterargument to anyone who thinks everyone who ever drove in F1 is better than anyone in any other series.

As for the NASCAR race, I guess Ryan McCafferty said it best:

I mean the only other valid answer is Dan Gurney, but I think SVG probably takes it over Gurney because 1) his cars are weaker, 2) his opposition is stronger, 3) he’s been winning on a bunch of different tracks rather than the same one repeatedly, even if I would say Gurney’s crossovers overall make him better than SVG I think, since SVG has very few wins outside of full-bodied cars, while Gurney being one of only three drivers to win in F1, IndyCar, and Cup along with Mario Andretti and Juan Pablo Montoya put him in much more exclusive company.

Even when he was back in traffic, I never really thought SVG wasn’t going to win but even I didn’t think he’d gain 29 seconds in 17 laps. I thought it was going to be something more along the line of the O’Reilly race, where Connor Zilisch hunted down Jesse Love in a very similar way, and I thought SVG was probably going to be a last-lap pass as well, but he really exceeded my expectations there. I was especially impressed he put 20 seconds on Tyler Reddick in that final stint considering Reddick beat him in the previous road course race at COTA and has led the points standings for the entire season, but this is Reddick’s worst road course, and while Reddick has been the best NASCAR driver this season, he’s still had an overrated season as his extreme good luck means his actual performance does not come close to his season record.

For the rest of the month of May, I intend to go through the remaining 21 Indy 500 winners who are locks who I haven’t covered yet. I originally had them listed one a day from May 11 to May 31, but I haven’t been very diligent at keeping to my schedule and there are now nine drivers I intended to do who I’ve skipped. I’m already starting the Harroun post on May 12, and I think I might end up doing multiple posts on some days. First, I’m going to go through the remaining one-time winners who are locks on my list in order of when they won the race, followed by the two-time winners Bill Vukovich and Gordon Johncock in chronological order, the three-time winners Louis Meyer and Mauri Rose in chronological order, and the four-time winners Al Unser and Rick Mears in chronological order. I forgot to include 1919 winner Howdy Wilcox on this list, but I think I’ve been equivocating about whether I considered him a lock or not (he’s been sitting right on my 25-point lock boundary threshold, but so is Kenny Bräck and I’m not debating that one at all).

There are still some other Indy 500 winners I intend to list who I don’t think are locks, so I will get to them later: Ray Keech, Kelly Petillo, Johnnie Parsons, Buddy Lazier, and Takuma Sato. Right now, Lazier is sitting RIGHT on the 14-point bubble threshold so don’t be surprised if I eventually cut him, but I don’t want to. There is enough stuff I admire about him (being 95% responsible for Hemelgarn Racing’s success, the fact that he’s one of the most clutch drivers in IndyCar history with an 8-1 lead change record, winning the Indy 500 with a broken back, the fact that he DID prove he could outduel the CART drivers to some extent at Indy in 2000 when he passed Jimmy Vasser BEFORE he ran out of fuel and in 2005 when he passed Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan late in the race, being the second-youngest Can-Am winner (although admittedly the series was dead by then), leading an IROC race start-to-finish (although admittedly he was gifted the pole because he was last in points and then I think it was just an aero push affair) that I think should be enough to push him over the line in spite of his short longevity and weak competition, but he’s never going to leave the bubble and I’m probably gonna be equivocating about him until the bitter end. I’ll probably end up finding a couple extra points somewhere so he at least beats some of his contemporaries who are also at 14 points and in my opinion less deserving (Scott Goodyear, Maurício Gugelmin, Roberto Moreno, etc…)

And these Indy 500 winners I will not be listing at all: Joe Dawson, Lora L. Corum, Joe Boyer, George Souders, Louis Schneider, Fred Frame (might reconsider this - he’s a borderline no, but he does have a lot of sprint car wins), Floyd Roberts, Floyd Davis, George Robson (close, but one year is not enough), Lee Wallard, Pat Flaherty, Buddy Rice (like Frame, I might reconsider this if I find that he was a major player in his 2009 24 Hours of Daytona win but as I recall he was along for the ride; as it stands, I think it’s like Robson where his one year isn’t enough), and Marcus Ericsson (no way I see him doing enough by the time I’m done to make it - I honestly don’t think he’ll ever make any future top 200 lists again; his win and leading the points for half of the 2022 season already feels like a fever dream).

Here is the schedule. I had it for the 11th-31st, but I’m going to remove the dates to put less pressure on myself.

Ray Harroun (paywalled)
Jules Goux (paywalled)
Ralph DePalma (paywalled)
René Thomas (free)
Gaston Chevrolet (free)
Billy Arnold (free)
Bill Cummings (free)
Bill Holland (free)
Troy Ruttman (paywalled)
Bob Sweikert (free)
Jim Rathmann (free)
Parnelli Jones (paywalled)
Tom Sneva (free)
Kenny Bräck (free)
Alexander Rossi (free)
Bill Vukovich (paywalled)
Gordon Johncock (paywalled)
Louis Meyer (paywalled)
Mauri Rose (paywalled)
Al Unser (paywalled)
Rick Mears (paywalled)

By the way, I originally had Harroun just at E for 1910, but after reading that he supposedly won 45 races that year, I moved him up to #1.