DATE: Sunday, June 1, 1997                  TAG: 9706010234

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: DOVER, DEL.                       LENGTH:   76 lines

INDY HAS SURVIVED DEPRESSION, WAR; THIS SPAT WITH CART, TOO, SHALL PASS

Someday, when the Indianapolis 500 has regained the glory and prestige that have been lost in the current Indy-car war, we'll look back on the proliferation of gloom-and-doom reports that surrounded this year's race with a sense of amusement.

The media have a way of magnifying the gravity of the news it covers. Judgments are based on immediate occurrences, without the benefit of hindsight or the perspective of time.

Given many of the facts of the 81st running of the 500, it is not surprising to see the reports of doom and gloom at Indy and hear the suggestions that the NASCAR Winston Cup series and the Coca-Cola 600 have relegated Indy to second-class status.

After all, the pole-day crowd at Indy, which normally swells to 200,000, was perhaps a fourth as large this year. TV ratings were down. Scalpers were reselling tickets at face value. The field featured 13 rookies, including a dentist (Dr. Jack Miller), a lot of unfamiliar names and only two former winners.

The race itself was marred by a botched start and a botched finish. It was delayed two days by abysmal weather. But despite all those problems, it was a highly competitive and entertaining contest.

The driver most qualified to win - pole-sitter Arie Luyendyk - did win. But he had to work his tail off to do it, and a host of others left their mark, including Scott Goodyear, Tony Stewart and rookie Jeff Ward.

``I thought the race was a really good race,'' Winston Cup driver John Andretti said Saturday between practice sessions for today's Miller 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway. ``They battled so hard for that lead. And I think a lot of really positive things came out of it.

``Everybody has botched up starts,'' he said. Several cars blew their new, normally aspirated V-8 engines at the start, ``but they only had as many engine failures as they typically do in the 500,'' he noted.

There is no question that the Indy 500, as well as all of Indy-car racing, has been wounded by the war between the speedway's president, Tony George, and its former patrons, the racers of Championship Auto Racing Teams.

But those in CART who hope and believe that the Indianapolis 500 has been irreparably harmed are woefully short-sighted.

It would be one thing if Indy had been taken over by some corporation that cared only about the bottom line. But Indy is still being run by diehard racers who care deeply about the sport of auto racing.

And it's not as if Indy hasn't had ups and downs before.

In the beginning, in 1909, it took two years before track builder Carl Fisher settled on the format of a single 500-mile race. In the 1930s, the 500 struggled through the Great Depression. The 500 was not run during World War II. And in 1946, when Anton Hulman bought the speedway, it was crumbling and overgrown with weeds. Much of the Indy tradition stems from the work of Hulman, who was Tony George's grandfather.

Racers come and go. Teams come and go. But Indy is permanent. Indy spans generations of racers. Its heritage is secure.

Winston Cup car owner Jack Roush has never raced at Indy (``My Winston Cup operation is enough of a challenge''), but he supplied engines to several teams this year.

``The Indianapolis racetrack is the oldest and grandest in the country. That makes it a really big deal for whatever happens there,'' Roush said. ``The conflict between CART and the speedway is regrettable, but before, through and after that conflict, the speedway will stand there as the finest racing facility on the planet.

``Whoever is there, and whatever their formulation is and whatever the organization is that winds up putting on the race, that is almost minor to the speedway itself.''

Said Andretti: ``I think that Indy is just going to get better and better. I don't know what (CART car owner) Roger Penske is going to do, but I know that race is pretty important to Roger Penske. It's pretty important to Al (Unser) Jr. and it's pretty important to Michael Andretti. Otherwise, why would they keep talking about it?

``And if they come back to the speedway, the talent pool is going to be just like Winston Cup. It's going to be a battle to get into the race like you never saw before. It's going to be great. And I hope I'm there to be a part of it.''

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