From: jcsmith@eos.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith)
Subject: Re: Mario, oh Mario.... Anyone home ?!?
Organization: NCSU Project Eos
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 18:40:16 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.155724.23623@NOC.Vitalink.COM> edc@noc.vitalink.com 
writes:
>The same thing that's been wrong with Mario for the past 2 or 3 seasons. 
>Seems he can't accept the fact that he's NOT the guy to beat anymore.   

You know, I was thinking about Mario before the Long Beach race.  I had been 
looking back at old clippings of the '87 Indy 500, and of the entire '88 
season.  (With the current crop of new chassis and engines, I was remembering
the early days of the Chevy-Ilmor and Penske's chassis troubles.)  He was 
certainly in contention for the driving title in both '87 and '88.  Since then 
his performance seems to have dropped off rather steeply--it seems like 
instead of being someone who is favored to win any race, he's someone who 
*might* win a race if the favorites have trouble, and he hasn't won anything
since '88 at Cleveland.

'88 was Mario's last season as Newman-Haas's sole driver.  Mario had always
said that he didn't like being on a two-car team, but with his son Michael
he thought the situation was different.  I think the situation might be worse,  
and I think Mario's letting it play games with his head.  I'm anxious to see 
what may happen next year, when it's likely that Michael will be in F1.  Will
Newman-Haas go back to a one-car team (doubtful) and if not, then who will
Mario's teammate be?

Mario has said recently that when he thinks it's time, he'll just quit and
that will be it.  Nothing like, "I'm going to run three more races," or
quitting and then coming back.  (Gee, was he referring to Richard Petty and
A. J. Foyt?)

I've been a Mario fan for a long time.  I've also been an A. J. Foyt fan for
a long time.  They've both been cantankerous in their own very different ways,
but somehow it's less endearing when they're not on top anymore.  I had to
laugh when I heard A. J. let his tongue fly at Jeff Andretti at Nazareth last
year, but it really wasn't a very pretty picture.  Mario trying to blame 
Cheever for what happened at Long Beach was pretty sad, too.

(Honestly, I wince when people keep referring to "the Andretti whine".  It's
really no different from A. J.'s tirades.  But A. J. is somehow more 
entertaining when he does it.  Should the Andrettis learn to speak with Texas 
accents?  Mario:  "Well *hail*, that *sumbitch* Cheever cut me off!" etc.)

>Makes me wish I'd been rooting for the Unsers all those years. At
>least they had the class to exit gracefully when the time came....

Hmmm.  I don't think Al Sr.'s exit has been very graceful (it hasn't exactly
been his choice), nor do I think his time has come.  I'd still like to see Big 
Al at Indy, Michigan, and New Hampshire.  And I think he was better than many 
on road and street courses.  I think it was the shift away from ovals
(especially when Pocono was dropped) that made his stock plummet.  Too bad.

Wonder how Big Al and Little Al would have done as Indycar teammates?

--
Jay C. Smith
Domain/internet: jcsmith@eos.ncsu.edu  uucp: ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!eos!jcsmith
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"Good.  For a minute I thought we were in trouble."
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