You ask any motorsports writer, analyst, historian or fan and they will put Foyt and Andretti at the top of the greatest ever list. You are putting him with Foyt and Andretti. While you aren't saying that directly, you are saying it.

Foyt, Unser, Helio, Mears (this is a guy that never seems to be on a best all time list ), Vogler, Larson ( which one? ), Ward, Jones, ect... Who is the best will always be debated with no real way of picking "the best" but,its the off season.... Also, all the comparing of the talent needed to drive todays Indy Car is a product of time to kill, I do not think there are any Indy Car drivers on this thread?
What we do know to be a fact is that last years Indy 500 starting line-up should have an asterick next to the drivers names. 2012 was the year that 26 teams and 7 "buy a ride and your in" cars made up the starting field. There were 33 cars, no one had to compete to make the race. There have always been bought rides at Indy, but 2012 was the only year in modern times that 4 laps made the race. Also, in the last 10 years there have been several Rookies almost win at Indy, so if you give a talented driver a good ride, then winning Indy is not out of reach.
I welcome all that want to try Indy, every entry adds to the event, and the event needs more than 33 or the day may come when?

The reason there were only 33 cars took time is the fact that Lotus would have been bumped and that would have been a huge black eye for Indycar after having let all the regular teams but HVM switch to Honda or Chevy and dump thier Lotus engines and contracts. After Indycar touted their "multiple engine manufacturers" to only have 2 make the field would have been disasterous. Only the diehards and a few teams knew what was going on behind the scenes, the general public didn't know anything. Several drivers (Pippa Mann and Jay Howard are two) had cars lined. But, Indycar management wouldn't push for an extra Honda or Chevy engine to be released by Illmor or HPD. Indycar knew they had left HVM and Fan Force United hanging out to dry with Lotus. Now that decision by Indycar to not help HVM out has cost HVM it's driver and sponsor to go to KV and HVM is basically DOA for 2013.

Well, hasn't this turned into a urinating contest.

Rather than lauding the fact that Roger Penske offered Tony Stewart a ride in next year's Indianapolis 500, you'd rather bellyache about whether Stewart is one of the best. The simple fact is that it is impossible to judge the "best" when comparing drivers from one era of racing to the next. Pancho Carter once pointed out to me that it can't be done because of the differences in the types of equipment, schedules, methods of track preparation. One also has to consider the difference today in the financial need of a driver to take risks in our traditional form of racing. Drivers in the 1950s and 1960s did it so they could eat and make car payments. Successful drivers today do not have to.

Tony Stewart is the closest thing to the drivers of the 1950s and 1960s. He will run multiple types of race cars at all kinds of venues, and run them very well, not because he needs to make a house payment but because he loves racing -- any racing.

Stewart said several years ago that the days of running Indianapolis on a one-off basis are gone because of the advances which have been made in IndyCar racing. This was before the development of the new car. During an interview last year, he told me that he needed many more laps before he could ever consider entering the Knoxville Nationals in a winged sprint car. It was just too different from what he has ever done.

I suspect the same would be true about Penske's offer. Tony Stewart has always been too intelligent to step into something without being adequately prepared. Just how is he going to have time to prepare with the commitments he has to not only his NASCAR race team and its sponsors, but his other racing efforts, Eldora Speedway and his True Speed Communications company?

I would love to see Tony return to the field of the Indianapolis 500. I long for it. But, I fear the time for that may have passed us by.

Jim Morrison
Editor
Hawkeye Racing News

Thanks, Jim...for getting back to the original post...

From the Fox Sports story on this.

''The hard part for me was you make that decision when you sign up to do (NASCAR),'' Stewart said last January. ''The decision you make, you have to come to peace with yourself with saying `I'm not going to do this.' That was my childhood dream anyway. It was hard knowing when I signed that (NASCAR) contract that I was writing off the opportunity to go race at Indy.

''It's figuring out at the end of the day what do you really want to do. I guess that's the part that even though it was hard to watch opening day of practice at Indianapolis, I'm enjoying what I'm doing, too, and this is what I want to do at the end of the day. It makes you want 30-hour days and 400-day years and we always want to do more than what we're capable of doing, but the reality is you have to pick at some point and choose your career path. This is what I've done.''

Nelson and I have also talked about it numerous times. He's told me more then once Tony said it's not possible.

On the other and, how many times has Penske made the impossible , possible ?