NOTEBOOK Indianapolis 500

Hornish's goal: The pole position at the Indianapolis 500 is worth an extra $100,000 on a driver's paycheck and maybe a whole lot more in publicity, but is it that big an advantage in winning the race? Sam Hornish Jr. doesn't think so, although his career stats at other tracks suggest otherwise. "Starting on the pole doesn't necessarily mean anything except you've got the best view of Turn 1," Hornish said Sunday, a day after he earned the inside front-row start for the May 28 race. "A good view of Turn 1 after 200 laps is what you want. The big thing for me is finishing all 500 miles." That, of course, is something Hornish has never done at Indianapolis, where his best finish in six starts was 14th in 2001. Three of the other races ended in crashes, including last year when he started second and led 77 laps, the most by any driver. "My plan is to get through 500 miles and put myself in contention for the end," he said. "I haven't been able to do that yet."
What's next? Maybe P.J. Chesson can hit his boss up for a tryout with the Denver Nuggets. The 27-year-old race car driver has done just about everything else. Chesson, whose Hemelgarn team is co-owned by the Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony, qualified for his rookie race at Indianapolis, adding another line to his list of varied accomplishments. "Man, now I've done it all," an ecstatic Chesson said. "I've flown an F-16, I drive IndyCars, I've knocked [stuff] over with bulldozers, I've jumped out of airplanes, and I've gone to a fire on a fire truck. So what's up now?" Besides getting a tattoo, which he promised to do after qualifying on Saturday, what's up next is getting ready for the start of the race on Sunday. Chesson's four-lap average of 221.576 mph put him between former winner Eddie Cheever and Felipe Giaffone.
In the service: Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., administered the oath of enlistment to 55 military recruits, a task he has performed during Armed Forces Day at the track each year since 1981. "They have made a commitment to their country, and I'm proud of them," Lugar said. A band played the song of each of the five military branches.
Associated Press
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