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Sunday, May 27  Sharp gracious despite disappointment ESPN.com news service INDIANAPOLIS – More than an hour had passed since pole winner Scott Sharp had crashed out of the Indianapolis 500 in the first turn of the first lap. The steel door to Sharp's garage in Gasoline Alley had remained shut for most of that time, except when this crewmen emerged, heading home after mopping up after Sharp's extraordinary misfortune. When Sharp finally emerged, the race was some 50 laps old and Sharp's teammate, Mark Dismore, was leading the race. Sharp was wearing sunglasses on this cool and cloudy day. He was calm, composed and exceedingly patient and polite as he was hammered with question after question. "I got a good start as we pulled through the green," Sharp said. "We all knew the track was about 15 degrees cooler than Carb (Carburetion) Day. Because of the cold track, I backed off a lot more than I had when we practiced on Carb Day. And unfortunately, even then, it still just snapped all of a sudden on me. I had two guys right behind me carrying a similar pace. But for some reason, my car just got loose and theirs didn't." It was the second year in a row that the pole winner was the first driver out of the race. Last year, pole winner Greg Ray was the first out when he crashed in turn two. Ray, however, didn't crash until lap 66. The last time a pole winner exited as quickly as Sharp was in 1992, when Roberto Guerrero spun and crashed in turn two on the parade lap. Sharp's problem was the same as Guerrero's -- lack of traction with cold tires on a cold track. "We saw temperatures (in 1992) that were even colder and caused a lot more problems," Sharp said. "Obviously, in hindsight, I'd love to be able to do it again and find some ways to warm the tires up some more or tiptoe through turn one better than I was able to. "I think one of the tough things is that it's been so warm, even through last weekend, and the first time we got any chance at slightly cooler conditions was carb day. And even then the temperatures were fairly warmer than this." Sharp's month of May had been perfect until Sunday. He had won the pole with a speed of 226.037 miles per hour. He was the only driver to exceed 226 mph. During the two-hour final practice on Carburetion Day Thursday, Sharp had the fastest lap. And his team won the annual Pit Stop Challenge, turning out faster times in each successive round. After Sharp returned to his garage Sunday, he apologized individually to each of his crew members and car owner Tom Kelley. All of them were supportive, he said. "I can't even begin to put into words how sorry I feel for so many people that have worked so hard," he said. "I pulled each guy aside. You have to. They put their blood, sweat and tears and so much time into this. We all talked about how there was 800 corners here and you don't want to throw it away on the first one. I made a mistake and did. "Unfortunately, you cant hit the rewind button. You just have to put it behind you and realize that luckily there's another race in a couple of weeks. But it's 52 weeks until Indy again. You know, this is a place that I love, but it sure hasn't been very kind to me yet." Finally, after waiting patiently for every media member to finish asking questions, Sharp gave a thumbs out, flashed a brief smile and disappeared back into his garage.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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