INDIANAPOLIS 500 WINNER ROSSI ENJOYS U.S. NATIONALS
Alexander Rossi knows IndyCar racing – he won the ultimate event, the Indy 500 in 2016.
Drag racing, however, not much at all – until Sept. 4 at the U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway.
Rossi spent the day with reigning NHRA world champion nitro Funny Car driver Ron Capps. Rossi and Capps have primary sponsorship from NAPA.
After watching the first round of Top Fuel and Funny Car eliminations, Rossi was taken back by the sport.
“Your soul is being disturbed,” said Rossi, 25. “It’s amazing, and you can’t put it into words because it’s not like anything else. It gets all your senses going, which is weird, you don’t see that in a lot in other forms of motorsports.”
Rossi also has a new appreciation for Capps.
“It’s very cool that I have got to know Ron over the past 18 months and be teammates with him through NAPA Auto Parts, and he’s quickly become one of my motorsport heroes after today,” Rossi said.
As much as Rossi enjoyed watching the 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, he has no plans of sliding over to the NHRA ranks.
“I would never get in one,” Rossi said. “If I’m nervous and stressed out standing there, how do you think it is going to translate if I’m sitting in it? But, I will definitely be at more races because it is really bad a**. I’ve never seen any type of drag racing except Thursday night drags at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway where you can take your Chevy Silverado and race it. Now, I would love to see more of it if DSR (Don Schumacher Racing) will have me back. I was amazed having lunch and watched them tear Ron’s whole car apart. It is pretty crazy. It was dinner and a show at the same time.”
New fans to drag racing are usually staggered by the smell of nitromethane, but that didn’t shock Rossi.
“It’s not that new because I have a lot of Traxxas remote control nitro cars, so I know what the smell is like, but I had not had my eyes burn, so that was new,” Rossi said. “I actually like the smell, but I don’t like it on my food, which happened at lunch. I guess that’s all part of the experience.”
Rossi mostly recently raced – and won – the IndyCar race Sept. 3 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Rossi pilots the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts Andretti-Herta Autosport Honda. He is sixth in the Verizon IndyCar Series point standings.