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Call it the Woodward Dream Cruise 500.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon (smack in the middle of rush hour, of course), 12 Indy car winners and a couple of NASCAR hot shoes jumped into Roger Penske\u2019s historic collection of 16 Indy pace cars for a Woodward dream lap. Bobby Unser in a 1987 Chrysler LeBaron. Sam Hornish Jr. in a 2006 Corvette. Helio Castroneves in a 2009 Camaro SS. None of them smacked the wall, none of them dove into the pits for tires, none of them did doughnuts at the finish.<\/p>\n
Though a few of them couldn\u2019t help the occasional burnout. \u201cAl Unser Jr. and I were having a little fun,\u201d said NASCAR star Joey Logano sheepishly. Lucky for them, no tickets were written. Credit the good behavior to a police escort \u2014 and the pace car at the head of the field driven by the captain himself, Penske, the most successful Indy owner ever (who also calls Metro Detroit home).<\/p>\n
Presidential motorcades don\u2019t pack this much talent. On a day when the crowds began to descend on Woodward with cars, tents, and stacks of lawn chairs in anticipation of Saturday\u2019s official Dream Cruise, the stars were out.<\/p>\n
And not just the Penske armada. Just across the street from Penske Cruise HQ (between A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home and Art Van furniture), Chevy was hosting 2014 NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick and his just-restored, ground-shaking, 575-cubic-inch, 1969 Camaro SS. That\u2019s 575, as in 9.4 liters \u2014 a full 30 percent bigger than a Corvette Z06.<\/p>\n
Did you feel an earthquake tremor about 2 p.m. today? That was Harvick firing up the SS as he took me out onto Woodward for a lap of his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen a long time since I\u2019ve been at a car show, and I\u2019ve never seen anything like this,\u201d said Harvick with a grin as we rattled windows from 13 Mile to 11 Mile and back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a project I\u2019ve had for years and I just thought it would be fun to have,\u201d he said, sounding like any motorhead on Woodward. \u201cA buddy of mine put on the exhaust because he wanted to see how it would sound on a 572 motor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sold a \u201955 Bel Air and that\u2019s how I started my racing career,\u201d said the 39-year old, who got his start in California as a high school racer. \u201cI wanted a stock car and had to sell the \u201955 to pay for it.\u201d He\u2019d like to get that car back someday \u2014 maybe for his next cruise. Along with Logano and Brad Keselowski across the street at Penske, Harvick dropped by the Cruise on his way to this weekend\u2019s Michigan 400 in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
But like the thousands of fans who cheered Penske\u2019s pace cars, he was star-struck by the Indy winners.<\/p>\n
\u201cRick Mears was my idol growing up,\u201d he says of four-time Indy 500 winner Mears, one of Penske\u2019s pace car stars. \u201cI have a signed picture from him in my office from the first year he sat on the front row at Indy. It says: \u2018I hope to see you someday here at Indy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Two hours later, I was sitting next to Mears in the Dodge Viper pace car that he and Penske won in 1991. More ground shaking. More great tales from yesteryear.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother and Harvick\u2019s dad used to work together when he was a kid,\u201d says 63-year old Mears of young Harvick. \u201cI remember going back to Bakersfield and seeing him when he was starting out in short track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standing next to their pace car cruisers, the Indy car drivers talked about what they\u2019d bring to the Cruise to drive. For a day, these pro hot shoes are Cruisers dreaming of what they might bring to Woodward.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 1959 Cadillac El Dorado,\u201d says Logano standing next to the 1993 Chevy Camaro SS pace car.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably the 2001 Oldsmobile I got for winning my first Indy 500,\u201d says three-time Indy winner Castroneves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the first Corvette ZR1 ever made,\u201d says Mears of the legendary 1989 \u2019Vette. \u201cIt\u2019s painted yellow. I\u2019d definitely bring that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the captain? Whose endless car collection includes a Porsche 918 hybrid and a LaFerrari?<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot of nice toys, but this year, I brought my 16 Indy pace cars, which are probably my best cruisers,\u201d says Penske. \u201cAnd I\u2019d have to say my factory is the \u201972 Hurst Olds, which was the first car we won with Mark Donahue back in 1972. This is muscle car history.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Call it the Woodward Dream Cruise 500. On Thursday afternoon (smack in the middle of rush hour, of course), 12 Indy car winners and a couple of NASCAR hot shoes jumped into Roger Penske\u2019s historic collection of 16 Indy pace cars for a Woodward dream lap. Bobby Unser in a 1987 Chrysler LeBaron. Sam Hornish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17041,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039\/revisions\/17041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}