He raced for all the usual reasons. The money. The trophies. Those sweet, delicious moments of perfection.
"I wanted to have good results," Alex Tagliani said. "That's what keeps me motivated. Like a perfect lap on a street course. A pole position. This is what makes your heart beat fast."
Tagliani, the pole-sitter for Sunday's Indianapolis 500, races now for something bigger.
"Since I met Sam, I think I'm driving for a different reason," Tagliani said. "Sometimes I find myself in a position to whine about a car being bad or this guy's trapped me. When you see him, you can't not think what your little crap (you're dealing with) is nothing compared to what he has to go through in his life.
"I'm very happy making him happy. He lives his passion through me because I'm in the cockpit. I know he would want to be."
Sam Schmidt owns Tagliani's No. 77 car. (He also owns the Josef Newgarden car that won Friday's Firestone Freedom 100 Indy Lights race.)
Schmidt, 46, was a business prodigy in California who became a racer when he reached his 30s. He raced in three Indy 500s. He won an Indy Racing League race at Las Vegas.
He was preparing for the IRL season in a Jan. 6, 2000, test session at the Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando. He crashed coming out of the second turn, suffering a severe spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic.
Schmidt motors around the track on an electric scooter. He continues to undergo rehab and has regained some shoulder movement and neck strength.
"When something like this happens, you can either choose to stay at home and watch ESPN all day or you can get out and do something with your life," Schmidt said. "For me, I've done a lot of things in my life. The thing that made getting up every morning worthwhile, beyond my faith and my family pushing me, was the ability to come out here and compete. I make no bones about it; I'd much rather be in the driving seat rather than in the owning seat, but this is definitely the second-best thing."
Of Tagliani's pole, "I'm definitely proud to see what he has achieved with a start-up team and mix it up with the big ones," fellow racer Scott Dixon said.
"Penske and Ganassi have done this 10 years in a row," Tagliani said. "We're trying to close the gap."
They've done so, he said, with a good mix of people who have developed chemistry. They've put the cars together with hard work "and they've put the love into it," Tagliani said.
Tagliani, a native of Quebec, Canada, with a gentle souffle of an accent, joined the Schmidt effort last year after a couple of years of part-time racing. This will be his 162nd top-tier open-wheel race, with one win (Road America in 2004) to his credit. This is his third Indianapolis 500, his first on the pole.
"It seems to me just kind of unreal," Tagliani admitted. "Kind of too-good-to-be-true at times. But we deserve it. It's not because we're not Penske or Ganassi, that we don't deserve to be there. We did everything better than everybody else. Hopefully it will continue."
Somebody asked Tagliani what he'd feel on Sunday, leading the pack of 33 cars into the first turn after the green flag drops on the centennial Indianapolis 500.
Tagliani smiled, then said, "A very high heart rate."
His heart beats for two.
"I wanted to have good results," Alex Tagliani said. "That's what keeps me motivated. Like a perfect lap on a street course. A pole position. This is what makes your heart beat fast."
Tagliani, the pole-sitter for Sunday's Indianapolis 500, races now for something bigger.
"Since I met Sam, I think I'm driving for a different reason," Tagliani said. "Sometimes I find myself in a position to whine about a car being bad or this guy's trapped me. When you see him, you can't not think what your little crap (you're dealing with) is nothing compared to what he has to go through in his life.
"I'm very happy making him happy. He lives his passion through me because I'm in the cockpit. I know he would want to be."
Sam Schmidt owns Tagliani's No. 77 car. (He also owns the Josef Newgarden car that won Friday's Firestone Freedom 100 Indy Lights race.)
Schmidt, 46, was a business prodigy in California who became a racer when he reached his 30s. He raced in three Indy 500s. He won an Indy Racing League race at Las Vegas.
He was preparing for the IRL season in a Jan. 6, 2000, test session at the Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando. He crashed coming out of the second turn, suffering a severe spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic.
Schmidt motors around the track on an electric scooter. He continues to undergo rehab and has regained some shoulder movement and neck strength.
"When something like this happens, you can either choose to stay at home and watch ESPN all day or you can get out and do something with your life," Schmidt said. "For me, I've done a lot of things in my life. The thing that made getting up every morning worthwhile, beyond my faith and my family pushing me, was the ability to come out here and compete. I make no bones about it; I'd much rather be in the driving seat rather than in the owning seat, but this is definitely the second-best thing."
Of Tagliani's pole, "I'm definitely proud to see what he has achieved with a start-up team and mix it up with the big ones," fellow racer Scott Dixon said.
"Penske and Ganassi have done this 10 years in a row," Tagliani said. "We're trying to close the gap."
They've done so, he said, with a good mix of people who have developed chemistry. They've put the cars together with hard work "and they've put the love into it," Tagliani said.
Tagliani, a native of Quebec, Canada, with a gentle souffle of an accent, joined the Schmidt effort last year after a couple of years of part-time racing. This will be his 162nd top-tier open-wheel race, with one win (Road America in 2004) to his credit. This is his third Indianapolis 500, his first on the pole.
"It seems to me just kind of unreal," Tagliani admitted. "Kind of too-good-to-be-true at times. But we deserve it. It's not because we're not Penske or Ganassi, that we don't deserve to be there. We did everything better than everybody else. Hopefully it will continue."
Somebody asked Tagliani what he'd feel on Sunday, leading the pack of 33 cars into the first turn after the green flag drops on the centennial Indianapolis 500.
Tagliani smiled, then said, "A very high heart rate."
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