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If you follow the NFL, you may or may not have heard the story of the latest sensation – Joshua Dobbs. I pay attention to it because Dobbs played quarterback or my alma mater, the University of Tennessee from 2013 to 2016. Dobbs was a winner and had an incredible career for the Vols. But he was slight of stature, and the book on him said he was one of those great QBs that would never make it in the NFL.

Miraculously, Dobbs has managed to hold on as an NFL journeyman since he was drafted by the Steelers in 2017. Altogether he has played for eight teams, and has been on four NFL rosters in 2023. He was a starter for half the season at Arizona, filling in for the injured Kyler Murray.

When Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins went down with a torn Achilles tendon, they traded with Arizona to get Dobbs, He arrived on a Wednesday and was to be available as a back-up on Sunday, since he didn’t know the playbook or any of the players. As luck would have it, the starter went out with a concussion. When Dobbs entered the game, the Vikings were down two scores when Dobbs brought them back, throwing the winning touchdown pass with 22-seconds to go.

This past Sunday he threw for 268 yards, one TD passing and another one rushing in another Vikings win. Dobbs is currently the toast of the town in Minneapolis and is the talk of the entire NFL. He has come out of nowhere to become an overnight sensation. I suspect Dobbs will cool off at some point, but for now – he’s looking like the real deal.

As it usually does, my mind wandered to IndyCar racing. I got to wondering, have we ever seen anything like this in the NTT IndyCar Series? I’m talking about a career journeyman driver who was barely able to scrap his way from one season to the next. Then suddenly, they found themselves in the right situation and suddenly flourished reasonably late in their career. I surprised myself that I could only come up with four examples – and two of them drove this past season.

Ryan Hunter-Reay: While everyone thinks of the longtime occupant of the DHL car, winning the 2012 IndyCar championship and the 2014 Indianapolis 500; many forget that he toiled in relative obscurity for years. He drove three seasons in CART/Champ Car from 2003 to 2005. In that span, he did manage to win two races, but never finished higher than ninth in the championship.

After sitting out the 2006 open-wheel season, he started driving for Rahal Letterman Racing two-thirds of the way through the 2007 season, replacing the fired Jeff Simmons. He drove the entire 2008 season for Bobby Rahal, winning at Watkins Glen and finishing eighth in the championship. In 2009, Rahal shut his doors except for the Indianapolis 500 for the next three seasons.

Hunter-Reay moved on and into what had to be the darkest point of his career. He started out the season in the second car at Vision Racing, as teammate to Ed Carpenter. Except for a second-place finish at St. Petersburg, it did not go well for Hunter-Reay. After a sixteenth-place finish at Texas, Vision shut down the second car, and Hunter-Reay was farmed out to finish the season in the No. 14 at AJ Foyt Enterprises. At the halfway point in the season, Hunter-Reay was already the fourth driver to race that car. AJ Foyt’s team has had a lot of rough seasons, but 2009 may have been one of the roughest. Ryan Hunter-Reay looked absolutely miserable as he trudged along in that car.

For 2010, Michael Andretti signed Rahal to a handful of races. In the fourth race of the season, he won at Long Beach, which bought him a couple of more races. This pattern of two-three races more carried on through the season, until we realized that Hunmer-Reay drove the entire season for Andretti Autosport and finished seventh in the championship.

The 2011 season saw Hunter-Reay signed to a multiyear deal. He added another win, but was bumped out of the Indianapolis 500 by teammate Marco Andretti. A financial arrangement was made with (ironically) AJ Foyt. Bruno Junqueira was pulled out of the No. 41 in favor of Hunter-Reay, who ran a very ugly livery that combined the colors of ABC Supply and DHL.

The 2012 season was magic for Ryan Hunter-Reay. Almost a decade removed from his Champ Car days just a few years after that miserable tiome at Foyt, Hunter-Reay won four races and the IndyCar championship. Two years later, he won the 2014 Indianapolis 500 in a thrilling late-race duel with Helio Castroneves.

While Hunter-Reay never quite matched that magical 2012 season, he went on to win a lot of races for Michael Andretti. His last season with the team was 2021, when he could only muster three Top-Ten finishes and no podiums. He sat out the 2022 season, but drove for Dreyer & Reinbold in the 2023 Indianapolis 500 and then replaced Conor Daly at Ed Carpenter Racing at the halfway point of the season. Who knows what is in store for Ryan Hunter-Reay going forward? But one thing he can take pride in – after a relatively slow start to his career and toiling in obscurity over a decade ago, he stuck with it and his career took off in 2010. I’m not sure you can say he came out of nowhere, but his career was going nowhere before it finally took off.

Takuma Sato: From 2002 to 2008, Takuma Sato raced in Formula One. In that time, he managed one podium finish (2004 at Indianapolis). That was also his best season in Formula One, when he finished eighth in the championship.

In 2010 with the help of Honda, Sato jumped across the pond to the IndyCar Series and joined KV Racing Technologies alongside teammates EJ Viso and Mario Moraes. KV was not a top-tier program, and Sato finished twenty-first in his first year in IndyCar. He managed only one Top-Ten finish that season – a ninth at Edmonton. Things improved in Year Two for Sato. He had three Top-Five finishes, but he also crashed a lot. He was showing the speed, but not enough control.

In 2012, Sato moved to the newly revamped Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) that had been dormant for the previous three seasons, except for the Indianapolis 500. It was more of the same. Sato had two podiums and two more Top=Ten finishes, but he continued to crash a lot. He was replaced for 2013 by Graham Rahal, the team-owner’s son.

2013 saw Sato move on to the Foyt team, which was still running Hondas at the time. Sato won his first career victory at Long Beach, giving the Foyt team their first win in over a decade (and their last win to date). After winning at Long Beach and a second in the next race at São Paulo; Sato and Foyt were leading the points heading into the Month of May. Unfortunately, only one more Top-Ten followed – a seventh at Milwaukee. Sato finished seventeenth that season. After two more seasons with very limited success at Foyt, Sato moved on to Andretti Autosport in 2017.

It was there where Sato’s career took off. Yes he had a win at Foyt, but failing to back it up gave the appearance it may have been a fluke. Sato started the 2017 season off with a fifth-place finish with his new team. He won his second career race that May, when he won the Indianapolis 500. Altogether, Sato had four Top-Fives in his one year at Andretti, but crashes continued to plague him. Despite those finishes and double-;points for winning the 500, Sato still finished eighth in the championship.

In 2018, Sato returned to RLLR. Although he had the Long Beach win and the Indianapolis 500 victory on his resume, he was still considered more of an obscure driver than a star. Sato drove for RLLR for four more years, where he amassed four more wins, including his second Indianapolis 500 win in 2020.

At the end of the 2021 season, Rahal was ready to move on and Sato found himself at Dale Coyne Racing in 2022. The results were not spectacular – four Top-Ten finishes and a nineteenth-place finish in the championship.

This past season, Sato moved to Chip Ganassi Racing in a part-time role – sharing the car with Marcus Armstrong, with Sato driving on the ovals. He crashed at Texas, finished seventh in the Indianapolis 500, ninth in Iowa Race One, twenty-fifth in Race Two and a fifth at Gateway. So far, no plans have been announced for Sato for the 2024 season or the Indianapolis 500.

Is Sato a bonafied star? Well, he’s a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. That commands respect in the racing community, and will for the rest of his life. But is he a household name like AJ Foyt or Mario Andretti? Hardly. But after struggling for more than a decade in Formula One and IndyCar, he finally got his first win in 2013. Then he collected five more between 2017 and 2020, including two Indianapolis 500 wins. From 2002 to 2016, Sato had one win. Between 2017 and 2020, he won five races and became a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. If that is not coming from the middle of nowhere, Sato was at least a very late bloomer.

Arie Luyendyk: Road America in 1984 was when we first got a glimpse of Arie Luyendyk in an Indy car. It was the only race he ran that season and he finished eighth. 1985 was his first fulltime season in CART. It was not spectacular, but he did finish seventh in the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie. Still, he finished eighteenth in the championship that season. 1985 and 1986 were fairly forgettable seasons for the Flying Dutchman, but in 1987 he drove for Ron Hemelgarn and things picked up. He earned his first podium and had six Top-Five finishes, on his way to a respectable seventh=place finish in the championship.

Two years with Dick Simon provided very mediocre results 9fourteenth and tenth in the final standings). In those two seasons, Luyendyk produced only two podiums amongst a ton of DNFs.

Things improved when he teamed with Doug Shierson for the 1990 season. After five full seasons of mostly forgettable drives, Luyendyk finally scored his first win – the 1990 Indianapolis 500. He followed up that win with three more Top-Five finishes, on his way to an eighth-place finish in the championship.

Shierson got out of racing after the 1990 season and his team was merged with Vince Granatelli Racing for 1991, with Arie Luyendyk the driver. Luyendyk started the season with four straight Top-Ten finishes, including his second career win at Phoenix and a third in the 1991 Indianapolis 500. He won his second race of the season at Nazareth, and finished sixth in the standings. The driver that was known for his long hair more than anything else, had suddenly gained a ton of respect in the paddock and was considered a force to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately Vince Granatelli closed his shop after the 1991 season and the sudden star drove only twice in 1992 – at Indianapolis and Michigan, for Chip Gannassi.

That turned into a fulltime gig in 1993, as Luyendyk replaced Eddie Cheever at Ganassi, which was still a single car effort at that point. While there were some decent results scattered through the season, there appeared to be some friction on the team as Ganassi failed to get that elusive first win. Luyendyk was cut loose in favor of Michael Andretti, who was returning from a year in Formula One.

1994 saw Luyendyk land at the very obscure Indy Regency Racing. With the exception of a second-place finish at Michigan, there were only two other Top-Ten finishes. Overall it was a disastrous season, and Luyendyk was on the move again at the end of the season.

1995 saw Luyendyk in a one-off with Dick Simon at Phoenix, before he emerged at Indianapolis in a John Menard three-car effort featuring Luyendyk, Scott Brayton and Buddy Lazier. His seventh place finish in the 1995 Indianapolis 500 would be Luyendyk’s final appearance of the year in an Indy car. It would be the second season of the previous four that Luyendyk drove only two races in a season.

When the Indy Racing League (IRL) kicked off in 1996, Luyendyk sought opportunities there – especially since they ran at the site of his greatest racing moment, winning the 1990 Indianapolis 500. As a second-day qualifier, Luyendyk set a new track record with a one-lap speed of 237.498 mph. It would be the last time Tom Carnegie uttered those famous words over the PA, because that record still stands today.

In the IRL, Luyendyk flourished, admittedly against lesser competition. He won the 1997 Indianapolis 500 and three other races, to add to his three races in CART.

After going winless through five fulltime seasons in CART, Luyendyk finally broke through by winning the 1990 Indianapolis 500. Between 1990 and 1998, Luyendyk won seven races and became a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Like Sato, he may not have come out of nowhere, but he was certainly a late bloomer.

Buddy Lazier: Maybe the most circuitous route to eventual stardom in the past thirty-five years came from Buddy Lazier. He first showed up in 1989, trying to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in a car owned by his father Bob. He did not succeed. He also failed to qualify for the season finale at Laguna Seca for Gary Trout Motorsports.

Lazier also failed to qualify for the 1990 Indianapolis 500 for Ron Hemelgarn. He finally saw race action at Portland, where he finished fourteenth. He drove in five races in 1990 for Hemelgarn, and one race for Frank Arciero. His best finish was twelfth at Vancouver.

Lazier drove in ten races for four teams in 1991, but did manage to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Unfortunately, he was faced with the spinning car of Gary Bettenhausen and his race ended in Turn One on the opening lap. His best finish was ninth at Denver.

In 1992, Lazier drove the entire season (except for New Hampshire) for Leader Card Racing. His best finish was a seventh at Michigan, as he finished nineteenth in points. He drove sporadically for Leader Card in the next two seasons, never finishing higher than thirteenth.

Lazier drove in a handful of races for three different teams in 1995, Project Indy, Payton/Coyne Racing and Team Menard, with a best finish of fourteenth at Michigan.

Like Luyendyk, the birth of the IRL gave new life to stagnating careers. There is no better example of that than Buddy Lazier. Again, it is worth noting that the competition was inferior to what Lazier had been facing in CART. That may rub some the wrong way, but that is my strong opinion. Still, the driver that was going nowhere, was suddenly a threat to win every race he was in.

Lazier broke his back early in the 1996 season in a practice crash at Phoenix, but he still managed to qualify fifth for the Indianapolis 500 and won the race. To those of us who remembered his efforts in the first half of the decade, it was hard to believe that Buddy Lazier was an Indianapolis 500 winner. But Lazier backed it up with seven more wins, an IndyCar championship in 2000 and a runner-up for the championship the following year.

From 1996 through 2000, Lazier’s finishes in the Indianapolis 500 were first, fourth, second, seventh and second. Against much tougher competition in the 2005 500, Lazier started ninth and finished fifth.

Buddy Lazier finally hung up his helmet after the 2017 Indianapolis 500, where he started thirtieth and finished twenty-ninth. Twenty-eight years after he first showed up at Indianapolis, he finally called it a career. His career ended much like it started, as an afterthought. But in between, Buddy Lazier caught fire and came out of the middle of nowhere.

While it’s nice to follow the drivers that show talent and promise from the start, it’s more interesting to look back on the careers that came out of nowhere. I’m curious to see if readers here can come up with any more examples.

Joshua Dobbs is a great story so far. I’ve been following it for the past ten years since he started at Tennessee. Now the entire NFL knows about him. It will be interesting to see how long he can carry this momentum. If interested, he will be playing on Sunday Night Football this weekend on NBC. Like these four drivers I mentioned, I’m hoping he can continue to beat the odds on his way to the ultimate prize.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on November 17, 2023 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.