Buddy Lazier winced in pain as they gently pried him from the purple race car that carried him to victory in the Indianapolis 500.
He can barely walk, but he sure can drive."An accomplishment like this makes all the pain go away," he said.
In riding to victory Sunday, Lazier left the field literally scattered behind him - and in a sense Indy-car racing itself.
Even as he pulled his Reynard-Ford into Victory Lane, the track was still littered with debris from a spectacular crash involving Roberto Guerrero, Alessandro Zampedri and Eliseo Salazar.
The 28-year-old driver, whose back was broken in a March crash at Phoenix, alternately smiled and winced as he squeezed out of the cockpit of the purple car he drove to victory in one of the strangest races ever run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He won by 0.695-seconds - about eight car-lengths, averaging 147.956 mph.
"This is extra, extra sweet coming back from such an injury. It wasn't that long ago that I could barely walk on crutches. We were borderline and it was a very big risk to come back and do this race."
Lazier's pain and the messy ending seemed to reflect the trouble within Indy-car racing - a split that took away most of the biggest names from the world's biggest race.
That split that was caused by speedway president Tony George's decision to start up the Indy Racing League as a rival to the established PPG Indy Car World Series.
After George reserved 25 of the 33 starting spots at Indy for IRL regulars, the biggest names in the Indy-car series chose to skip Indy and run their own rival race, the U.S. 500, on the same day at Brooklyn, Mich.
Asked if there should be an asterisk next to his name because he beat a weakened field, Lazier said: "Obviously, I hope not, because I gave it everything I had, my heart and soul. And I think everybody else out there did the same."
Lazier, finishing better than seventh for the first time in 55 Indy-car starts, took the lead with eight laps remaining and pulled away from runner-up Davy Jones on the last of the 200 trips around the 21/2-mile oval.
"The last 10 laps were as risky as I would ever want to be. It was basically just all-out," said Lazier, who led five times for 43 laps.
The day turned out to be much safer than expected, considering 17 rookies were part of the most inexperienced field in six decades.
But the finish was marred by the wild crash in turn four just as Lazier took the checkered flag.
Guerrero, adding to his long list of disappointments at Indy, lost control and hit the outside wall.
Zampedri, running third, suddenly found Guerrero in his path. The Italian's car slammed into Guerrero's and sailed into the air, cartwheeling high onto the catch-fencing above the concrete. It turned upside down and slammed back onto the track, tangling with Salazar.
Zampedri had injuries to both lower legs but was awake and alert when transported to nearby Methodist Hospital. Salazar was also taken to the hospital for precautionary X-rays to his right leg. Guerrero, who once spent nearly three weeks in a coma after crashing in a tire test here, was not injured.
Zampedri took the lead on lap 170 following the final pit stops by most of the leaders. He stayed in front until Jones, who started from the middle of the front row and was among the leaders all day, swept past on lap 190.
Lazier, who had been third and trailing the leader by about 9 seconds, was charging by then. He, too, passed Zampedri on lap 191, then set out after Jones, who was short on fuel and trying to conserve so he wouldn't have to make another stop.
On lap 193, Lazier's Reynard caught Jones coming out of the fourth turn. He drove into the lead at the finish line and began to pull away.
"One of my chief mechanics told me ... `That car in front of you, go get 'em. That's your car. You need to pass him,' " Lazier said.
Unofficially, rookie Richie Hearn wound up third. Zampedri was fourth, followed by Guerrero, Salazar and Danny Ongais. Ongais, the oldest man in the field at 54, drove in his first Indy 500 in 10 years after taking over the car put on the pole two weeks ago by Scott Brayton, who was killed May 17 in a crash during practice.
Tony Stewart, the rookie who inherited the pole position from teammate Brayton, led 44 of the first 54 laps - the most for a rookie since Bill Holland led 143 and finished second in 1947. Stewart also ran the fastest race laps ever, turning a high of 234.4 on his ninth lap.
He lost the lead on a pit stop on lap 55 and never regained it, his car succumbing to an engine problem on lap 81 while running fourth.
The start, much feared because of the overall inexperience of the field, was ragged but clean, with Stewart and Salazar, starting on the outside of the front row, side-by-side heading into the first turn before Stewart pulled ahead.
The first wreck of the afternoon came on lap 162 when rookie Scott Harrington appeared to run into the rear of the car driven by Lyn St. James.
Both slid across the track and slammed the first-turn wall but were able to walk away, although St. James sustained multiple contusions and was taken by ambulance to the hospital for precautionary X-rays. Harrington came away with a bruised right shin.
The race, as expected with so many new drivers and teams, was attrition-filled, with only eight of the 33 starters running at the end.