This offseason I have decided to bring back the Career Retrospective, but instead of looking at contemporary drivers, I wanted to take a look back at some of the cult heroes in IndyCar, drivers who aren't necessarily remember for the number of race victories and championships, but for things they did on track that gained the respect of many and left them struck at their ability.
The final part of this three-part series will look at a past champion and a past Indianapolis 500 winner, one you likely forgot won both despite competing for three teams that are still on the grid. He was even the fastest Indianapolis 500 qualifier once, and a key figure in one of the best IndyCar races held in the 2000s.
It is Kenny Bräck.
Where was Bräck coming from?
Sweden, but in terms of his racing career he started karting in Sweden as a teenager in the late 1970s. When Bräck turned 19 years old, he started competing in Formula Ford in his native country. He was champion at 20 and started looking to compete in Great Britain.
Bräck's career stalled out a bit in the late 1980s as he competed in some Formula Three Sweden events. It wasn't until 1989 he ran in British Formula Three, but only part-time as he lacked the budget for a full season. In 1990, he contested the Formula Opel for the first of two seasons, finishing eighth and ninth in the championship in those respective years. His career took a step away from single-seater competition in 1992. He ran the Renault Clio Cup Scandinavia championship and won nine of ten races, easily taking the title.
Surprisingly, Bräck came to America in 1993 to run the Barber Saab Pro Series. He won his first two starts and five of the first six rounds. He ended season as champion while competing against the likes of Jerry Nadeau, Geoff Boss and current McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
Bräck was also becoming a popular junior driver in the Renault ranks and ran three Renault Clio International Cup races in 1993, winning two of them and finishing on the podium in the other. The Renault results led to a test with Williams at Circuit Paul Ricard spending half a rainy day in the car.
With help from Renault Sweden, Bräck moved to International Formula 3000 with a back-marker team, Madgwick International. He failed to score points in the first five races but was third in his sixth race at Spa-Francorchamps in wet conditions and ended up 11th in the championship. Year two with Madgwick saw significant improvement. He had five top five results in eight races, including his first victory at the Magny-Cours season finale to place him fourth in the championship.
Super Nova Racing had its drivers go 1-2 in the championship in 1995 with Vinceznzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset. Super Nova hired Bräck for the 1996 season. Bräck won the season opener and three of the first five races and was quickly in a tough championship battle with Jörg Müller. Entering the Hockenheim finale, Müller led Bräck by three points after finishing on the podium in eight of the first nine races while Bräck had seven podium finishes up to that point.
The two drivers were fighting for the lead in the finale with Müller ahead after starting on pole position. Bräck made a pass attempt on Müller and the two drivers made contact, ending Müller's race while Bräck continued. Bräck was shown the black flag during the race and lost what was a certain victory which would have given him the championship.
Bräck had a few Formula One suitors approach him during the 1996 season. He turned down test driver offers from McLaren and Benetton to join Ligier with the promise of racing in 1997 with team owner Tom Walkinshaw. However, Walkinshaw had a falling out and purchased Arrows, bringing Bräck along with him. Arrows had significant financial issues and led to Bräck exiting the team.
What did IndyCar look like when Bräck started in the series?
Broken. The Split had just occurred. We were in the middle of the second Indy Racing League season, all oval races and visiting a handful of circuits while CART still possessed most of the other historic ovals. Because of the initial plan for the IRL season to span to calendar years and end with the Indianapolis 500, the second IRL season began in August 1996. However, plans soon changed and the the 1996-97 season would run through October 1997 before the third season would take place entirely in 1998 in a traditional timeframe.
Due to this scheduling, Loudon and Las Vegas each hosted two races. The IRL visited eight different tracks, four one-mile tracks (Loudon, Phoenix, Orlando and Pikes Peak, three 1.5-mile intermediate ovals (Las Vegas, Charlotte and Texas) and then Indianapolis.
CART had just completed a season without going to the Indianapolis 500. Team Penske, Newman-Haas Racing, and a handful of past Indianapolis 500 winners weren't there in May 1996. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis 500 had guaranteed starting positions for the top 25 teams in the IRL were locked into the race with any additional entries left to fill in the final eight positions.
Created to increase opportunities for American drivers, the IRL created opportunities an opportunity for foreign drivers as well. Marco Greco, Roberto Guerrero, Eliseo Salazar, Stéphan Grégroire, Affonso Giaffone, Vincenzo Sospiri and Fermín Vélez were all IRL regulars.
It was a piecemeal grid in the IRL. CART veterans Eddie Cheever, Scott Goodyear, Arie Luyendyk and Roberto Guerrero were cornerstones for the series. Tony Stewart was the poster boy for the USAC developed drivers. Davey Hamilton was another short track standout competing on the national stage. Drivers that were stuck in the junior series such as Buzz Calkins, Mark Dismore and Robbie Buhl got a shot at a higher level. Even some less noted junior drivers got a shot, Mike Shank included. John Paul, Jr. was able to make a full-time open-wheel comeback thanks to the IRL. Many other drivers got a break during this period whether they were of the utmost talent or not.
How does IndyCar look now?
We are back to a single IndyCar series and have been that way for 15 seasons.
The quality of the grid has been at its highest level for quite some time. There is plenty of domestically developed talent through the Road to Indy system, but IndyCar has a mix of drivers who topped out in the top European junior series and some came from Formula One. It is still as internationally mixed as it was back in 1996-97, if not slightly more international. There is a balance to the grid's identity.
Road and street courses greatly outnumber oval races. There were only four oval tracks on the schedule in 2022 and only Indianapolis and Texas remain from when Bräck first competed in IndyCar. The schedule begins in early March and the final race is run in early September, the weekend after Labor Day in 2022.
Of the teams that competed in the 1996-97 IRL season, only A.J. Foyt Racing is still on the grid and it couldn't get a car to finish in the top twenty of the championship. Of the CART teams from that time period, Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Dale Coyne Racing are still around. Andretti Autosport's heritage goes back to Team KOOL Green. Mike Shank is now an IndyCar team owner and an Indianapolis 500 winning team owner to boot.
What did Bräck do in-between?
First, he started knocking on doors. Bräck returned to America after his Arrows fallout and was looking for a test. Bräck found a seat at Galles Racing, who lost its main driver Davy Jones in testing and had Jeff Ward run one round. Bräck joined at the Indy Racing League round at Phoenix in March and finished 11th despite an accident.
For his maiden Indianapolis 500, Bräck qualified 15th but was caught in the infamous pace lap incident and didn't even take the green flag. Results were hard to come by that rookie season but he was fifth at Charlotte and Loudon and drew the attention of A.J. Foyt.
Moving to the Foyt team for the 1998 season, Bräck had a slow start to the season, but was sixth at Indianapolis and third at Texas. Despite having only one top five finish through six of 11 races, Bräck still had an outside shot at the championship as no driver took control of the season. He picked up his first career victory at Charlotte. At the next race, Jeff Ward crashed out of the lead at Pikes Peak and opened the door for the field with Bräck beating Robbie Buhl and Tony Stewart. He made it a hat trick of victories when he passed Ward with 14 laps to go at Atlanta and this gave Bräck the championship lead with two races remaining.
A fifth at Texas gave Bräck a 31-point lead entering the Las Vegas finale. Any finish in the top eight would secure him the title. Tony Stewart spun early in the race and when Davey Hamilton was taken out in an accident on lap 130, Bräck had the title clinched.
The 1999 season will be remembered for Bräck's Indianapolis 500 victory, a race where he led 66 laps, the most in the race, but Bräck did not take the lead for the final time until the start of the final after Robby Gordon's fuel gamble came up about 2.75 miles short. Bräck was one of the best drivers of the 1999 season but finishes of 22nd and 24th in the first two races were difficult to overcome, though every driver had bad results that season.
Bräck entered the Texas season finale 15 points behind Greg Ray, who had won three times but finished outside the top twenty in five of the first nine races. Ray started on pole position with Bräck in fifth. Bräck found himself in the lead during the middle of the race and on his way to the championship until a wheel bearing failed and Ray took the title.
The IRL success caught the eye of those across the aisle. Bobby Rahal offered Bräck a ride in CART for the 2000 season and Foyt allowed the Swede to jump sides.
New series, new tracks, but success followed. Bräck was on the podium in his fifth start. He was runner-up at Cleveland to first-time winner Roberto Moreno. He scored a third at Road America and another runner-up finish at Surfers Paradise. It led to Bräck finishing fourth in the championship ahead of the likes of Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, Hélio Castroneves, Michael Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Cristiano da Matta. Bräck was 75 points clear of the next closest rookie Oriol Servià.
For his sophomore season, Bräck opened like gang busters. He won at Motegi and Milwaukee. Four top five finishes from five races had him in the championship lead. There were a few dips in results during the summer. An accident at Michigan with Max Papis while battling for the lead took points off the board. He won again in Chicago, but that race was his only top ten finish in a five-race period. He dropped to second after Road America and then third after an eighth in Vancouver.
Bräck had the best car at the Lausitzring, leading 82 laps and he left Germany with a ten-point championship lead over Gil de Ferran. At Rockingham, the race was shortened by 70 laps due to a lack of practice after persistent rain in the lead up to the race. Bräck and de Ferran started on the front row and proceeded to go back-and-forth for 140 laps. The swapped the lead four times, including a memorable battle in the final two laps that saw the de Ferran make a spectacular move on Bräck to take the victory.
Returning to America, Bräck had a five-point lead over de Ferran, but de Ferran won the next race at Houston and was third at Laguna Seca while Bräck was seventh and 25th in those respective races. Bräck entered the penultimate round at Surfers Paradise needing to score five more points than de Ferran to keep the championship alive. Set back with a poor qualifying run, Bräck charged up to fifth, but de Ferran finished fourth, scoring two more points over Bräck and clinching the title a race early.
Bräck moved to Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2002 season. He scored a few good results, but not with the same consistency as he did the prior two seasons. Added to the mix was Scott Dixon, who joined the team after PacWest Racing shutdown after only completing the first three races. Bräck had a handful of accidents, many at the start of races and he let a victory get away from him at Rockingham. The season ended on a high at Mexico City with a victory, but decisions had already been made for 2003. Bräck would not continue with Chip Ganassi Racing as it moved to the IRL, but Bräck would re-join the series as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing also crossed the aisle.
Back in the IRL, Bräck picked up like he never left. He had three top five finishes in the first five events and was fourth in the championship. He had seven top ten finishes from the first nine races, but the second half of the season took a nosedive. Bräck retired from three consecutive races at Michigan, Gateway and Kentucky. He was fifth at Nazareth but then had at accident at Chicagoland and finished 15 laps down at Fontana.
Bräck was competitive at the Texas season finale, attempting to salvage a respectable conclusion to the season. He was running fourth with 13 laps remaining when he and Tomas Scheckter made contact entering turn three, sending Bräck into the catchfence, tearing the car apart. Bräck suffered fractures to his sternum, femur, vertebra and ankles. He would later suffer a collapsed lung and a pulmonary embolism after being transferred toe Indianapolis Methodist Hospital for recovery.
After numerous surgeries, Bräck was released from hospital and tested an IndyCar again in June 2004 at Richmond. After Buddy Rice was injury in the lead up for the 2005 Indianapolis 500, Bräck accepted the call from Rahal to return to competition. He was a third day qualifier and had a four-lap average of 227.598 mph, the fastest qualifying run of the month, but he had to start 23rd.
In the race, Bräck was making progress forward, but a broken wishbone ended his race after 92 laps, placing him in 26th.
After the race, Newman-Haas Racing contacted Bräck about a possible ride in the future. Three months later, Bräck decided he was set to step away from IndyCar racing.
What impression did Bräck leave on IndyCar?
Bräck will be forever remembered for his Texas accident, and that sadly overshadows his ability as a driver.
He survived one of the worst visual accidents in IndyCar history, but it was a reminder of the worst possible outcome during the IRL era on high-banked intermediate ovals. For years, we were waiting for that accident. Then it happened with Bräck and nothing really changed to decrease the likelihood of those accidents. Races kept taking place at Texas, Chicagoland, Kansas, Kentucky and Homestead with the cars flat out, side-by-side for 300 consecutive miles average 220 mph. There were a few other big accidents. Ryan Briscoe was knocked out of the 2005 season due to an accident at Chicagoland. Nothing changed. The regulations remained.
It was never a case of "if" the Bräck accident would happen again. We knew it was going to, and when it did it ended the life of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas. Then things changed.
Bräck did comeback from that accident but it is forgotten because it was only one race, and one where he was overshadowed by Danica Patrick's Indianapolis 500 debut.
I try to remember Kenny Bräck as one of the few drivers who crossed the lines during The Split and succeeded on each side. He went to the IRL and quickly became a champion and won the Indianapolis 500. Then he went to CART, which was a more talented series and quickly showed he was championship material. It was a time where a driver's credentials could easily be dismissed, but Bräck showed he was one of the top drivers of the period.
We also have to acknowledge that if it wasn't for Kenny Bräck, we might not have Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner, in IndyCar. Bräck managed Ericsson in the early part of Ericsson's career. If Bräck wasn't there to guide Ericsson in those early days, Ericsson might not make it to the top European junior series, might have never made it to Formula One and in turn not ended up in IndyCar and driving for Ganassi. There is a chance even if Ericsson found success competing in Europe, he may have never considered the United States as an option because his mentor likely wasn't going to have the background of Bräck's.
We don't talk about Bräck that often in contemporary IndyCar, but his actions are still affecting the grid over 15 years after he made his final start even if we don't realize it.
