SAM'S CLUB UNDAUNTED AFTER A CRASH LEFT HIM A QUADRIPLEGIC, SCHMIDT STILL GETS A CHANCE TO WIN THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 - AS AN IRL TEAM OWNER.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK

Staff Writer

Sam Schmidt came into the world of Indy car racing as a bit of a rebel.

He was one of the first drivers to join the Indy Racing League when it started in 1996.

He raced his own car and put together his own team at a time when the open-wheel racing world split into two adversarial entities.

He found opportunity and success in the IRL, winning a race in 1999 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and competing in three Indianapolis 500s.

"Not only was he a successful race driver that had won Indy car races at the highest level, but he did it as his own team owner," said Buddy Lazier, who will be driving Schmidt's entry in today's Indianapolis 500. "That takes a lot of extra effort."

Today, it takes that amount of effort for Schmidt, 42, to get out of bed in the morning.

Instead of racing around Indianapolis' famed Brickyard at 225 mph, his top speed is more like 5mph.

His primary mode of transportation no longer has four wheels, it has two -- a wheelchair.

While testing in preparation for the 2000 season, Schmidt crashed at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla. He was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition and was diagnosed with a spinal-cord injury that left him a quadriplegic.

Although Schmidt has regained neck strength and partial shoulder movement, he remains paralyzed from the chest down.

"Before my accident, everything was great. I had a job driving a race car, which I loved and was actually getting paid for," Schmidt, who is deeply religious, told the IRL Ministry for a 2003 story in its newsletter. "A couple of months before my accident, (wife Sheila and I) had a conversation. We said, "Geez, life is great. We have two great, happy, healthy kids and a successful business.' We were kind of thinking, 'When is the other shoe going to drop ...' and unfortunately it did."

While Schmidt's rise as a driver was cut short, his career as an owner was just beginning in earnest.

The Village Christian High of Sun Valley and Pepperdine University graduate has become one of the more successful team owners in the Indy Pro Series, the developmental circuit for the IRL's IndyCar Series. Schmidt has won two of the past three Indy Pro Series championships and is on his way to another.

For each of the past seven years, Schmidt has put together a team to enter the Indianapolis 500.

This year he has Lazier, a former Indy 500 winner and IRL champion, driving for him. He has cars from two of the top teams in the IRL.

And he has realistic goals.

"I think there's a good chance we could definitely be in the top 10 by the end of this thing," Schmidt said. "With a little bit of luck or pit strategy or what have you, we could be right in the top five, which would be pretty huge for us."

The Indianapolis 500 is the only race in the IndyCar Series that Schmidt enters. Hehas finished as high as sixth as a owner, in 2002 with Richie Hearn behind the wheel.

But Schmidt still regrets the day he had a chance to win the Indy 500 as a driver.

In the third -- and last -- Indianapolis 500 start of Schmidt's career, he had a car he thought could win. He started seventh and led fourlaps before crashing on lap 68.

"Looking back, that's definitely one that got away," Schmidt said. "I felt that if we could've just kept it on the track, we could've won the race. That was a big loss because we just had a fantastic car all day and just didn't have enough patience as a driver."

Today, he still dreams of winning the Indy 500 -- only as an owner.

But racing against some of the IRL's powerhouse teams: Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green Racing, makes his task all the more difficult.

"The chances of us winning against the Penskes and the Ganassis are really, really, really slim. I don't even know what the odds would be in Vegas," Schmidt said. "We have a lot of respect in the garage as a team and as a crew. To some extent, a top seven or eight finish for us is almost like a victory."

Schmidt always has had a passion for racing.

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, he began competing in motorcross events when he was 5. But he gave it up five years later when his father was injured in a drag-racing event.

A few years after graduating from Pepperdine, he bought his father's auto parts business. On weekends, he'd help his uncle, who raced on the Sports Car Club of America circuit.

The passion was rekindled.

In 1992, Schmidt bought his own car and began competing in SCCA events. He advanced to the Hooters Pro Circuit and then joined the fledgling IRL.

After winning in Las Vegas in the penultimate race of the 1999 season, Schmidt moved to third place in the points standings and had shot at the series championship.

But he crashed at the season finale in Texas, suffering serious foot injuries. That would be Schmidt's last IRL race -- his career-ending crash came 2 1/2 months later.

"Six months after I got home from rehabilitation, I realized I needed something to get me out of bed," Schmidt, who still undergoes two to four hours of physical therapy a day, told USA Today. "All the other things I've done in my life business-wise ... I just wasn't passionate enough to get back into them as I was about racing."

While Schmidt admits being an owner is not nearly as exciting as driving the car, he can't stay away from the sport.

He'd like to race full-time on the IRL circuit, but that isn't feasible.

"It's next to impossible to find the funding to run the whole year," Schmidt said.

The next best thing is to put his resources into the Indy 500.

He has two cars for the race. The primary car is from the now-defunct Super Aguri Fernandez Racing. Kosuke Matsuura drove the car in a few races last year.

"The car is probably one of the newer ones on the track," Schmidt said. "The car's been sitting all winter. It's a very, very nice, tight car."

His back-up car is from Penske Racing. It's a bit older and Schmidt said he was only going to use it in an emergency.

Most important, he has Lazier, a driver he trusts and a driver that can give him an opportunity to win the race.

"The entire time I was driving, he was one of our fiercest competitors," Schmidt said. "It was a pretty easy call for me to get him in the car if I could. I know how much he battles on the race track."

Lazier said Schmidt is a good organizer and an extremely good team owner.

"You have respect for anybody who can do that," Lazier said. "But for somebody who can do that, overcoming what he had to overcome being in the wheelchair, it really makes that all the more phenomenal."

Schmidt still has a rebellious side.

Inspired by the late actor Christopher Reeve, he started the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping patients who have suffered spinal-cord injuries.

He's as likely to be found on Capitol Hill lobbying for embryonic stem- cell research as at an IRL event. Schmidt, who lives with his wife and two children in Henderson, Nev., travels more than 120 days a year on behalf of both his racing team and his foundation.

"I like to tell (spinal-cord patients) I don't believe this is a life sentence," Schmidt told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "My deal is racing. I started when I was 5 and I'm still doing it. You don't have to give up your job. You can be productive."

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Sam Schmidt Motorsports' entry, a Dallara Honda that Buddy Lazier rides, passes through Gasoline Alley during qualifying day in Indianapolis. As an owner, Schmidt has had his share of success, including a victory at the Infiniti Pro Series Homestead-Miami 100 in 2005, top, with Travis Gregg driving.

Photos by Getty Images

(3) For each of the past seven years, Sam Schmidt, left, has put together a team to enter the Indianapolis 500.

Tom Strattman/Associated Press