INDY 500: Team boss hopes Brabham gets more chances

Team Murray boss Brett 'Crusher' Murray hopes that Matt Brabham's solid rookie performance will open the door for more IndyCar opportunities for the youngster in the future, although he says that it's an open question as to whether he will ever attempt to field a car again.

Murray (with Brabham, left), who runs a motorsport PR and publishing business in his native Australia and formerly held PR roles in CART, put his team together in partnership with KV Racing specifically to run Brabham in the Indianapolis road course race and the 100th running of the Indy 500. Despite the relative inexperience of both Brabham and the newly-assembled team, the 22-year-old ran solidly all afternoon en route to a 22nd-place finish.

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"It was an amazing experience," Murray told RACER. "I've worked hard at a lot of things in the past, but I've never worked harder than that. I'm probably getting too old for it.

"I just wanted Matt to take what we'd given him and make the most of it. And I never had any doubt that he would; the only way he wouldn't, would be if someone caused an issue for him. I had every confidence. There was no shadow of doubt in my mind that he would bin it, and he didn't.

"He did an amazing job. He drove smart, he learned, we rolled the dice on fuel towards the end, which probably cost him a few spots, and he ran as the leading rookie for a big portion of the race. He did a good job. He's the real deal. Now someone needs to go, 'Yep, he's the kid we need.' And I can go and play golf or do whatever I need to do, and [his career] will be my legacy, and I'll be happy for that to happen."

With Sunday's race representing the completion of the Team Murray project, Murray said that the team had achieved everything he'd hoped it would.