LEXINGTON, Ohio — At first, E.J. Viso just thought it was just a pain in the neck.
The IndyCar Series rookie from Brazil was flying to Indianapolis two weeks ago after finishing 10th at Watkins Glen, N.Y., when he felt the first twinges.
“I had a little bit of pain in my neck,” he said. “I thought it was the normal muscle pain after the race. I took a couple of Tylenol and thought it would be fine the next day. When I woke up, I saw myself in the mirror — I looked like a balloon.”
A quick trip to the doctor provided the diagnosis: mumps.
Viso said he has no idea where he picked up the illness that kept him from racing last weekend at Nashville.
“We travel so much, I really don’t know,” he said. “It could have been an airport, a restaurant. It’s a virus. You can get it anywhere.”
Viso was confined to his Indianapolis hotel room for a week.
“I was so bored,” he said. “I didn’t have much energy, but I thought I was going to be able to race (at Nashville). That was the plan but, suddenly, everything got a bit more serious. The health department got involved and it turned into a big deal. They preferred us not to take the risk.”
He got all of his meals from room service and did have the company of a few friends who had either had the mumps previously or had been vaccinated against the illness. But, mostly, he just had to kill time.
“I slept a lot, and I think I rented 14 or 15 movies,” he said of the long week.
Viso said the worst thing about having the mumps was missing Nashville.
“We lost some very important points,” he said. “I was right next to Will (Power) to pass him in the points, and now it’s going to be tough.”
Viso, who drives for HVM Racing, fell to 17th in the standings with 190 points. He heads into Sunday’s Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course fourth among the nine drivers making the transition from the defunct Champ Car World Series to IndyCar, trailing 11th-place Oriol Servia by 30 points, 13th-place Power by 23 and 16th-place Graham Rahal by 11.
TOUGH TEST: Marco Andretti led the afternoon practice and was fastest overall Friday at Mid-Ohio, while Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan was fastest in the morning session and second on the day.
But neither of them is looking forward to Saturday’s qualifying on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course.
Time trials on road and street circuits have become a grueling test this year, with the IndyCar Series adopting knockout-style qualifying.
The drivers are randomly divided into two groups before the start of the race weekend and each group starts qualifying by running for 30 minutes. The top six drivers from each group move on to a second round, a 15-minute session that cuts the qualifiers to the top six.
They then run 10 minutes in the Firestone Fast Six to determine the top starting positions for the next day’s race.
“Our qualifying format is really tough on us,” Kanaan said. “To make all three, by the time you go to the Shootout, you might shoot yourself in the head because you’re so tired. … It’s killing us, especially if you advance to all of them. It’s new tires all the time, you’re going as fast as you can all the time and you have a lot of load and you’re doing everything you can.
“It’s almost like you go to Q1 and you think, ‘Oh, thank God I made it.’ Then you’re in Q2 and then you do everything you can to make it. And then you’re in Q3 and you think, ‘My God, what now? Where will I get the strength to do it.’ It’s really cruel on us.”
Andretti, 12 years younger than his teammate, agreed that the new qualifying format takes a lot out of a driver.
“It’s almost like a race,” the third-generation IndyCar star said. “I haven’t been in the top six this year, but I’ve gotten to Q2 twice and just that is tough work.
“To be honest, if it was one-lap qualifying and just the shootout, I’d be doing the ALMS race (after qualifying) this weekend. But it’s tough to get out of qualifying the way it is now and jump right into a race. … And I want to put the most effort into the IndyCar race because that’s the most important thing for me.”
DRESSING UP: Danica Patrick enjoyed her role as a presenter Wednesday night at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.
Even though the IndyCar star nominated for her first win earlier this year didn’t win any awards, there were benefits to being at the ceremony.
“I sat next to David Beckham,” she said, grinning.
“As an athlete, it is really nice to have an awards show because you see so many movie and TV and music stars that have the opportunity to go and have some fun and get awards for their accomplishments, and this is our chance to do that as athletes.”
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