LEXINGTON -- Alex Tagliani was nearly a casualty of the 12-year open-wheel racing civil war.
The 37-year-old from Quebec drove his way up the CART ladder, racing Toyota Atlantics for four seasons before getting his break in 2000 in the major league series. For the next eight years he became a solid hand and one of the more recognizable faces in the Champ Car World Series, competing with Player's/Forsythe Racing, plus Team Australia and Rocketsports Racing.
He was a loyalist to the end.
Then in 2008, when Champ Car went out of business and was folded into the Indy Racing League, Tagliani was not only a racer without a car, he was a competitor without a series.
Those were his darkest days in the sport.
"You ask yourself the question if you made the right decision staying with CART and moving to Champ Car. I should have gone to the IRL before. You ask yourself a lot of questions, but at the end of the day you go back to your driver mentality and you just put your head down and you do the things you do best and things turn out pretty well," he said.
In the case of Tagliani, things eventually turned out well.
First, he had to endure a season in exile. In 2008, he competed in nine Canadian Tire NASCAR Series races in his native land, getting a victory in Edmonton and a pair of top 10s.
Instead of sulking, Tagliani took ownership of his career and essentially started over.
"You have no guarantees," he said. "You have to knock on doors and you have to try to get relationships with teams, plus when you're doing it in February, you have to accept there is not going to be any door opening to a team because everybody is signed up."
He made himself available and he went looking for sponsorship dollars to make himself more attractive to racing teams in the Izod IndyCar Series. It wasn't easy.
"In CART, when you decided to go in one direction at some point, you don't have any relationships with the IRL or the teams. When you turn around and your series doesn't exist anymore, it becomes quite difficult to put your foot in."
Tagliani got his IndyCar break in Detroit in 2008 when he replaced the injured Enrique Bernoldi at Conquest Racing and posted a 12th at Chicagoland in the season finale and a fourth in the exhibition race in Australia.
In six events with Conquest in 2009, Tagliani had three top 10s, led laps at Toronto and was the Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500, where he ended 11th.
He left Conquest and completed his first full season in IndyCar last year with FAZZT Race Team. He posted five top 10s with a season-best fourth at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course where he led a race-best 30 laps.
The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio was one of the better efforts in the second act of his career, proving he belonged in the new era of open-wheel racing.
"We were super competitive and running up front for a while and keeping the pace with Dario (Franchitti, the race winner). It was a good race, so hopefully we can capitalize on knowing what the track is. We didn't even test last year so we were a little bit behind, but I think this year we should be strong," he said.
The first-year team got good results from Tagliani, but it couldn't continue into 2011. Its assets were bought by Sam Schmidt Motorsports and now Tagliani drives the No. 77 Bower & Wilkins car for a team that has dominated Firestone Indy Lights in recent years.
And it proved to be a team good enough to put Tagliani on the pole for the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500, the biggest accomplishment of his long career.
"Everybody wants to be on the pole because you have a week of promotion before the race so it's a great window of opportunity for promoting your sponsor," he said.
It was the most fun of his career, but he proved it wasn't a fluke when he put the car on the pole at the next event in Texas.
"I think there is some momentum as a team that we're accomplishing a lot, especially with just two years of being built," he said.
Still, they're looking to put together a full race weekend. He stands 13th in the points heading into Sunday's 2:45 p.m. start for the 85-lap Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He has a fourth in one of the twin 275s at Texas, a fifth at Long Beach and a sixth at St. Petersburg to go with two poles, but there have been a lot of middle of the pack finishes, too.
Since improving 10 spots to finish fourth at Mid-Ohio a year ago and considering he's never finished outside the top 10 in Lexington when including his CART record, Tagliani comes into town with confidence and a goal of finishing one spot better than a year ago.
"I think we're capable of that," he said. "Lately we've been quite competitive and then something happens. We should be strong."
Like a survivor.
"I didn't throw in the towel and didn't give up and now I'm back into the IndyCar Series. There's one series, and there is no confusion and no fight between two leagues. I'm just focusing on what I'm doing. It was a bump in the road basically, and there are a lot of good things to come," Tagliani said.
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