Tom Rife: Arnold isn't about to give up now

After all, didn't the organization he formed last November come up short in all five of its attempts to earn a spot on the starting grid?

Wasn't Friday's letdown at the Homestead-Miami Speedway with Derrike Cope at the wheel just the latest evidence that the longtime Naples developer with no racing experience was in way over his head?

Isn't that what a lot of people believed back in August, when Arnold Motorsports had the audacity to try to put a car driven by Naples' Billy Bigley Jr. into the Brickyard 400 at, of all places, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Hey, don't beat up on Arnold.

And don't hammer Bigley or any of the other bold-thinking individuals who had enough courage and ambition and elbow grease to at least try, knowing well and good that they were setting themselves up for heartbreak more than they were paving a path toward riches.

They reached into the grab bag with passion blazing, not with the notion that there would be no prize contained within, but with the understanding that the rewards might have to be measured in bits and pieces no matter how small.

They went on a motorsports spacewalk and at every turn, were reminded that here on Planet Earth, speedbumps are here to stay and pity parties are foolish.

Flash back to Indy, where, had it not been for a slight brush against the Turn Four wall with an ill-handling racecar -- a slip that scrubbed precious fractions of a second off of Bigley's lap time -- the team's fortunes might have been altogether different.

"We felt we were close, and it would have been a home run if we had hit it," Arnold said during a lunchtime lull at the track known now not just for its art-deco motif, but for its new 20-degree banking.

"We basically felt like Casey at the bat. We struck out our first time at Indy. But we did have a couple of long balls that went foul, that didn't make it. Had we hit the home run there, I think the sponsorship thing would have been put to bed by now.

"But what is, is. You just have to go with what happens. We're just trying to tweak it to get a little better each time we come out here," he added.

Following Friday's disappointment, it took Arnold nearly an hour to emerge from his team's hauler with briefcase in hand. There were thoughts to collect and business to be done.

"We're going to make it happen. I'm stubborn," Arnold said confidently. "Everyone knows I'm stubborn. Anyone who's ever been in business with me or around me knows I'm really stubborn. I'm going to do it.

I just want to accomplish it. It's something I've wanted to do for 25 years."

If it takes a little longer, so what?

You can e-mail sports editor Tom Rife at tdrife@naplesnews.com.