Meaning behind Indy 500 drawing

[JayAre]

In Atari's early game catalogs, the drawing that accompanied the description for Indy 500 depicted the lead driver looking back at the others with a devilish grin. He's snapping what appears to be a cable which leads to his front-left wheel. I remember, as a kid, always looking at the drawing and wondering why. To this day, I still don't understand it. I know it's silly to be analyzing something like this, but it just doesn't make much sense. It seems like the last thing you'd want to be doing during a race is damaging your car like that. Any explanations? Thanks.

 

[VectorGamer]

What he's trying to do is dislodge the driver side front wheel so he can spin sideways and take out the rest of the field while he takes the checkered flag.

[slab0meat]

Why are the rear wheels behind the car?

[+SpiceWare]

Why are the rear wheels behind the car?

 

 

I gather you've never seen a vintage race car before.

 

[imstarryeyed]

I always thought he was holding his wheel on at the final stretch of the finish line and was determined to win the race no matter what.

[Flojomojo]

I agree that it looks like he's holding his car together. I don't know anything about auto racing, other than we see stuff like that in movies.

 

 

If it's he opposite, if he's gonna let his wheel go, that's like something right out of Ben Hur. He's stone cold, something we wouldn't see in racing games again until Mario Kart 8.

 

[JayAre]

What he's trying to do is dislodge the driver side front wheel so he can spin sideways and take out the rest of the field while he takes the checkered flag.

 

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. You know, after all these years, I think I just realized something about the picture which I had never noticed before. The racing surface is white. Could that be the ice on the track in the Ice Race (game variations 11 to 14)? If it is, then VectorGamer's explanation makes a lot of sense, as the driver would be trying to fight for traction.