2000 Racing News - 2nd quarter

2000 RACING NEWS

May & June

May 2000

Indy 500 is delayed by rain. Greg Ray, Sarah Fisher, Lynn St. James, and Sam Hornish Jr hit the wall and all were unhurt. Indy rookie Juan Montoya won the race for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. Buddy Lazier 2nd, Eliseo Salizar third.

Gil de Ferran wins Roger Penske his 100th victory! They raced at Nazareth the day before the 500.

Sunday May 21 - All 33 positions in the 84th INdy 500 are filled with Andy Hillenburg in the 33rd position. Wattles & Boat hit the wall but are ok. Matusuda hits and is not alright. His team, Beck, ends their month with 2 drivers in the hospital and 4 wrecked racers.

Saturday May 20 - Greg Ray wins $100,000 for capturing the pole position. Hillenburg, Kite, Harrington, St. James and Gidley hit the wall but are ok.

A concrete pedestrian walkway spanning a four-lane highway collapsed, injuring more than 90 people - at least 11 critically - as they left a NASCAR race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Friday May 19 - Greg Ray had fastest time today at 223.948 - a whole second faster than everyone else!

Thursday May 18 - Another windy day. Track got some rain at 3 pm. Jimmy Vasser goes out at the end of Happy Hour and gets fastest time of the day - 221.681

Tuesday May 16 - Scott Sharp ran fastest this practice day at 223.936 during "Happy Hour," the final hour of practice when track conditions are most ideal for higher speeds.
Dan Drinan and Donnie Beechler both hit the wall hard and both were unhurt.

Monday May 15 - Robby Gordon ran fastest this practice day at 223. This is amazing. Their engines are down 50 hp from last year, and they're only a mph or so off from last year! Dan Drinan and Sam Hornish, Jr. had run ins with the wall but they are ok.

Tyce Carlson hit the wall Sunday and has injuries sufficient to keep him out of this year's 500. 500 veteran, Hideshi Matsuda, has been picked to take his place.
Saturday May 13 - Al Unser, Jr. had the fastest time for this windy practice day. Eddie Cheever tags wall, comes back and runs well.

Michael Andretti and his Cart team were disqualified from thei last race for injuring one of their pit crew. In an attempt by CART to create a safer situation for the crews, they will be disqualifying teams who cause injury to crews. None the less, Takuya Kurosawa, hit one of his crew men in the race today in Japan while pulling in to the pits and not braking properly. The top three open wheel series all have a pit lane speed limit with Formula One having the slowest at around 50-60 mph.

Lynn St. James will be racing for Dick Simon this month. Along with Sarah Fisher (Walker Racing), there will be two females attempting to qualify in the 84th running of the Indy 500. They are also the oldest and youngest drivers in the field at 53 and 19.

May 12 - Adam Petty, fourth-generation driver of NASCAR's most famous family, died after a crash at the New Hampshire Speedway. The 19-year-old driver was practicing for the Busch 200 on the 1-mile oval.

Treadway racing announced they have signed Raul Boesel to drive their third entry, the #55 Epson, in the 500! (Shigeaki is going to have to wait untill Texas to run in the IRL.)

Well, they finally picked a driver for the pace car for the 500. They chose the Hollywood actor Anthony Edwards. He was "Goose" in "Top Gun". He also plays a doctor on the television show E.R. (The pace car this year is the 250 h.p. Oldsmobile Aurora.)

The sold-out "U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis" has had the starting time changed from 2 p.m. to 1 p.m.

The IRL announced two new venues for next year's season: Kansas Speedway and the new Chicagoland Speedway. The race at Chicago's new 1.5 mile oval will be on September 2, 2001, on Labor Day Weekend!

Treadway Racing announced that the sponsor for driver Jason Leffler will be United Auto Group, whose C.E.O. is Roger Penske!

The number of teams to participate in the Coor's Pit Stop Challenge on Carburation Day increases to 12 this year. Last year 8 teams competed. The purse for this test of the pit crew is $80,000.

They have moved the Indy 500 Victory Party to raceday! It's traditionally been held the day after the race.

Sam Schmidt returned home to Las Vegas. He will continue his rehabilitation there.

Panther Racing announced that Scott Goodyear will not be driving for them after this season. They will be testing two replacement drivers this weekend at Kentucky - Sam Hornish, Jr., a young IRL driver; and Alex Barron, a CART driver.

Eddie Cheever, Jr. gave Infinity Engines its first win in Indy Racing when he won Pikes Peak June 18th.

CART pit crews look to be the most dangerous job around. Although CART has started punishing drivers for hitting pit crewmen with a Stop-and-Go penalty, another crewman got hit this week. This time it was Paul Tracy's sloppy entrance during the Detroit race.

New 2001 IRL schedule announced! There will be 12 races over a 7 month span next year. The IRL will be adding the following venues next year: Miami; Richmond, Va.; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City, Kan. 2001 IRL Schedule

Dork boy Bobby Rahal has replaced Andrew Craig as the CEO of CART. Directors cited declining interest and attendance at races as the primary reason for the shake-up. Since Booby hates Tony and the IRL, we'll probably see another smear campaign soon. However, I do not see the other team owners in CART putting up with him for long.

More fan injuries at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte. This time they were blowing something up as a side-show and debris flew into the crowd. A month ago, a walk-way collapsed injuring over 100 people. Last year, three fans were killed there. The place seems cursed.

Scott Sharp beat Robby McGehee to the finish line by a fraction of a second in the Casino Magic 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. THIS RACE WAS COMPETITIVE!!! Side by side racing the whole way with 31 Lead changes!

The IRL's Texas night race was rained out and will be ran Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. on ESPN2

Eddie Cheever, Jr. won the 3rd IROC race of the year. Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett filled out the Top 5.

IRL drivers, Greg Ray, Eddie Cheever, Jr., and Mark Dismore will also race in the IROC race at Michigan before flying to the Texas race today.

Rain cancels qualifying for Texas race, Buddy Lazier to start from pole since he is first in the point standings. Race begin at 7:00 Indiana time on ESPN.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is switching to Infinity power for Robbie Buhl's Indy Car at Texas this weekend.