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Which IndyCar Series driver will win the championship in 2005?

Poll ended at Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:47 pm

Dan Wheldon
4
100%
Tony Kanaan
0
No votes
Sam Hornish, Jr.
0
No votes
Vitor Meira
0
No votes
none of the above
0
No votes
none of the above
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 4

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Kanaan Possibly To Race in A1GP?

Post by mlittle » Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:27 pm

Here's the link if anyone's interested.....
www.grandprix.com/ns/ns15693.html

According to the above story, 2004 IRL IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan may be interested in racing for Team Brazil in the A1 Grand Prix series. I'd watch this carefully, because while the drivers currently racing there are the younger drivers, don't be surprised if some of the current veteran drivers, like Kanaan, are handed the reigns at some of the A1 series' events later on this winter.
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Post by Ed » Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:59 pm

That would be interesting!

How tight are the drivers contracts in IRL and CCWS ? Contractually, I doubt any of the Formula 1 drivers would be allowed to race in the A1 series - even in the off season!

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Post by mlittle » Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:40 pm

As far as I know, Ed, they're not "iron-clad"; i.e. in theory, any IRL/CCWS driver would be free to race there....in reality, it probably would depend on the specific team. Some teams, like Target/Ganassi Racing in the IRL have sports-car teams that run in different series, and two of their IRL drivers(Dixon, and Manning) drove in the 24 Hrs. of Daytona earlier this year. Also, at least two other current IRL drivers(Patrick and Enge) have ALMS experience...Patrick raced at Road Atlanta for Prodrive Ferrari back in June 2003, and Enge has driven for them this year at Sebring and LeMans(both times in Aston Martin DBR9s') and is set to drive in the ALMS's Petit Le Mans this weekend(also in an Aston Martin for Prodrive), so its' not uncommon to see IRL drivers race other cars. Some of the CCWS drivers(Bourdais, Da Matta, Tracy, etc.) were also at Daytona this yr for the 24(Bourdais drove alongside team owner Paul Newman in a Pontiac-Crawford prototype) so they also will occasionaly drive outside of their "day-jobs".

So, to answer the question....they're contract aren't completely tight, but it's a safe bet their team owners are hesitant to let them race elsewhere without making sure they have contingencies in place in place the driver gets hurt(like when Bruno Junquiera was injured at Indy this year) and they have to find a quick replacement for them.
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Busy Week For Series Rookie Winner

Post by mlittle » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:58 am

Sometimes life off the track can be just as busy as life on the track. For IndyCar Series Bombabrdier Rookie of the Year winner Danica Patrick, this was the case. In Detroit on Tuesday, Sept. 28, she was honored as one of America's 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry for 2005, at a banquet sponsored by Automotive News, one of North America's leading auto-industry magazines. Included on the list besides Patrick there were three CEOs, seven COOs, 13 presidents, 52 vice-presidents and 24 others.

On Thursday, Patrick was honored with the third magazine cover for her this year. This time, it was ESPN:The Magazine whose cover she graced, as part of their "Hot & Cool" edition. She was one of four athletes to grace the cover: the other three were NBA basketball player, DeWayne Wade, professional boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr, and NHL player Vincent LeCavilier. As stated before, this was Patrick's third cover of the year; the other two were the June SI cover the week after her 4th place finish at the Indy 500, and TV Guide during the week of the IRL race at Michigan.
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Post by Julian Mayo » Mon Oct 03, 2005 5:11 pm

Chavez is fairly handy with the dooks.
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Marketing Blunders 101

Post by mlittle » Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:19 pm

Whoever once said that whales were an endangered species....well, they've never followed AOWR for any length of time. Case in point....the resignation last Tuesday of IRL Vice Pres. of Business Affairs Ken Unger. Whether he was shown the door(i.e. he was fired) or whether he left on his own(he says he resigned..... :bs: ) is immaterial. But it's another sad chapter in NA motorsports marketing. Let's just say that short-order cooks have a better job future than mktg. execs. in either CC or the IRL.

When the Indy Racing League began in 1996, their VP of Mktg. was Bill Donaldson, who ran both the IRL office and the IMS Business office as welll, until he made the mistake of telling Tony George that the IRL was a product that couldn't be sold to America. Telling TG the truth is never good, so he was canned and, for 3 yrs. the hapless job went to Jon Newcomb, who was succeeded by Bill Reif(last name rhymes with grief) who, quite honestly, makes "Baghdad Bob" look like an honest man. In fact, Reif, before TG fired him in late 2001, hired AND fired 15 different assts. w/in Reif's office. Finally, after a couple of temp. VP's, Ken Unger arrives. For a guy who served as lead counsel for U.S.Sen. Evan Bayh, you'd think Unger would be prepared to deal with TG and Co. Guess again.
Unger's big mistake...trying to sell the press and public on how a shrunken, 14-race IndyCar schedule is better than the current 17-race schedule.

But ChampCar's not immune to this, either. In 1981, Charlie Baron, who toiled as "temporary" director of mktg. for CART, became the official head of mktg., and lasted one year. Then, CART CEO John Frasco hired a Michigan PR expert to run the mktg. office. The story on that goes...the guy walks in to CART's then Troy, Mich. HQs, looks at their files, goes to lunch, calls the office and tells them he ain't returning. :oops: After a few "temps" of their own, in 1986, CART hires Kevin O'Brien, who stays until 1989, when the CART mktg. office goes into a period of....decline.
After several notable failures(Molly Shierson, Tim Dolman, Andy Deas, Carl Cohen, and Rich Henley), by 2001, CART's official media guide doesn't even list a mktg. VP.(Maybe Joe Heitzler forgot.... :bs: ) After three more yrs. of notable failures, Will Wilson, who ran the NFL Mexico office, is brought onboard by KK, Forsythe and Co. All I can say is, sir....good luck. :danger:

Maybe its' unrealistic for this scribe to expect much. But I do know this...prior to the split, CART fielded at least 24-25 cars per race, all with known sponsors who spent loads upon loads of money on those sponsorships. Most of those companies also spent lots of advertising money as well, especially during the month of May leading up to the Indianapolis 500, which never had to sell itself to the public prior to the split. Now, the money those companies spent is over in NASCAR, while both the IRL and ChampCar have to scramble for sponsors.

Of course, it could be that both series just can't hire anybody decent who's willing to sell their respective series' to teams and sponsors. Personally, I think its' both, but then again....

Anyway, that's my say. What's yours?
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Busy Week, Pt. 2

Post by mlittle » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:01 pm

For IndyCar Series rookie Danica Patrick, it has been a year of firsts. First woman to lead at Indy during the 500, first woman to win multiple pole positions during the season, etc. For the 23-year old Illinois native, it seems timing is everything. Well, at least the timing part's taken care of, as Tissot, one of Europe's premier watchmakers, announced Tuesday that Patrick would become the company's first female U.S. "Ambassador" for their various watches, beginning in November of this year. In making the announcement, Patrick remarked on the long relationship she has had with the watch company. "As an IRL driver, keeping track of time is a big part of my life-its' what I race against and what I race for. Even when I'm not on the track, I keep track of time, and the first high-quality watch I bought when I started racing professionally was a Tissot. My familiarity with the brand makes this partnership feel natural," she remarked. Expect her visage to appear in all stores that carry Tissot products in December and in print ads starting in November.
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Re: Busy Week, Pt. 2

Post by Julian Mayo » Wed Oct 05, 2005 6:18 pm

mlittle wrote:For IndyCar Series rookie Danica Patrick, it has been a year of firsts. First woman to lead at Indy during the 500, first woman to win multiple pole positions during the season, etc. For the 23-year old Illinois native, it seems timing is everything. Well, at least the timing part's taken care of, as Tissot, one of Europe's premier watchmakers, announced Tuesday that Patrick would become the company's first female U.S. "Ambassador" for their various watches, beginning in November of this year. In making the announcement, Patrick remarked on the long relationship she has had with the watch company. "As an IRL driver, keeping track of time is a big part of my life-its' what I race against and what I race for. Even when I'm not on the track, I keep track of time, and the first high-quality watch I bought when I started racing professionally was a Tissot. My familiarity with the brand makes this partnership feel natural," she remarked. Expect her visage to appear in all stores that carry Tissot products in December and in print ads starting in November.
Gee, I can just hear that wee speech rolling off her tongue, and not a copywriter in sight..
Yeah I know, Im a tad cynical at times. :cry:
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Post by mlittle » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:00 pm

You know, if I'm not mistaken, this should be the fourth endorsement deal she's received this year. I figure, that, by now, she doesn't need a copywriter, because her team's PR dept. should be smart enough to help her decide what to say, and, when to say it.
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IRL Renews Contracts with Chassis Makers

Post by mlittle » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:51 am

While the engine situation is still...chaotic, to say the least, at least when that's solved, they'll have familiar chassis' to return to, as IndyCar Series officials announced a contract extension had been reached throught the end of 2006 with chassis makers' Dallara and Panoz. In discussing the agreement with the press, IRL President Brian Barnhart stated that, "We have seen an incredibly balanced level of racing in 2005 in the IndyCar Series and look forward to more of the same in 2006. Extending our current chassis (contract) with Dallara and Panoz will provide maximum value to the teams and the series." Currently the IRL is in the process of determining what changes, if any, will be made for the 2007-spec chassis' contracts. Both Dallara, which entered IndyCar competition in 1997, and Panoz, which began in '97 as G-Force and was recently bought/renamed by Elan Motorsport Technologies, have supplied the teams in the IRL with chassis ever since the first(Gen.1) chassis specs- were issued in 1997. Prior to that, the first five IRL races were run using CART-era 1995-spec Lola B0/95 and Reynard 95-B chassis' with Ford-Cosworth and Menard V8 turbo engines(since 1997, the IRL has used normally-aspirated engines).
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The Punch Heard Around The World!

Post by mlittle » Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:12 pm

Like Red Bull energy drinks, this story's got wings. Here's what happened....

1}Around 15 or so laps prior to the end of the IRL season finale at Fontana, drivers Danica Patrick and Jaques Lazier touched wheels and crashed hard into the turn 4 wall. That much is certain. When the two of them got into the Delphi safety vehicle for the trip to the infield care center....that's when things got, um....interesting.

2}According to Speed Channel's Robin Miller, Patrick's chief mechanic, Ed Daood, said to him that while they were headed into the care center, Danica "roundhoused" Lazier in the face(otherwise referred to as "the punch heard around the world!)

3}About 90 minutes later, Rahal-Letterman Racing PR official Brent Maurer told the Indianapolis Star's Curt Cavin that, no, she didn't punch him, she simply "tapped" Lazier on the temple as if to say to him, "think, dude, think."

4}When Cavin interviewed Jaques though, he had some thoughtful words about..."My son hits harder than that -----." I'm not going to repeat the word he used(you can probably guess what it was, though). :wha:

5}However, Lazier used "gentler" language when speaking to a reporter from the San Antonio(Tx.) Press-Telegraph, "If she says she hit me in the temple with two fingers, then, fine, whatever."

6}Finally, RLR's Maurer told USA Today's Chris Jenkins, "So, Jaques's saying he got beat up by a girl?" Ouch!

My take on it.....I'd sit both of them down in a room, and talk to both of them. First, I'd say to Jaques, "Son, right now, she is a bigger story than the other drivers in the series, and most of the world believes you hit her, not the other way around.If this were a "celebrity" fight, you'd be the stone-cold underdog." Then, I'd say to Danica, "Why'd you take a swing at him, knowing that he ain't going to return the favor, so to speak? You're a heck of a driver, and if you keep your temper from boiling over, it'll help you in the future. Unfortunately, there's a lot of scribes and hacks out there who are starting to wonder when you'll get your first win, and eventually they're to compare you to F1's Jenson Button(you know, 100 F1 starts and NO wins to date!) Everyone still has memories of when Sarah Fisher raced in the IRL and many of those scribes and hacks don't want you to head in that direction, period.

In the meanwhile, IRL officials in Indianapolis say that they will investigate what happened, and deal with it in an "appropriate" manner.
Last edited by mlittle on Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post-Race News From Fontana....

Post by mlittle » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:57 am

Two major items from Fontana today...

1}Patrick-Lazier "fracas" to be investigated. IRL President Brian Barnhart told reporters in a press tele-confrence while enroute to IRL HQs in Indianapolis that the post-crash incident between drivers Danica Patrick and Jaques Lazier will be investigated and that fines may be levied depending on what happened. Both drivers involved are expected to give statements to Barnhart(separately) on what happened; Delphi safety officials will be interviewed as to what happened, especially those who were in the vehicle when Patrick and Lazier were heading to the infield care center.

2}Did Kanaan "gift" a victory to Franchitti? Barnhart also said that he has ordered all computer and telemetry data from Andretti-Green Racing and Honda Performance Division to determine whether or not Kanaan "lifted" off the throttle and allow Franchitti to win. Sources close to California Speedway say that when Barnhart left race control to go to the infield, he was "fit to be tied" over what might have happened. Fines may also be levied depending on what IRL officials determine happened.
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IRL Championship Celebration in Hollywood

Post by mlittle » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:16 pm

24 hours after the IndyCar Series wrapped up its 2005 season in the heart of the Inland Empire, the series held its' annual championship banquet at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood, under the bright lights, as they say. There were plenty of honors to go around.

As series champion, Dan Wheldon received several awards, most notably the IRL Cup and a $1 million dollar prize from series CEO Tony George. Before the festivities began, though, he reflected about the accomplishment.
In this day and age of motor racing, it's difficult to win races alone--in particular in the IndyCar Series because it's so competitive. To be able to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the championship is an unbelieveable achievement. The season has been 17 races and we've been on every different type of track imaginable--street course, permanent road course, short oval, intermediate oval, big oval. To put together a season in which we've won a lot and been very consistant truly means a lot. Having champion on your resume can never be taken away, a I think a championship is important to team owners and everybody from the person who sweeps the shop floors to the bosses. It pays people back that put a lot of faith in you.
The second major award of the night--the Bombardier Rookie of the Year Award--was presented to Rahal Letterman Racing's Danica Patrick, who received the Bombardier Cup along with a $50,000 prize from series president Brian Barnhart. As with Wheldon, she, too, commented before the festivities on the award.
It is a big honor to be both Indy 500 and IRL IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year. It is the goal of every rookie driver.
Andretti-Green Racing also was honored with several awards. The team was honored with the team championship award; Wheldon's sponsors, Klein Tools and Jim Beam, were presented with sponsor awards, his team's manager, Tom Anderson, was honored, as was Wheldon's chief mechanic, Mike Horvath.

Here is a list of some of the other awards presented Monday evening....

Engine Manufacturer Award:Honda(presented to HPD's Robert Clarke)
2nd Place Award:Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing
3rd Place Award:Sam Hornish, Jr., Marlboro-Team Penske
Tony Renna Rising Star Award:Patrick Carpentier, Team Cheever
Marlboro Pole Award:Sam Hornish, Jr., Marlboro-Team Penske
Argent Mortgage Fast Lap Award:Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing
IRL Promotor's Award:Infineon Raceway
Manufacturer Recognition Awards:Xtrac, Firestone, Delphi, K&N Filters
IRL Chassis Award:Dallara
IRL Legacy Award:Chevrolet(presented to GM Racing's Mark Kent)

And with that, the season has come to an end. Finally.....the 2006 season commences March 26th, 2006 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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IRL & CCWS represented at AARWBA 2005 Team

Post by mlittle » Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:42 pm

NOTE:AARWBA stands for American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association

Every here, the AARWBA presents its' "All-American" Team, and this year, both open-wheel series, the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, were well-represented. The way their voting works is that the top 2 in all categories(open-wheel, stock-car, road-racing, etc.) are selected to the First Team, those in 3rd and 4th are selected to the Second Team, and all others receiving 5% of the votes counted receive an Honorable Mention. Two drivers made the First Team, the two series' respective champions, Dan Wheldon and Sebastien Bourdais. Three made the Second Team, 2004 IRL champion Tony Kanaan, 2005 IRL Rookie-of-the-Year Danica Patrick, and 2005 Atlantic Championship winner Charles Zwolsman. Making the Honorable Mention list were IRL drivers Sam Hornish, Jr. and Dario Franchitti, Champ Car's Paul Tracy, and Atlantic Championship driver Katherine Legge. Both Legge and Patrick made the list on the strength of write-in votes, but Patrick became the first to make either First of Second Team on those votes, while Legge solidly landed in the Honorable Mention list.

Congratulations to all the drivers on their accomplishments this year! :up: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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10 Years of Memories...., Pt. 1

Post by mlittle » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:13 pm

When the 2005 IRL IndyCar Series wrapped up its' season in Fontana a month ago, it also put a wrap on 10 yrs. of some great, great racing. I still cannot believe its' been 10 years since the series first began racing down at Orlando's Walt Disney World Speedway. Buzz Calkins won the series' first-ever race, the Disney Indy 200, with a young Indiana kid named Tony Stewart on his heels(BTW, Smoke won his second Nextel Cup title this past Sunday!). Since then, they've been to a lot of racetracks across North America and now Japan, and there have been a lot of close-qtr., side by side racing over the past decade. Here are some of the best moments(IMHO) of the past 10 years.

1997:Orlando, Disney Indy 200.....The rain-shortened event looked for the first 130+ laps to be a runaway Tony Stewart blowout. With only one caution midway through the race, it looked as though Smoke would get his first win.....only to have an oil line brake and send him careening into the wall; Eddie Cheever inherited the lead and would lead when the yellow came out for rain, followed by the red and checkered flags. Stewart, for all his effort, finished an abysmal 10th.

1997:Phoenix, Phoenix 200......With several cautions due to blown oil lines in the 97-spec Dallara chassis', it was the kind of race that a rookie could've won. Oh, that's right, a rookie, Jim Guthrie, did win. But it took a lot of work battling fellow rookie Kenny Brack and veteran Tony Stewart to do so; the three swapped the lead 8 of 10 times, with fellow vet Scott Sharp leading the other two times. In the end, Guthrie won over Stewart and for the first time in series history, a rookie took the checkers.

1997: Texas, True Value 500K....It almost became an unmitigated disaster at the start when Marco Greco's engine blew, spraying oil and debris all over the track, putting the race under caution for the first 20 or so laps. Even worse, the USAC timing/scoring system went full belly-up, and for the entire race it became a guess as to who was leading, or who won the race. When A.J. Foyt's car driven by Billy Boat pulled into Victory Lane, he found to his anger/dismay, the Flying Dutchman, Arie Luyendyk, celebrating the win. What ensued is classic...Foyt walks up to Arie and b----slaps him on the back of the head; Arie turns around and shoves Foyt, and it was on....two things resulted from the fiasco, USAC was booted from timing/scoring IRL races and Arie Luyendyk was awarded the win.

1997:Charlotte, Visionaire 500K.....In one of the classis early IRL races, Buddy Lazier took his second win of the season in a late-race duel with then-rookie Billy Boat and Canadian Scott Goodyear, but what made the race exciting was seeing the three of them cut-and-dice their way around the 1.5-mile high-banked oval, just as drivers named Scheckter, Wheldon, Patrick and others do now at Texas.

1998:Indianapolis, 82nd Indy 500.....For years, the view concerning American racer Eddie Cheever had been, good racer, just can't win the big races. His win at the Brickyard erased that view in about 3 hrs. of racing. In a race that saw 23 lead changes and several key miscues hinder the front-runners(transmission problems for Boat, Buhl; engine failure for Stewart; Brack's team gambled on fuel early and he ran dry on lap 87), Cheever, who had been sponsorless at the beginning of that May, got to drink the milk and celebrate a hard-fought victory that Memorial Day Sunday.

1998:Pikes Peak, Radisson 200....If there is a universal given about racing, it is that there are three ways to win, by outrunning your opponent, by playing it safe and taking advantage of the opportunities as they come, and by playing fuel strategy and winning. Sometimes it doesn't work, and then, sometimes, it does. Just ask Kenny Brack, who won on literal fumes at the one-mile oval in Colorado. He literally outran on fuel several competitors, among them that year's Indy 500 winner, Eddie Cheever, Roberto Guerrero, Buddy Lazier and Robbie Buhl. Indeed, Brack's engine quit entering turn three and he coasted in on momentum to a qtr.-lap win over Buhl; they had to tow Kenny's car to Victory Lane when he came to a stop.

1998:Texas(fall race), Lone Star 500K....John Paul, Jr. won his first Indy-style race since the CART Michigan 500 in 1983, but this race made the list for one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen in a race. On lap 134, the cars of Marco Greco, Donnie Beechler, Billy Boat and Steve Knapp were involved in a wreck in turn 3, resulting in an 18-lap caution. During the caution, Stan Wattles' crew removed a broken half-shaft that had embedded itself right into the left sidepod of Wattles' car. If it had entered about a foot-to-two feet higher.....don't ask. Even so, Wattles finished a respectable 8th.

1998, Las Vegas, Las Vegas 500K.....Arie Luyendyk, who had announced his retirement from racing full-time prior to Indy that year, went out in style by winning the season finale in Sin City. It was also the farewell race for Tony Stewart, as he was heading to NASCAR's then-Winston Cup Series after three IRL seasons. There was also celebration in the Foyt Racing camp, as Kenny Brack would clinch the 1998 IRL champion there as well.

1999, Indianapolis, 83rd Indy 500......On the heels of the tragic deaths of three spectators at the IRL's Charlotte race, no one was in a good mood to start then month of May at the Brickyard. But three interesting storylines emerged that Memorial Day Sunday.....Tony Stewart returned to Indy to run the "double", 500 miles at Indy, then a very quick flight to Charlotte to run in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600, an 1100-mile "Ironman" day.(For the record, Smoke completed all but 10 total miles!!). The second storyline was the mixed-up grid for the grid; several of the drivers in the top-15 in pts., notably Jeff Ward, Billy Boat and Stephan Gregoire, missed qualifying in the 500, and Arie Luyendyk, who was in a one-off ride for Team Menard, got the pole that month. The other storyline involved Foyt Racing's Robby Gordon and Menard's Kenny Brack. On lap 198, Gordon appeared to have his first-ever 500 win in the bag. As he went through turn 3, he heard the engine gasping for fuel, and by turn 4....he told Foyt, "I'm out of fuel!". Brack became the leader on the last lap of the race, and went on to win.

2000, Las Vegas, Sam's Town/Harrah's 300...For Al Unser, Jr, his last win in an Indy-style race was when the New Mexico native and second-generation Unser drove for the Captain, Roger Penske, in CART. But in his third IRL race since switching series, he brought a somewhat dormant A-game back and won his first race since Vancouver, 1995. The race also saw two unknown rookies, Sarah Fisher, and Sam Hornish, Jr., rise to the occasion, Fisher racing for Derrick Walker's team, and Hornish for PDM Racing, as both would lead as various points of the race. But that day belonged to an Unser, and it was good to see a driver of Little Al's stature back in Victory Lane.

2000, Indinapolis, 84th Indy 500.....Several distinct storylines developed during the month of May. First was the return of Chip Ganassi's CART team to the Brickyard, as Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser came to steal the thunder from everyone else. Another was the historic qualifying sessions; for the first time in NA motorsports, two women would make the 33-car field, Sarah Fisher in 19th and Lyn St. James in 32nd. Also, Robby Gordon would be attempting the Indy-Charlotte double; he wound up 2 miles short of besting Stewart's 99' record. In the end, though, Montoya won, becoming the first Indy rookie to win the 500 since Graham Hill in 1966. It also became the fifth 500 in the race's history to finish under 3 hrs., a feat yet to happen since.

2000, Texas(fall race), Excite 500K.....Like most years, it came down to the season finale to decide the series champion, and Texas delivered yet again. The race win went to Panther Racing's Scott Goodyear, in his final full-time ride in the IRL, while Hemelgarn Racing's Buddy Lazier, who ended up in 4th, wound up with the championship that year. In five seasons, from 1996 to 2000, no one had yet to repeat as champion. In all, 6 drivers had won the series title(Calkins and Sharp were co-champions in 1996, Stewart in 1997, Brack in 1998, Greg Ray in 1999 and Lazier in 2000).

And that concludes 10 yrs. of memories, part 1......Coming up later on this month, pt. 2. Stay tuned.......
The Sci-Fi Station Come by and visit when you get the chance. :)
The Wayward Tarheel I'm even in the blogosphere.... :shock:

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