Race Report March 19, 2000 The INDY 200 at Phoenix The race began well with Greg Ray on the pole. Yesterday, Ray squeezed out a fast lap of 20.389 seconds, 176.566 mph in the Conseco-Menards Dallara on the 1-mile oval to earn his first MBNA Pole Award of the season and fifth career pole. The race started clean, but then at lap 30, there was a run of slides into the wall. First, Robby McGee slid in while leading. Soon after the restart Buzz Calkins hit the wall with the rear of his car . This sent him to the hospital. Rookie Airton Dare hit the wall next. Then Greg Ray and Bobby Regester slid out together, maybe there was some contact. Al Unser, in his 2nd IRL start, took the lead from Stephan Gregoire with 71 laps to go. Unfortunately for them and Robbie Buhl, another yellow came out right after they finished pitting with 35 laps to run. This moved them back to the back of the pack of all the guys still on the lead lap! Buddy Lazier inherited the lead and led Scott Goodyear to the finish to win his third victory. Buddy had really appeared as an underdog at the beginning of the race. They had qualified poorly, and then, decided to switch to the new backup car. This meant he had to start from last position. "We couldn't do anything with the primary car," Lazier said. "I have to tell you I was frightened in the car, and I don't normally frighten easily. "My guys did a great job. Ron (Hemelgarn, team owner) made the decision to roll out the backup car, and the guys worked through the night. We started last. I can't believe we can come through the field like that from last to first." Buddy was sick all week, but he ended it smiling. This race set the tracks record for having the most different leaders, 8. Scott Sharp led the most laps at 59 and Tyce Carlson had the fastest lap at 164.782. Great race, but a few too many caution flags, 7. Top 10 Finishers Buddy Lazier - Winner Scott Goodyear Donnie Beechler Eliseo Salazar Scott Sharp Billy Boat Robbie Buhl Stephan Gregoire Al Unser Jr. Eddie Cheever Jr.

• Meijer, a midwest superstore chain, has made the decision to increase their involvement this season and take over the title sponsorship for Robby McGehee's #5 Meijer/Energizer Advanced Formula/Mall.com entry for the 84th Indy 500. Energizer remains as a major sponsor. Robby drives for Treadway Racing.
• Andy Hillenburg, Winston Cup driver & ARCA Champion, has finally made it to Indy Cars! Andy will drive the #48 The Sumar Special Dallara/Oldsmobile/Firestone. Click here for an interesting article about the new team. Andy runs the Fast Track Racing School at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when he's not racing. Andy grew up here in Indianapolis, and I'm sure he will have a lot of fans at this year's Indy 500. Best of luck Andy!!
• Sinden Racing has announced a deal with March to field a car for the 500. British rookie, Guy Smith has been tapped to drive the #44 March Racing Dallara/Oldsmobile/Firestone. Guy is 25 and comes from the Indy Lights series, British Formula 3 before that. We're happy to see the return of March, a chassis builder who won many 500's. Stefan Johansson, who raced in 3 500's and in F1, is the director of racing for March Racing. Robin Herd is chairman of the board and technical director of March.
• Michael Schumacher, won his 37th Formula One Grand Prix today in Brazil at the age of 31. This Ferrari driver also won the other F1 race this year. The McLarens have been fastest in qualifying, but not as reliable as Ferrari.
• A month after selling a $1 billion portion of F1 to Hellman & Friedman and Morgan Grenfell, Bernie Ecclestone, has sold 1.65 billion to Germany's EM.TV for a 50% stake in F1.
• Stephan Gregoire is a man to watch! This IRL driver has been posting fastest speeds in most practices to date, along with Greg Ray
• Good news for Eddie Cheever Jr. Team Cheever announced a 2-year main sponsorship deal from some rich internet companys: the Excite Network and the @Home cable modem people.
  Other sponsors of Team Cheever include Indy Promotional Products, netoy.com, Menards, Ceramiche Ragno, Infiniti, Firestone, Bosch and Pennzoil.

  They displayed their new paint scheme and it reminded me of the beautiful McLaren.

  Eddie Cheever's new car -------------->
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The McLaren
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  He has also switched to a new Dallara chassis from a R&S.

• More Driver Movement: Blueprint Racing has picked up Jimmy Kite, forcing rookie Niclas Jonsson out. He will now be driving for Nienhouse Motorsports. Also, Billy Boat will be driving for Team Pelfrey at Phoenix.
• Treadway Racing has hired a second driver, Shigeaki Hattori, who brings what must be huge sponsorship from Epson. Although he had a successful Indy Lights carreer (96-98), his CART license was revoked last year after a lot of spins.
• IMS says they will be working on assigning Grand Prix tickets through May, so be patient! She told me they are definately going to be SOLD OUT!
• Kenny Brack, the 1999 Indy 500 winner, and A.J. Foyt, his former car owner, have combined to enter a car in the 2000 Indy race, with no driver listed.
• Davey Hamilton has left Sinden Racing for Team Xtreme where he'll join rookie Airton Dare with sponsorship from Lycos. Team Xtreme's other driver, John Hollansworth Jr., is looking for a new sponsor.

February 2000 Racing News Headlines

• Ganassi Racing, winner of the CART Championship the last four years, announced today that he is bringing his team to compete in this year's Indy 500. Jimmy Vasser has competed in the 500 before. The other driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, virtually destroyed his CART competitors last year. It was his rookie year. The team will run G Force/Oldsmobiles and will keep their primary sponsor of Target with an associate sponsorship from Budweiser.
• The IRL has been testing in Phoenix. Kelley Racing's Mark Dismore set the fastest time for the weekend.
• F1 Ticket assignments and Indy 500 tickets have been mailed out.
• IMS forms a Hospitality committee to help welcome guests to the F1 Grand Prix.
• Tickets to the U.S. Grand Prix have been assigned!
• The IRL has been testing in Las Vegas. Team Menard's Greg Ray set the fastest time for the weekend.
• Dale Earnhardt, 1999 IROC Champ, won the IROC opener at Daytona.
• February 14 - Tony Bettenhausen Jr. survived 11 Indy 500's (1981-93), but lost his life today along with his wife Shirley, in a plane crash. Tony's father raced in the 500 from 1946-60 and was killed in practice at the speedway in 1961.


• Length of U.S. Grand Prix has been set at 73 laps and will start at 2 p.m.
• IMS announces General Admission ticket applications for U.S. Grand Prix now available

• Walker Racing claims to have Sarah Fisher under contract now. Does this mean Team Pelfrey will now run Billy Boat?
• Robbie Buhl won the first IRL race of the year after starting in 22nd position. Traffic created problems as Cheever, Lazier and Buhl fought for the lead. This was Buhl's 2nd IRL win. 10 drivers finsished on the lead lap. This was also Al Unser Jr.'s debut in the Indy Racing League. He started on the back row and moved to 9th place in 62 laps before his engine expired.
• IRL has already found a new series sponsor - Northern Lights Technology. They've inked a 5 year, $50 million deal!
  

• Little Al has announced sponsorship from Tickets.com
• All drivers in CART have turned down offer to participate in this year's IROC series do to a scheduling conflict.
• Three IRL drivers will be competing in IROC this year: Greg Ray, Eddie Cheever Jr., and Mark Dismore.
• Defending Indy 500 Champion Kenny Brack, will not be returning to Indy this year. Bobby Rahal, his new team owner, who is over in the CART league, has decided not to run Indy. As a side note, Brian Herta, one of the few remaining Americans left in CART, who was cut by Rahal, has found himself another CART ride.
• Billy Boat to drive for Team Pelfrey in Orlando in a 1 race deal. He could fill a slot for a number two car the following race if sponsorship becomes available. 19 y/o Rookie Sarah Fisher is supposedly going to drive for Pelfrey this year, although its known Walker Racing is trying to get her for their new IRL team.
• Well its official - Alex Zanardi has been booted from Frank William's F1 team. He will be replaced by 20 y/o rookie Jenson Button. It is not likely that Zanardi will drive in any series in 2000.
• Another new team has formed - Team Purex Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Their driver will be Robbie Buhl who finished 6th at Indy last year
• Billy Boat is out and Jeff Ward is in on the Harrahs-sponsored ride on Foyt's IRL team.
• Very sad news for Sam Schmidt, after barely recovering from a horrendous crash in the last race of the season in October, again smacks the wall during initial testing in Orlando. He broke his neck and has apparently pinched this spinal cord and occurred the same problem as Christopher Reeve. Fred Treadway expects Schmidt to be transferred to a hospital for quadriplegics to begin rehabilitation.
• The IRL has finally switched from 4.0 liter to 3.5L engines for 2000. Greg Ray's test at the Disney World Speedway showed a 2 m.p.h. decrease from last year's speed.

• It appears that FORD and Mercedes has put enough pressure on CART, so that most of the CART teams that were going to come over and race in the Indy 500, are not. So all you CART fans out there who have been dying to see CART back in the 500, can start sending Ford emails and let them know what you think of them. Chip Ganassi, owner of the last four CART championships, is still planning on bringing 1999 CART champ, Juan Pablo Montoya and 1996 CART champ,Jimmy Vasser to the Indy 500 next year!
• A state-of-the-art AMB TranX Pro timing and scoring system will be permanently installed at IMS and ready for the 2000 Indy 500. The fully digital system allows data to be tracked at various points around the track and is accurate to 3/10,000ths of a second.
• PPG pulls sponsorship from CART. They will still sponsor pole awards at the Indy 500 however.
• Pep Boys pulls sponsorship from IRL. A reported contractual dispute boils down to Pep Boys shakey financial situation.
• Jonathan Byrd and Dennis McCormack, two of the IRL's original competitors, are joining forces for the 2000 IRL season, forming Byrd/McCormack Motorsports. They have chosen a rookie driver, Jon Herb, 25.

1999 Indy 500 Champion, Kenny Brack, has left the IRL and A.J. Foyt's team. He is replacing Bryan Herta at Bobby Rahal's racing team in CART. He still hopes to return to Indy in May and defend his title! We'll sure miss watching him race at the other IRL events, but he's got a lot of talent and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in F1 one day soon.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Al Unser Jr. was cut from Team Penske at the end of the CART season after a losing streak. He is joining Galles Racing and will run the entire 2000 IRL schedule. Valvoline will be a partial sponsor. Valvoline has apparently pulled out of their sponsorship of Walker Racing's CART team (Walker reportedly will run IRL as well this year). We haven't seen Valvoline at Indy in a few years. So it looks kind of like an old reunion for Little Al. He'll also be racing against two of his cousins who are currently in the IRL: Johnny Unser and Robbie Unser. Yikes! Have we ever had 3 Unsers in the same 500? Click here for the answer!