Cheever Blasts Andretti's Comments
(The following is a release from Cheever Racing and is run as received by the IRL) Eddie Cheever Jr. encountered unexpected bad luck -- and unexpected adjectives - during strange circumstances Sunday in the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International.
Run-ins with two popular drivers ended with Cheever, a veteran of 30 years of international racing experience, being called an "idiot" twice on national television and being accused of intentionally crashing 19-year-old rookie Marco Andretti. "To think I would intentionally take anyone out is just ludicrous," Cheever said. "It's beyond words. It was a racing accident, pure and simple. There certainly wasn't any intent, so I find the accusations incomprehensible." After the accident, Andretti said Cheever "absolutely, on purpose" crashed into him. During a live TV interview after the crash, Michael Andretti, Marco's father and team owner, called Cheever "a complete idiot."
"No single team is the center of the racing universe, no matter how much they seem to think they are," Cheever said. "Nobody took them out intentionally, so their accusations look a bit ridiculous." The feud between Cheever and the Andretti family dates back to 1992, when Mario Andretti crashed into Cheever at Long Beach. It resumed in April, when the Andrettis verbally trashed Cheever after an incident between Marco Andretti and Cheever during practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
"Let there be no mistake, I would never let any feelings I might have carry over to the race course, where lives are at stake," Cheever said. "I have lost too many friends to this sport to be so shallow. It was a racing accident, pure and simple."
Andretti wasn't the only one using the I-word to describe Cheever after Sunday's race. Danica Patrick, who spun on a restart in front of Cheever, also used the epithet over the radio after she crashed. "She did that all by herself," Cheever said.
In the end, even though the No. 51 Cheever Racing Honda/Dallara finished 17th and he found himself the center of a foolish controversy, Cheever found a comical irony in the accusations. "The last I looked, I earned the label of Indy 500 champion; those lobbing unfounded accusations at me have not," Cheever said. "I'm not perfect, and neither are my accusers. Let's get back to racing."
Hornish Bowling For Dollars
The inaugural Sam Hornish Jr. Charity Bowling Tournament raised $70,000 for Speedway Children's Charities. The newly crowned Indianapolis 500 champion will be on the AMF Showplace Lanes in Euless, Texas, on June 7 with colorful shirt and shoes for the second tournament.
"Speedway Children's Charities has been in Texas as long as we have been in Texas, and in its first nine years has given out $3.2 million to benefit youth organizations and charities in Dallas and Fort Worth," Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said. "(Owner) Bruton (Smith) started it at Charlotte when he had one speedway back in 1980, and now each speedway has a chapter. It's been very successful. Last year, Sam wanted to do the bowling tournament and it was a natural fit." Hornish, who still occasionally bowls with family and friends, said he'd like to reach $100,000. An IndyCar Series autograph session precedes the tournament.
Indy Drivers Promote Ethanol
IndyCar Series drivers Tony Kanaan and Jeff Simmons are teaming with Texas Motor Speedway, the ethanol industry and 7-Eleven to discuss the expansion of ethanol-enriched fuel in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The drivers, Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage and representatives from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, Texas Corn Producers, National Corn Growers Association and 7-Eleven will appear at a Dallas 7-Eleven store to promote ethanol's use in the IndyCar Series and the Bombardier Learjet 500k at Texas Motor Speedway. In addition, they will provide the best fuel deal in the Metroplex - $2.20 per gallon for ethanol-enriched fuel at the 7-Eleven located at 5601 Lemmon Ave. in Dallas. Texas Motor Speedway also will give all customers free tickets for Thursday's Oak Creek Homes Qualifying Day for the IndyCar Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 50 "I Am Indy/TMS 10 Years Strong" t-shirts and one lucky consumer will win the "Ultimate TMS VIP Race Package."
Dixon Wins At Watkins Glen
Scott Dixon remained clear of trouble to win the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix for the second consecutive year at Watkins Glen International. The 2003 IndyCar Series champion became the first repeat winner in five IndyCar Series road/street races over the past 14 months. Strategy came into play as fog and wet conditions plagued the 11-turn, 3.37-mile road course. Steady rain began to fall with about 10 minutes left in the window (2 hours). Contenders began to pit for Firestone Firehawk rain tires that they used to start the race while others, including Dixon and Meira, decided to keep the slicks and risk slipping and sliding on the deteriorating circuit.
On a Lap 53 white flag restart (after Tomas Scheckter, who had been running in fourth, spun off course on Lap 51), Dixon had to gauge how hard to push on the slippery surface without sliding off. "It was extremely tough because of the conditions," he said. "It just started raining and it was hard to tell how hard to push it because you have 10-15 guys behind you that will push as hard. I think we had enough of a jump to hold them off. We definitely have a bit of luck here at Watkins Glen."
Meira, driving the No. 4 Panther Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, advanced six positions for the fifth runner-up spot of his career. Ryan Briscoe, filling the seat of Buddy Lazier in the No. 5 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, placed third and Rice was fourth.
"I'm happy because of where we finished," Meira said. "I'm happy for the team, for the league, for everybody. Finishing second would get old if I felt like we deserved to win, but that's not the case today. We fought hard to finish second here. "With the team and all the work they're doing, as soon as we get everything put together the right way, we will (win). There's no doubt about it."
For full results...
(Speed News Now)
Ho Hum!! Four In A Row For Bourdais
All year long, the Champ Car World Series drivers and teams chasing Sebastien Bourdais have been hoping that the two-time defending series champion would run into some bad luck that would allow them to get back into the title hunt. Well, one out of two isn’t bad. Bourdais finally saw Lady Luck deal him a card from the bottom of the deck on a sunny Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, dropping him a lap down to the field just 20 laps into today’s Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225, but the Newman/Haas Racing squad never missed a beat. Bourdais needed just nine laps to get back on the lead orbit, was back in the lead by Lap 101 and had almost lapped the field after another 50 trips around the 1.032-mile oval.
At the end of the day though, he needed one more strong burst to fight off Justin Wilson and Nelson Philippe on a Lap 166 restart to roll to his fourth consecutive victory of the season. Bourdais ran the fastest lap of the race just two laps after the restart and beat Wilson to the checkered flag by 3.613 seconds. The win is the fourth in as many starts this season for Bourdais and the 20th of his career. He scored the maximum 34 points available over the weekend and widened his championship lead to 31 points over Wilson. Wilson ran to his third runner-up finish of the season by finishing second today, settling for the runner-up spot after leading 61 laps on the day. Even with a few different strategies taking place on the tricky Milwaukee Mile, Bourdais, Wilson and Philippe were the constants on the day. Philippe scored the first podium of his young Champ Car career and managed his best-ever series finish with a third-place run, vaulting him four positions in the championship standings. The next race in the series is scheduled for Portland, OR on Sunday, June 18th.
For full results...
(Speed News Now)
Wilson Wins Indy Pro Race
Bobby Wilson fended off the rain, fog, changing track conditions and then reigning series champion Wade Cunningham to win the Corning 100 Indy Pro race by 3.2795 seconds. Wilson's Kenn Hardley Racing teammate, Phil Giebler, was a close third. On a Lap 18 restart (after the No. 52 car driven by Nick Bussell stalled between Turns 7 and 8), Wilson's nose was a few feet off Cunningham's gearbox heading into Turn 1. He moved to the inside and completed the pass at the exit.
"It's a wonderful feeling," said Wilson, who won the SWE Race Car Parts Pole Award and moved to second behind Jay Howard in the series standings. "The team worked so hard this weekend just adapting the car to the set-up. It was kind of iffy conditions. Just staying on the track and adapting to the conditions paid off."
For full results...
(Speed News Now)
Bourdais Wins Third Straight Pole
It took just one lap around the Milwaukee Mile today to dispel any and all myths that The Champ Car World Series points leader Sebastien Bourdais would continue the struggles that had plagued him in each of his three previous Milwaukee trips. Bourdais only took one of his two qualifying laps around the 1.032-mile oval today, but needed just the one trip around the West Allis circuit to collar his third Bridgestone Pole Position of the season. The Newman/Haas Racing driver made his orbit in 21.182 seconds (175.394 mph) to wrest the pole from A.J. Allmendinger, then watched as his own teammate Bruno Junqueira took one last shot at knocking the Flying Frenchman from his perch.
Junqueira would come up less than a tenth of a second short in his one lap, putting Bourdais on the pole and securing the first 1-2 qualifying sweep of the season for Newman/Haas. Junqueira’s qualifying effort had a bit of drama for the Brazilian as a loose condition caused him to abandon his first attempt. By rule, Junqueira was allowed to make another qualifying attempt since he had not taken the green flag, but he had to forfeit one of his two qualifying laps to do so. Undaunted, Junqueira used his one lap to vault into the second position, stopping the clocks at 21.275 seconds (174.627 mph), earning his second front-row start of the year. Bourdais would earn an extra championship point for winning the pole, boosting his total to 103 on the year and widening his series lead to 26 points over Justin Wilson
Allmendinger settled for the third position after carding a time of 21.398 seconds (173.624 mph), marking the fourth time in the year’s four races that he has started fourth or better. Led by the young Californian, RuSPORT commandeered the front row as Wilson slotted into the fourth position on the grid. Will Power will start fifth followed by Mario Dominguez, Oriol Servia and Katherine Legge. The field will take the green flag tomorrow for the fourth race of the 2006 season, with the race scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. local time, 2 p.m. Eastern. The race can be seen live on SPEED, and will be preceded by a 30-minute pre-race show also on SPEED.
For Starting Lineup...
(Speed News Now)
National Sprint Tour Will Pay $2.4 Million
Nearly a dozen of the top Sprint car drivers in the world had reason to join the new National Sprint Tour over the winter. Now they have 2,400,000 more reasons to stay. Brownfield Promotions Inc. announced today that the National Sprint Tour will pay $2.4 million in point fund money to its contracted race teams over the course of the next three seasons. This season $700,000 will be paid, with $800,000 in the kitty for 2007. The point fund will reach $900,000 in 2008. This season, the champion of the National Sprint Tour will earn $150,000. The top 15 finishers in the final point standings will each earn a portion of the money up for grabs.
“Racing these sprint cars across the country week in, week out is a very expensive proposition,” said Steve Kinser, 20-time World Champion sprint car driver, and car-owner of cars currently ranked first and second in NST points. “The point fund will sure give a lot of our race teams more financial resources to allow them to continue to have the best equipment, and the best people working for them. Every team in this series is 100 percent committed to it, and $2,400,000 allows the series to reward that commitment. On the other hand, we were all committed to the series before we had a point fund, so this is just like icing on the cake.”
The National Sprint Tour was founded by Fred Brownfield ‘on the fly’ in a few short days in December 2005. By that time, many tracks and promoters were already under contract with other major sanctioning bodies for their special events and were unable to host the new organization in 2006. This latest development will enable many of the nation’s top 410 teams to remain steadfast with the series. To date, ten races have been held in the 2006 season. “For having such a short time to accomplish things, we are pleased with what we have done so far,” Brownfield said. “As days turn to weeks, and weeks to months, we can see a positive progression.”
Drivers and teams that have raced in each NST race this year include Kinser (Quaker State), points leader Tim Kaeding (Slick 50), Jason Meyers (Elite Racing), Danny Lasoski (Roth Motorsports), Tim Shaffer (Casey’s General Store), Jason Sides (Mafia Motorsports), Paul McMahan (Bass Pro Shops), Jason Solwold (Carnahan Motorsports), Brian Paulus (Arnold Transportation Services), Shane Stewart (Snap-On), and Lucas Wolfe (Selma Shell Racing). “It’s a big deal,” Kaeding said. “It gives everyone an incentive to come and run with us now. Hopefully we can attract some cars, in addition to the ones we already have.”(backstretchmotorsports.com)
Rain Puts Castroneves On Glen Pole
Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan, constants in the first three rows of IndyCar Series road/street course events, will hook up in another spirited competition in the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix presented by Tissot.
The longtime friends and rivals will occupy the front row for the second IndyCar Series race on the 3.37-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International circuit. The grid was set based on June 2 combined practice times. Single-car qualifying and the "Firestone Fast Six" session were wiped out because fog precluded the trauma helicopter from landing at the facility before cars were scheduled to get on the track. The Indy Racing League requires an evacuation helicopter at each race it sanctions.
"Part of me is disappointed that we didn't have a qualifying session because we showed we were quick yesterday in practice and it would have been nice to try and qualify on pole, but we'll take a pole position how ever we can get it," Castroneves said.
Castroneves, the IndyCar Series point leader driving the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, topped the speed chart June 2 with a quick lap of 1:30.6688 (133.806 mph) in the afternoon session. Kanaan had a quick lap of 1:31.0462 (133.251 mph) in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone.
Indy Pro Series qualifying for the Corning 100 was reduced to one 45-minute session (Bobby Wilson will start on the pole), and the IndyCar Series had 75 minutes of practice time (Vision Racing's Tomas Scheckter topped the chart with a quick lap of 1 minute, 38.7505 seconds) on a rain-slicked surface.
For Starting Lineup...
(Speed News Now)
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