Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Friday, March 16
PIR's looks have proven to be deceiving
Associated Press
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Phoenix International Raceway's one-mile oval looks innocent enough.
There is that little dogleg bend on the back straightaway, but the slightly banked track gives no outward evidence of being as difficult as it has proven for the drivers in the Indy Racing League.
|  | | IRL veteran Eddie Cheever says fans can expect "mayhem" when the circuit hits Phoenix. |
"It's such a mixed bag for me," said Buddy Lazier, the defending race winner and reigning series champion. "We've always run well here and been fast. But it's where I broke my back, so I always feel more stress and anxiety when I come here, it's human nature."
Lazier broke his pelvis and shattered his back like an eggshell when he backed into the wall at Phoenix in the spring of 1996. He came back two months later, hobbling with a cane and in obvious pain, and won the Indianapolis 500.
But Phoenix remained his nemesis until last year when he started last and wound up winning in a spectacular ride that helped ignite his championship run.
"To me, maybe last year is where I made the turning point from not being able to get the results we wanted here to getting the results we wanted," Lazier said.
Greg Ray, the 1999 series champ who is still looking for his first win in Phoenix, said, "I think every track we go to is unique. It's not like a stick-and-ball sport.
"Every hockey rink and every basketball court is the same. Each racetrack, from a setup perspective to a driver style, is different. Phoenix is extremely fast, but it's a very racy racetrack."
That it is, with swarms of cars battling for position on nearly every lap.
"The fans sitting in the grandstands are not going to see a procession of cars; it's going to be mayhem from the very first lap," said Eddie Cheever, another of the IRL stars still trying to win in Phoenix. "The cars are running such high speeds and it's so competitive that it's very difficult to break away from the group.
"Phoenix is probably one of the most difficult events we run because at the beginning of the season you don't know who has what. We've all been testing and reading the reports of who's quick, who's slow, who's consistent, and who's not, but when the green flag drops, the real tale will be told."
Practice gets under way Friday, with a lot of the attention focused on a couple of drivers and a team who have never competed in an IRL event.
Penske Racing, one of the elite teams of the rival CART series, has entered Sunday's season-opening Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 as a warmup for its return to the Indianapolis 500 in May.
Roger Penske, who owns a record 10 Indy wins, has boycotted both the big IRL event and the league since the new series began competition in 1996. But fellow CART team owner Chip Ganassi opened the door for a return last year.
Ganassi's drivers last year, Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser, ran in only that one race in 2000, finishing first and seventh, respectively. Both Penske drivers, defending CART champion Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves, have tested IRL cars at Indy, but will get a close look at the competition in Sunday's race.
De Ferran, who raced once in Phoenix -- finishing 11th as a CART rookie in 1995 -- finished second in last Sunday's season-opener in Monterrey, Mexico, despite an intestinal problem that necessitated taking intravenous fluids several times during the weekend.
"The IRL cars are quite a bit different," the Brazilian driver said. "They are a little bulkier and slower than the CART cars, and they have a lot more downforce. It's a completely different feel and it's going to take some getting used to, so I'm glad we're going to Phoenix.
"Those guys are talented race drivers. They know the cars, they know the track and it's their series, so we'll just try to take away whatever we can from it. It should be a pretty interesting experience." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
