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Sunday, March 18
Penske disappointed; Hornish wins
Associated Press
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Goateed 21-year-old Sam Hornish Jr. made
history while the much-heralded Team Penske had a bad day in its
Indy Racing League debut.
While Roger Penske's elite visitors from the rival CART series
failed to finish Sunday's Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200, Hornish
dominated on the way to becoming the youngest winner in American
open-wheel history.
|  | | Team Penske driver Gil de Ferran, left, is helped from his car after a collision at the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200. |
The soft-spoken youngster, who showed flashes of promise last
year as a rookie with a have-not team, made his first race with
Panther Racing one to remember, replacing Scott Goodyear, who won
the season-finale in Texas last October.
"I'm with a well-funded team that's going to get me to all the
races, and all I have to do is go out there, be patient, maintain
my cool and just, you know, get in the car and bring it home,"
Hornish said. "That's all I did today."
The ballyhooed arrival of the Roger Penske team from the
rival CART series in Sunday's Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 ended
with series champion Gil de Ferran crashing out while leading and
teammate Helio Castroneves blowing an engine while running second.
"I think that we did well," said Penske, who brought his team
to the race as a warmup for its return to the Indianapolis 500 in
May. "Both cars led the race. We were competitive."
Hornish, whose best previous finish in his first eight IRL
starts was third last spring in Las Vegas, is the youngest winner
in IRL history. Buzz Calkins was 24 when he won the inaugural
league race in January 1996.
"To come to the first race and get all the jitters gone, it's
great," Hornish said. "I hope we have a lot more of these."
The youngster started alongside polesitter Greg Ray, took the
lead on the first lap and was able to dominate at times during the
200-lap event on Phoenix International Raceway's one-mile oval. He
led 140 laps.
Asked when he knew he had a chance at winning, Hornish grinned
and said: "I think about lap 1 when I got in the lead passing on
the outside. I knew we were going to have a good day."
Driving in his first event for Panther Racing, Hornish slipped
back to fifth after his first pit stop on lap 69, But he regained
the top spot for good on lap 127 and drove his Oldsmobile-powered
Dallara to victory by 1.378-seconds -- about half the front
straightaway -- over Eliseo Salazar.
With leads that climbed to more than 5 seconds at times in the
waning laps, Hornish had to keep working hard to the finish.
"I was trying as hard as I could to concentrate," said
Hornish, who averaged 125.072 mph in the race slowed by five
caution flags.
Buddy Lazier, the defending IRL champion and 2000 Phoenix race
winner, finished third despite losing fifth and sixth gears midway
through the race. He was followed across the finish line by Scott
Sharp and Billy Boat, the only other drivers on the lead lap at the
end of the attrition-filled event.
|  | | Sam Hornish Jr., bottom, leads the pack during the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200. |
De Ferran, runner-up to Cristiano da Matta a week earlier in the
CART opener in Mexico, took the lead on lap 74 when he was able to
remain on the track after most of the other front-runners pitted.
As he slowed in the fourth turn to enter the pits on lap 77,
Jeret Schroeder slammed into the rear of de Ferran and sent both
cars hard into the concrete wall. Mark Dismore, coming up fast on
the outside, then slid into the back of de Ferran's car.
"Unfortunately, Gil got drilled coming into the pits," Penske
said. "We were right on our strategy, running conservative on
fuel."
Schroeder was upset, blaming de Ferran for the accident.
"I thought he was blocking or something," Schroeder said. "We
got into (turn) 3 together and I backed out of it and got in behind
him. I was trying to bide my time and stay out of trouble.
"Going under the bridge, all of a sudden, he got on the binders
and was headed into the pits. It didn't look to me like he was
trying to get into the pits before that. ... I was drafting him,
and when he did that I had nowhere to go."
Castroneves, who started 17th, worked his way steadily toward
the front and found himself trailing Hornish by just over 1 second
when his engine let go, spewing black smoke.
Penske said his team and drivers needed this experience to
prepare for their first Indy 500 since the IRL began competition.
"We obviously need to get reliability up to where it needs to
be," he said. "Hopefully, we got our bad luck out of the way
here."
Both Ray, the 1999 series champion, and Stephan Gregoire led the
race before running into problems. Ray went out on lap 121 with a
dropped valve, and Gregoire crashed after being slowed by Lazier,
who was having trouble getting back up to speed on a restart on lap
131. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 resultsNotebook: Unser has bad weekend | | | | 
Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200
Sam Hornish Jr. races to the finish line to capture the IRL opener.
avi: 1790 k
Real: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200
The pole-winner Greg Ray blew by the competition early in the race.
avi: 1560 k
Real: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200
Sam Hornish Jr. has a close call as he cuts off Helio Castroneves in the pits.
avi: 1300 k
Real: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Team Penske debuts
ESPN's Marlo Klain takes a look at Team Penske's IRL debut.
Real: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Hornish wins in Phoenix
Sam Hornish Jr. talks with ABC's Jack Arute after capturing his first win.
wav: 366 k
Real: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Salazar eyeing trophy
Eliseo Salazar is looking forward to the rest of the season.
wav: 102 k
Real: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Lazier places third
Despite troubles, Buddy Lazier was happy to finish third.
wav: 167 k
Real: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Win No. 1
ESPN's Marlo Klain catches up with Sam Hornish Jr.
wav: 704 k
Real: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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