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Saturday, June 30
Lazier wins second-straight
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. -- Buddy Lazier had it figured out from the
start, and Eliseo Salazar and Eddie Cheever Jr. helped make his
finish great, too.
Lazier took the lead when his chief challengers took each other
out with 37 laps to go Saturday night and went on to win the
SunTrust Indy Challenge, an IRL debut here that looked a whole lot
like NASCAR.
|  | | Sarah Fisher, left, and Jaques Lazier led the field out of the gate in the inaugural IRL race at Richmond. |
"This is one of the most physically demanding races I've run,"
Lazier said. "I'm beat."
Lazier, who took the lead on the first lap and led a record 224
of the 250 circuits around Richmond International Raceway, beat Sam
Hornish Jr. by 4.88 seconds for his sixth career victory and second
in a row.
"When I was back in front, I never really felt terribly
threatened. I felt pretty strong, like I had something for
everybody tonight," he said.
It was the IRL's first race on the three-quarter-mile oval, the
shortest track the series has ever raced on, and featured more
spinning, banging and crashing than fans of Indy car racing are
used to seeing.
Even Lazier's average winning speed, 97.435 mph, was
NASCAR-like.
A crowd of about 40,000 loved every minute of it, cheering
wildly every time a car skidded into the wall with a trailing plume
of smoke.
In all, there were nine cautions for 87 laps, the last one
taking out front-running Salazar and Cheever and making it Lazier's
race to lose.
He didn't, pulling away from points leader Hornish on a restart
with 22 laps to go and quickly leaving the field to fight for
second.
Hornish hung on for second, followed by rookie Didier Andre, Al
Unser Jr., Scott Sharp, Mark Dismore, Donnie Beechler and Jeff
Ward.
Lazier also made up points and position on Hornish in the
driver's standings, jumping from fourth to second, just 50 points
behind.
"Somebody other than Buddy has got to win," said Hornish, now
winless in five races since winning the first two. "He's getting
too close."
Unser, the third of only four cars on the lead lap at the
checkered flag, urged driver patience before the race, but said it
was fun.
"I'm dying to get back," he said of Richmond.
If not for a mistake by Lazier, it would have been much easier.
With 66 laps to go, the leaders all headed for the pits, but
Lazier missed his stop, had to head back around under the caution
and dropped to third, trailing equally fast Salazar, who didn't
pit, and Cheever.
"I missed my pit stop," Lazier said. "When I came in, we were
sweating so much. It's just one of those racetracks that takes
everything out of you. We gave it everything we had all night
long."
On Friday, it was Cheever who predicted that only about 10 of
the 20 cars would still be running at the end, and on lap 214, he
made it so.
With Lazier on his back bumper and Salazar in front, Cheever
attempted to duck inside Salazar heading into the third turn. When
he did, his right front tire made contact with Salazar's left rear,
crashing them both.
"I saw it coming when those two went in there," Lazier said.
"I didn't want to pass them that way, but I did have an awesome
car all night."
The two became the seventh and eighth cars knocked from the
race.
The accident capped a disappointing night for many IRL stars,
not the least of whom were front-row starters Jaques Lazier and
Sarah Fisher.
Lazier was passed by Fisher and older brother Buddy on the
opening lap, then became the first driver out of the race when he
got caught in traffic, was bumped from behind and slammed into the
wall exiting Turn 4.
Fisher fell two laps down within the first 100 and became the
second driver out when her car got sideways in Turns 3 and 4 and
banged the wall.
"The car was just so loose. I came over the radio and said 'I
can't hang onto it. I can't hang onto it anymore,"' the
20-year-old said after being checked out in the infield care
center. Fisher finished 17th.
Airton Dare, last year's rookie of the year, was also among the
big losers in the physical race when a slight mistake ended his
night.
Dare was closing in on Lazier, poised to challenge for the lead,
when his car slid coming out of the second turn. The right front
wheel clipped the left rear of Felipe Giaffone's car, sending both
into the wall.
The crash was the first for Dare in 19 races, and it ended
rookie leader Giaffone's unmatched string of six straight top 10
finishes.
Lazier broke Tony Stewart's record of 193 laps led, set at Pikes
Peak International Raceway in 1997. Lazier also won there two weeks
ago.
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