Auto racing: Montoya drives into Brickyard history
Juan Pablo Montoya navigated his golf cart through the infield at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, zipped into a parking spot and hopped out.
He didn’t even make it a full step before a security guard stopped him in his tracks and ordered him to move the cart.
Not even an Indy great gets a break at the Brickyard.
Montoya will become the first driver to race in three series at Indianapolis when he makes his NASCAR debut Sunday. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000, his only appearance in the storied race, and made six Formula One starts at the Brickyard.
“I think when I’m 50 that’s going to be a remarkable thing to remember,” he said Friday. “But today, it’s (about) getting the job done.”
Craftsman Trucks
Ron Hornaday Jr. relied on his ability to make strong restarts as he won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Clermont, Ind.
Hornaday passed Travis Kvapil 30 laps from the finish of the 201-lap race, then maintained his lead after two late restarts – the last of which came on lap 199.
Hornaday dived low in the last turn of the last lap to keep Johnny Benson two lengths behind at the finish.
Kvapil finished third, just ahead of Rick Crawford. Ken Schrader finished fifth after starting 17th. Todd Bodine, Erik Darnell, Reagan Smith, Jack Sprague and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top 10.
Champ Car
Sebastien Bourdais, two-time winner of the San Jose (Calif.) Grand Prix, rallied from 17th place on the time sheet and turned in the fastest qualifying lap to earn the provisional pole for Sunday’s race.
Bourdais waited until the 14th lap on the 1.443-mile Redback Raceway to turn in a run of 49.509 seconds with an average speed of 104.926. That gave him his sixth front-row starting spot.
Yates racing merges
Another day, another revamped NASCAR team.
Just two days after Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing joined forces, Robert Yates Racing and open-wheel powerhouse Newman/Haas/Lanigan announced they intend to form a partnership.
Yates, whose team has struggled for several years after being one of NASCAR’s most successful, has actively sought a partner or buyer for more than a year.
The deal, which would rename the team Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, is expected to give the Yates team a big boost, particularly in engineering and marketing.
F1 drops Indy
Indianapolis was dropped from the Formula One calendar for 2008, with Singapore and Valencia, Spain, added to the racing schedule. This will be the first time in eight years there will be no F1 event in the United States.
The 18-race season will start in Australia on March 16 and finish in Brazil on Nov. 2, world motor sport’s governing body said.