STEWART POSTS LAP AT 217.696 AT SPEEDWAY
STEWART POSTS LAP AT 217.696 AT SPEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, April 18, 1997 -- Team Menard driver Tony Stewart posted the third-fastest lap of pre-May testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 217.696 miles an hour. Stewart logged a total of 90 laps in the Glidden/Menards Special G Force/Oldsmobile Aurora/Firestone before an engine failure in Turn 4 at 2:59 p.m. The car spun in its own oil and brushed the wall on the left-hand side, sustaining minor damage. Stewart was uninjured. Team Manager Larry Curry said that the team would probably be back to test again on Saturday with Stewart for the last time before the month of May. Tony Stewart also has the fastest unoffical test lap at the Speedway at 218.436 miles an hour which was set on April 4th. *** Scott Goodyear returned to the Speedway for the first time on Thursday, but only ran a limited number of test laps due to cold weather conditions. He ran 29 warm-up laps in testing today in the Treadway Racing Nortel G Force/ Aurora/Firestone. Eddie Cheever, Jr. continued testing at the Speedway with 30 total laps in the FirstPlus Team Cheever G Force/Aurora/Goodyear. Mike Groff ran a total of 56 test laps in two Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria Bryant Heating & Cooling G Force/Infiniti/Firestone Indy machines. Buzz Calkins logged the most laps on the track today with 109 in the Bradley Food Marts G Force/Oldsmobile Aurora during a Goodyear test. These test speeds were not released. *** Two "Road to Indy" television specials are due to air on ESPN in the near future. The first, is set for April 27 from 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.(EST) and is a recap of Blueprint Racing's Jim Guthrie's win at the Phoenix 200 on March 23rd. The second "Road to Indy" special will be an IRL season recap-to-date and will air on May 3 from noon - 1:00 p.m. (EST). *** QUOTES: TONY STEWART: "We just lost the motor going into the entry of Turn 4 and it filled the undertray full of oil about half- way through the corner and then the oil started coming out under the bodywork and the right rear tire. It (the car) slipped once and I caught it and then it slipped a second time and I couldn't catch it so it just spun around into the wall. I think it hit the left front first and then the left rear, but it hit both front and back on the left side." SCOTT GOODYEAR: "Yesterday when we did four or five warmup laps to get ready for today, I wasn't all the way through Turn 2 yet and I looked down the straight towards Turn 3 and I got on the radio and I said to the guys, 'You know something, it's real nice to be back.'" (about testing here): "We've had very limited testing, we've only put about 30, maybe 35 laps on it so far and I think we're only going to do a total of 50 laps. We're just trying to find out some things about the car and make sure the systems are all right so when we come back we don't have any problems on opening week.
