IRL: Ray awarded top spot after rain washes out qualifying in Orlando
29 January 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla-- Greg Ray is starting the
first race of the 2000 Indy Racing League season in the same spot that he
finished the 1999 season - on top.
Ray was awarded the top starting spot for the Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway after persistent rain forced the cancellation of qualifying. The 26-car field was set based on 1999 Indy Racing League entrant points. Drivers without 1999 entrant points will start at the back of the field based on their fastest practice lap from Thursday. Team Menard, which fields the Conseco-Menards Dallara/Aurora/Firestone for Ray, won the entrant championship in 1999 with Ray behind the wheel.
"The advantage of starting up front is that you know what the race pace is," Ray said. "And its very hard to pass on this track. Its a compromising racetrack."
The Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway is scheduled to start at noon (EST) Saturday with live coverage on ABC.
Jeff Ward will start alongside Ray in the front row in the Harrahs A.J. Foyt Racing G Force/Aurora/Firestone. Mark Dismore will start third in the Bryant Heating & Cooling-On Star Dallara/Aurora/Firestone.
Defending event champion Eddie Cheever Jr. will start sixth in the Team Cheever Riley & Scott/Infiniti/Firestone.
Al Unser Jr. faces a long climb through the field in his Indy Racing League debut. He will start 24th in the Galles ECR Racing Tickets.com G Force/Aurora/Firestone. Unser earned his spot in the field through his fastest practice lap of 164.564 mph on the 1-mile tri-oval, as Galles ECR Racing is a new team and scored no entrant points last season.
Stephan Gregoire, who will start 13th, set the pace again in practice Friday morning before the rain came. Gregoire was fastest at 168.374 in the Dick Simon Racing-Mexmil-Tokheim-Viking Air Tools G Force/Aurora/Firestone. He led practice Thursday at 169.284.
DELPHI INDY 200 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD SPEEDWAY NOTEBOOK
On the air: The Delphi Indy 200 will be televised live on ABC at noon (EST) Jan. 29 on ABC. The debut of Indy Racing 2Day will be at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 29 on ESPN2.
The Indy Racing Radio Network will broadcast a 30-minute prerace show at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 29, followed by the live race broadcast at noon. The area IRRN affiliate is WQTM-AM 740, Maitland, Fla.
The IRRN race broadcast also will be available live on the Internet at www.indyracingleague.com as part of a partnership between Indy Racing Online and Yahoo!/broadcast.com, the worlds leading Web broadcast site.
***
Tickets: Tickets are available for the Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway by calling (800) 822-INDY or by visiting tickets.com at http://www.tickets.com . Ticket information also is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.indy200.com .
Text provided by IRL
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