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IRL: Team co-owner Harbaugh picks Indianpolis Colts to reach the Super Bowl

14 January 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Text Provided by IMS

Harbaugh picks Colts: Indy Racing League team co-owner Jim Harbaugh picks his former National Football League team, the Indianapolis Colts, to reach the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is scheduled to be played in Atlanta, on Jan. 30, the day after the Indy Racing League kicks off its 2000 season with the Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla.

Harbaugh, who played quarterback for the San Diego Chargers in the 1999 season, shares ownership of the Pennzoil Panther Racing car driven by veteran Scott Goodyear. Other owners are Gary Pedigo, John Barnes, Doug Boles and Mike Griffin.

The Colts beat the Chargers, 29-17, at San Diego in the third game of the season and went on to capture the American Football Conference East title to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs. The Colts play host to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC semifinals Jan. 16 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

"Theyve been fun to watch," said Harbaugh, who came within one unheld "Hail Mary" pass from taking the Colts to the Super Bowl in 1995.

"We were ahead by nine," he said, reflecting on the game of last September. "I thought we were going to win. Theyve been a resilient team all year.

"They are my pick to win the AFC and go to the Super Bowl." But Harbaugh, who was released by the Colts when the team made the decision to select Peyton Manning in the draft, warned that defeating Tennessee wont be easy.

"Stopping (running back) Eddie George will be tough," he said.

Harbaugh, an Orlando resident, said hell probably watch the game on TV.

"Nobodys invited me out," he said with a laugh. "Nobody has offered me a ticket yet."

Harbaugh, though football takes him away from the second half of the Indy Racing season, is a hands-on owner who enjoys the opening of the racing season as much as he does the football campaign.

"Im a little anxious to get started, get our first game in now and know where we are," he said.

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.