NorthernLight IRL: Practice Kicks Off Indy Racing Season Finale at Texas
14 October 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Fort Worth, Tex. -- The final Indy Racing Northern Light Series event of the season kicked off today with practice for the Excite 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Eddie Cheever Jr., who is one of only three drivers in contention for the $1 million Northern Light Cup, logged a total of 92 laps on the 1.5-mile oval during today's two practice session. His fastest time of the day in the No. 51 Excite@Home Infiniti was a 213.613 mph lap, which ranked ninth fastest of the day.
Driving the No. 24 Team Purex Dreyer & Reinbold Infiniti a total of 84 laps today, Robbie Buhl was 11th quickest with a 213.378 mph lap.
On the air: The Excite 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will be televised on ABC at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) Oct. 15. "Indy Racing 2Day" will be televised at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) Aug. 27 on ESPN2. ESPN2 will televise MBNA Pole qualifying at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) Oct. 14.
QUOTES
Eddie Cheever Jr., No. 51 Excite@Home Dallara-Infiniti: "On this track there is a draft, and you've got to get a couple of cars to go with you like Winston Cup. This is our Daytona 500, but we can't bump and grind like they do. I think we can do well here if we can get a perfect pit strategy. But anything can happen in the course of a race, like when Buddy had an engine break at Pikes Peak. I had problems at Atlanta, as well, but Scott hung in there close all year. This is a fiercely competitive series, and things can turn around in three minutes."
Robbie Buhl, No. 24 Team Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing G Force-Infiniti: "The track is great. They have taken some of the harshness out of the track between (turns) 3 and 4. But it doesn't change anything from it being a great racetrack. It's a long time until Sunday. For us, it was great to be back out on the track because we haven't done anything since Kentucky."
PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS
Fastest Speeds of the Day
1. Jeff Ward, #14 G Force-Oldsmobile, 215.343
2. Greg Ray, #1 Dallara-Oldsmobile, 215.237
3. Greg Ray, #1T Dallara-Oldsmobile, 214.972
4. Scott Goodyear, #4 Dallara-Oldsmobile, 214.637
5. Davey Hamilton, #43 Dallara-Oldsmobile, 214.312
*9. Eddie Cheever Jr., #51 Dallara-Infiniti, 213.631
*11. Robbie Buhl, #24 G Force-Infiniti, 213.378
Text provided by Heather Handley
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