IRL: McGehee 6th at Vegas; Takes Rookie Points Lead
27 September 1999
Robby McGehee #55 Energizer Advanced Formula Dallara/Aurora/Firestone Vegas.com 500 Race Report – Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 Round 9 of 10 on the 1999 Pep Boys Indy Racing League Robby McGehee drove his #55 Energizer Advanced Formula Dallara/Aurora/Firestone entry to a sixth-place finish in today’s Vegas.com 500 Pep Boys Indy Racing League event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McGehee, who took the lead in the IRL Rookie of the Year points standings with one race to go, started 19th on the grid but kept his car together and gradually worked his way up through the field in today’s race of heavy attrition. It was McGehee’s best finish since his fifth-place effort at this year’s Indy 500 that earned him Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors. He leads Scott Harrington 138 points to 137 in the season-long Rookie of the Year points race with only the Oct. 17 season finale at Texas Motor Speedway remaining on the schedule. ROBBY MCGEHEE – “We’ve got to be happy finishing sixth, considering we started 19th. We knew all along that we had a great race car. We also knew all along that it was going to be an attrition race. So the key was keeping the car together and staying out of trouble. It’s great to head to the last race of the season with the Rookie points lead. That’s a real tribute to the Energizer Motorsports team because we missed the first three races of the season while we were getting our race program together. We seemed to have a little bad luck with the yellows today. Every one seemed to cost us a position or two. But they worked in our favor when we finished fifth at Indy, so it works both ways. Overall, we’re pleased.” DAVE CONTI (Chief Engineer) – “I thought it was a reasonable effort. We stayed out of trouble while some of the other guys got themselves into trouble out there today. This team is really coming together, all things considered. We came here Friday never having turned a wheel at this place. So finishing sixth is a very solid effort. Had it been for a bit of luck on the yellows today, we might have finished as high as third. But, realistically, we’ve got to be happy with sixth. Once we get a testing program up and running, we’ll really be contenders. The guys are doing a great, great job.”