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Ray wins crash-marred IRL race
Updated: Monday April 30, 2001 8:22 AM
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) -- Greg Ray had his mind on another track after a dominating night at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "Let's go to Indianapolis," Ray said after cruising to victory Saturday in the Indy Racing League's zMax 500. Ray led 184 of 200 laps and denied Sam Hornish Jr.'s bid for a record-tying third consecutive IRL victory leading into the biggest race of the year, the Indy 500. Practice at the Brickyard begins next weekend. "We've got a lot of momentum going into Indy and the month of May," Ray said. "That's a big reward for this team." He slowed more than 20 mph in the final laps to conserve fuel and barely had enough to get back around to Victory Lane. Still, his Dallara Oldsmobile beat Scott Sharp across the line by an overwhelming 19.857 seconds. "My job is to drive the race car, not be a mathematician or statistician," Ray said. "But it was a big concern. They kept telling me to lift, lift, lift [off the accelerator]. It's very, very tough mentally when you don't know for sure how much fuel is in the car." Ray earned his fifth IRL victory, equaling Sharp for the career lead in the 6-year-old series, and won for the second year in a row on the 1.54-mile quad-oval. The 34-year-old Texan has led 366 of 408 laps at Atlanta during the last two years. "On the bio, they talk about your favorite tracks," Ray said. "Certainly, I don't think there can be a favorite track for me other than Atlanta. "We've had two absolute fairy-tale race weekends. Very rarely does a race car driver and a race team have a weekend so flawless. To have two in row is pretty nice." The 21-year-old Hornish began his first season at Panther Racing with victories in Phoenix and Homestead, Fla. That put him in position to tie Kenny Brack's 1998 record of three consecutive victories, but Hornish simply didn't have enough power to keep up with Ray. No one else did, either. Sharp and third-place finisher Buzz Calkins had the only other cars on the lead lap. Hornish dropped back to fourth, a lap down, after coming in for a late splash of fuel. "We're excited about our strong finishes," Hornish said. "We just didn't have enough fuel at the end. Overall, it was a good run for our team. We're real excited going to Indy. I'll trade a win here for a win there." Ray's Team Menard usually has the fastest car on the track, starting from the pole for the eighth time in the last two seasons. But wrecks and mechanical problems have plagued the driver, who was 13th in the point standings a year ago and began this season by finishing 22nd in Phoenix and 21st in Homestead. "This means everything," car owner John Menard said. "We were beginning to doubt ourselves a little bit as far as finishing races. It's no fault of the guys. They were working hard and everything seemed to be going good. But some little mechanical gremlin would always catch us." Menard has been racing at Indy since 1979 and looks forward to a chance to claim his first victory. "It's almost incalculable going to the Indy 500 with a victory," he said. "No one had been able to stop Hornish. At least now we know we can do it." The most spectacular moment for the estimated 40,000 fans came on the 53rd lap, when a fiery crash took out 11 drivers, including Al Unser Jr. and Sarah Fisher. Jack Miller's car burst into flames and hurtled through the air. Casey Mears also got airborne, while Robbie Buhl's car caught fire when he slammed into the wall. Amazingly, Miller was the only driver with more than bumps and bruises. Awake and alert when removed from the battered shell of his car, he was taken by helicopter to Atlanta Medical Center for treatment of a concussion. Race officials decided not to bring out the red flag, even though debris was scattered all over the track. The yellow was out for 35 laps, slowing the average winning speed to 133.647 mph. Fisher, coming off a second-place finish at Homestead, managed to get back on the track and finished 11th, 22 laps behind Ray. The race began a half-hour behind schedule after late-afternoon showers dampened the track. Once the green flag dropped, Jeff Ward got a good jump from the outside of the front row and led the first two laps. But that was only delaying the inevitable. Ray qualified more than 2 mph faster than Ward and ran alone most of the night. Two expected contenders, Eddie Cheever Jr. and Mark Dismore, both went out early with engine problems. At the end, only 13 of the 27 starters were still running.
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