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Way to go, Buddy Lazier wins inaugural IRL Richmond race
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Buddy Lazier had it figured out from the start, and Eliseo Salazar and Eddie Cheever Jr. helped make his finish great, too. Lazier took the lead when his chief challengers took each other out with 37 laps to go Saturday night and went on to win the SunTrust Indy Challenge, an IRL debut here that looked a whole lot like NASCAR. "This is one of the most physically demanding races I've run," Lazier said. "I'm beat." Lazier, who took the lead on the first lap and led a record 224 of the 250 circuits around Richmond International Raceway, beat Sam Hornish Jr. by 4.88 seconds for his sixth career victory and second in a row. "When I was back in front, I never really felt terribly threatened. I felt pretty strong, like I had something for everybody tonight," he said. It was the IRL's first race on the three-quarter-mile oval, the shortest track the series has ever raced on, and featured more spinning, banging and crashing than fans of Indy car racing are used to seeing. Even Lazier's average winning speed, 97.435 mph, was NASCAR-like.
A crowd of about 40,000 loved every minute of it, cheering wildly every time a car skidded into the wall with a trailing plume of smoke. In all, there were nine cautions for 87 laps, the last one taking out front-running Salazar and Cheever and making it Lazier's race to lose. He didn't, pulling away from points leader Hornish on a restart with 22 laps to go and quickly leaving the field to fight for second. Hornish hung on for second, followed by rookie Didier Andre, Al Unser Jr., Scott Sharp, Mark Dismore, Donnie Beechler and Jeff Ward. Lazier also made up points and position on Hornish in the driver's standings, jumping from fourth to second, just 50 points behind. "Somebody other than Buddy has got to win," said Hornish, now winless in five races since winning the first two. "He's getting too close." Unser, the third of only four cars on the lead lap at the checkered flag, urged driver patience before the race, but said it was fun. "I'm dying to get back," he said of Richmond. If not for a mistake by Lazier, victory would have come much easier.
With 66 laps to go, the leaders all headed for the pits, but Lazier missed his stop, had to head back around under the caution and dropped to third, trailing equally fast Salazar, who didn't pit, and Cheever. "I missed my pit stop," Lazier said. "When I came in, we were sweating so much. It's just one of those racetracks that takes everything out of you. We gave it everything we had all night long." On Friday, it was Cheever who predicted that only about 10 of the 20 cars would still be running at the end, and on lap 214, he made it so. With Lazier on his back bumper and Salazar in front, Cheever attempted to duck inside Salazar heading into the third turn. When he did, his right front tire made contact with Salazar's left rear, crashing them both. "I saw it coming when those two went in there," Lazier said. "I didn't want to pass them that way, but I did have an awesome car all night." The two became the seventh and eighth cars knocked from the race. The accident capped a disappointing night for many IRL stars, not the least of whom were front-row starters Jaques Lazier and Sarah Fisher. Lazier was passed by Fisher and older brother Buddy on the opening lap, then became the first driver out of the race when he got caught in traffic, was bumped from behind and slammed into the wall exiting Turn 4.
Fisher fell two laps down within the first 100 and became the third driver out when her car got sideways in Turns 3 and 4 and banged the wall. "The car was just so loose. I came over the radio and said, 'I can't hang onto it. I can't hang onto it anymore,'" the 20-year-old said after being checked out in the infield care center. Fisher finished 17th. Airton Dare, last year's rookie of the year, was also among the big losers in the physical race when a slight mistake ended his night. Dare was closing in on Lazier, poised to challenge for the lead, when his car slid coming out of the second turn. The right front wheel clipped the left rear of Felipe Giaffone's car, sending both into the wall. The crash was the first for Dare in 19 races, and it ended rookie leader Giaffone's unmatched string of six consecutive top-10 finishes. Lazier broke Tony Stewart's record of 193 laps led, set at Pikes Peak International Raceway in 1997. Lazier also won there two weeks ago.
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