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My new Kentucky home Lazier wins Belterra 300 for second consecutive year
SPARTA, Ky. (AP) -- Don't try to tell Buddy Lazier there are problems with the racing surface at Kentucky Speedway. Lazier took his first lead on lap 112 and outlasted Robbie Buhl to win the Indy Racing League's Belterra Casino Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Sunday. Lazier, who won last year's Kentucky event en route to a series championship, became the first IRL driver to win eight career races and four in a single season. "We really love this place," said Lazier, who dedicated the victory to his 95-year-old grandmother, Maxine, who is dying of cancer. "We feel like we own it.
"From the time we came here and tested until race time today, it's clear to me that they did a super job preparing this racetrack." Aggressive three-and four-wide racing put to rest talk of dangerous problems with the track's year-old surface. Points leader Sam Hornish Jr. and former IRL champion Buzz Calkins expressed their dismay last week after reduced-speed spinouts during testing. Track officials worked around the clock for nearly a week resurfacing bumpy areas before Friday's practice sessions and Saturday's qualifying. IRL officials also changed the wing alignments on the cars for better downforce, which dropped speeds significantly from the 219 mph lap turned in by Scott Goodyear during qualifying last year. "I got sideways quite a few times today over the bumps," Hornish said. "But really, having the bumps helped even things out; it was not just guys driving flat out." Polesitter Scott Sharp led the first 105 laps of the 200-lap race before giving way to Hornish and then Lazier, who started 11th in the 22-car field. Lazier passed Hornish on lap 112 as the leaders got more aggressive, with cars going three wide and wheel-to-wheel on several occasions. With Lazier leading on lap 128, he and Hornish raced side-by-side for more than a lap around the 1.5-mile oval before Lazier pulled ahead. The final 20 laps proved to be a shootout between Lazier and Buhl. Buhl passed Lazier to take the lead with 12 laps remaining, but Lazier regained the lead on the inside with eight to go. The two were wheel-to-wheel until Buhl ran out of fuel on the backstretch with a lap remaining. "Leaving the pits early on that last pit stop, while the fuel hose was still hooked up, really hurt us," Buhl said. "This is a game where tenths of a second make a big difference. "There was a little bit of a miscue, and the end result was that we didn't get enough fuel in the tank." Sharp finished second, 1.5 seconds behind Lazier, while Hornish took third, 4 seconds back, for his eighth top-five finish of the season. "We had an untouchable car the first half of the race," Sharp said. "After that, we had a real bad time with the bumps and struggled a little bit. I'm not sure what happened." Al Unser Jr. and Donnie Beechler, who started last, rounded out the top five. With the victory, Lazier moved within 25 points of Hornish for the series championship. "We started out the season as a longshot, but I think it's going to be real close," said Lazier, the 1996 Indianapolis 500 champion. "I think it's all going to come down to Texas."
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