IRL looking to regroup after big mess in Texas

Friday, June 27, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

And, for the second straight race, the struggling IRL gets to inaugurate a track. This one is is Pikes Peak International Raceway, within sight of its namesake, rising thousands of feet into the blue Colorado sky.

Practice opens today for the Samsonite 200, starting an important weekend for the IRL. The league is still reeling from two of the most embarrassing events any series -- let alone one still in its infancy -- could endure.

The first came a month ago, at the Indianapolis 500, the IRL's showpiece event. Race officials bungled a restart on the last lap and left everybody, including winner Arie Luyendyk, with a bad feeling.

Two weeks later, at the new Texas Motor Speedway, the IRL's electronic timing system had a glitch. It failed to score several of the leaders when they made pit stops.

In the end, the wrong driver was declared the winner, and team-owner A.J. Foyt slapped and pushed Luyendyk during a Victory Circle debacle as the Dutchman insisted he had won the event. He was declared the race winner the next morning -- after U.S. Auto Club officials did an all-night scoring audit.

Embarrassed IRL officials fired USAC as its sanctioning body, taking over themselves. On Wednesday, Brian Barnhart was made director of racing operations for the IRL.

The former superintendent of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the man who must restore order for the IRL, badly in of good racing and no controversy Sunday.

"We understand what needs to be done, and we think we've put the right people in place to get the job done," said Leo Mehl, executive director of the IRL.

Previous events at the one-mile, D-shaped Colorado oval included USAC midget and Silver Crown races, conducted smoothly earlier this month.

Scott Goodyear, Luyendyk's Treadway Racing teammate and the man who finished second at Indy, tested on the oval earlier this year and called it one of the smoothest surfaces on which he had driven.

"It's going to be very challenging," Goodyear said. "It's got a real neat 1-2 turn combination because you go in there and it starts to bank on you.

"It's very wide and there's a lot of room for racing. The fans are going to see a great show."

Goodyear predicted speeds in the 180-185-mph range, which would make the track one of the fastest one-mile ovals in the country.

The grandstand at PPIR seats about 43,000 spectators, but race officials less than half that number had been sold through last weekend.

Among the drivers entered in the Samsonite 200 is Scott Sharp, co-champion last year in the IRL's inaugural season.

Sharp, who drives for Foyt, missed the previous two races after being injured in a crash during practice for the Indy 500. He had to wait for a small brain hemorrhage to heal before being cleared to drive.

"It was so tough to sit on the sidelines and not be in the car for Indy and Texas," he said. "I wanted to get back in the car, but I had to wait my time."

Sharp tested last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway -- another new venue -- at which the IRL will race July 26.