Dismore wins Mall.com 500; Ray captures IRL championship

Sunday, Oct. 17, 1999 | 10:11 a.m.

FORT WORTH -- Mark Dismore won the battle, but Greg Ray won the war.

Dismore earned his first Indy Racing League victory Sunday in the Mall.com 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but Ray coasted to a third-place finish and clinched the series championship.

"This is great ... it's a long time coming," Dismore said of his first win in 30 IRL starts. "We strategized there at the end and it just worked out perfect for us."

Dismore took the lead on lap 187 when Ray made his final pit stop of the race under a green flag. Dismore was the only car running on the lead lap when he took the checkered flag.

Ray, in his first season driving for team owner John Menard, said winning the championship more than made up for not being able to win the race on his hometown track.

"Our game plan was to have a good, solid race," Ray, a native of nearby Plano, said. "We definitely had the car to (win the race), but at the end of the day, the championship was always more important than a single-race win.

"I would have loved to have won (the race) here -- of all places, other than Indy, I would like to win here. But the championship more than makes up for that."

Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton finished second to Dismore and fourth in the championship.

Eddie Cheever Jr., who started 22nd, finished fourth, followed by rookie John Hollansworth Jr.

Rookies Scott Harrington and Jaques Lazier, Buzz Calkins, Billy Boat and Buddy Lazier rounded out the top 10.

Kenny Brack, the defending IRL champion, and Sam Schmidt, a resident of Henderson, Nev., saw their championship hopes dashed by bad luck.

Schmidt, who entered the race third in points, was knocked out of the race after a collision with Scott Sharp on lap 126. Sharp tried to pass Schmidt on a restart, got into the grass on the bottom of the track, and drifted up into Schmidt, who spun and slammed into the outside wall along the frontstretch.

Schmidt suffered a fractured left foot and a fractured toe on his right foot in the crash and was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment.

Brack, who trailed Ray by 16 points going into the race and Ray's only competition for the title after Schmidt dropped out, was running second when he pulled into the pits 25 laps from the end of the race and dropped out with a faulty rear wheel bearing.

There were nine lead changes among five drivers, with Scott Goodyear leading the most laps (65) before a spectacular crash on lap 116 that left him with pain in his left ankle and a possible concussion.

There were six caution flags for 78 laps, which slowed the average speed to 135.246 mph.

The start of the race was delayed for more than four hours while track workers labored to dry the racing surfaced, which was soaked during a morning rain shower.