Tracy, Andretti bury hatchet in their longtime CART feud

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 12:28 p.m.

It may not have been as earth-shattering as, say, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and the Indy Racing League announcing a merger.

But an hour-long phone call last week between longtime rival CART drivers Paul Tracy and Michael Andretti certainly qualifies as staggering news, to say the least.

Tracy, a Las Vegas resident, said he telephoned Andretti in an attempt to soothe some of the hard feelings that have existed between the two drivers for the better part of this decade.

Tracy's gesture was the result of a suggestion by CART chief steward Wally Dallenbach after Tracy and Andretti were involved in an accident during the Aug. 22 Target Grand Prix at Chicago Motor Speedway.

"Wally encouraged Michael and I to talk ... and I called Michael (last Tuesday) and it was really the first time that we had talked since probably '92," Tracy said. "We basically cleared the air and came to an understanding of what we need to do in the future because it seems like whenever we start to race each other, it just turns into a (situation where) I'm not going to lift until he lifts and he's not going to lift until I lift and then we usually end up getting into each other.

"We just have to give each other some space (on the race track). We're going to be racing each other for a long time to come and if we keep doing this, then we're going to keep crashing into each other. Michael and I both came to an understanding of what we need to do -- which is probably a good first step."

Tracy also said that Dallenbach declared the mishap at Chicago a "racing incident" and would take no disciplinary action against either driver. That came as a relief to Tracy, who spent much of last season either being fined or on probation as the result of his being involved in 10 accidents in 18 races.

Tracy also became the first driver in the 22-year history of CART to be excluded from a race when he was banned from this year's season opener in Homestead, Fla. -- the result of a collision with Andretti in the penultimate race of the 1998 season.

Tracy's run-in with Andretti eight days ago marked only the second time in 14 races this season that Tracy was involved in such an incident.

"(Dallenbach) and I talked (after the Chicago race) and he realizes that this year I have been driving very well and really trying hard not to get in any situations," Tracy said.

"Michael and I, we've got a lot of bad blood with each other over the years and the ultimate thing was, was (the crash) avoidable? Yeah, everything is avoidable. I could have given him more room, Michael could have backed off ... but we both didn't and we ended up in the wall."

While Tracy's chances of winning the CART championship were dashed with his DNF at Chicago, he goes into this weekend's Molson Indy Vancouver fourth in points and, with five races remaining, a shot at a top-three finish in the championship.

And, he said he hopes, a chance to turn around the negative perception many fans and fellow drivers have of him.

"I've been labeled in a negative way, which disappoints me, but that's something that I have got to deal with," Tracy said. "I know that from here on out, with the job that I've done this year, hopefully I can turn those negative comments into positive ones.

"All I can do is the best that I can do and whatever comes at the end of my career will come."