Schmidt promises to keep his team together

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1999 | 9:48 a.m.

Among the many reasons Sam Schmidt gives for his success this year on the Indy Racing League circuit is the amount of time he has to concentrate solely on driving after owning his own team the past two seasons.

After signing with Treadway Racing last winter to replace the retiring Arie Luyendyk in the Sprint PCS G-Force/Aurora, Schmidt predicted his on-track performance would improve by shedding his team owner's responsibilities.

The Henderson resident was right. He has responded with four top-five finishes this season, has flirted with wins in his past two starts and has led at least one lap in each of the past six races.

He comes into Sunday's Vegas.com 500 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ranked 12th in points, but is only 25 points out of third place.

"I think me not having to find all the money to run it and managing all the people ... probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have been able to be as competitive as the team wants me to be," Schmidt said Monday during a personal appearance at Saturn of Henderson.

"It's all related. We've got a good package: the car, the motor builder, the tires, the driver and the team -- those five components have jelled extremely well over the course of the year."

But now the 35-year-old Schmidt finds himself in a similar situation as he did going into last year's Vegas.com 500 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: without a primary sponsor for the next season.

Sprint PCS officials informed team owner Fred Treadway earlier this summer that the communications company would not renew its sponsorship for the 2000 season. But Schmidt said he is committed to do whatever he has to do in order to keep the successful team together.

Even if it means hitting the corporate boardrooms in an attempt to help Treadway secure a sponsorship deal for next season and beyond.

"Things are somewhat uncertain because none of us has a signed deal," Schmidt said. "Fred has said verbally that we're going to go racing, no matter what, and that everybody should stick around because we're going to have a race team next year no matter what the sponsorship circumstances are.

"But you also want to do as well as you can to hopefully promote that primary sponsor. I think we will have a team next year, but the ability to continue to compete at this level is going to depend on how much money we raise between now and then."

The option, Schmidt said, is to try to run the program on a reduced budget without a primary sponsor, but that would mean cutting corners which ultimately could effect the team's performance.

Although Schmidt has been seen making the rounds at some Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) races this season, he said he hasn't been looking for a job in the rival open-wheel series.

"No, I really haven't been looking because I know that this is my best opportunity to win races," Schmidt said of his position with Treadway Racing. "I think every driver wants to put himself in a position, and it's always been my desire to run with the best situation in a given sanctioning body.

"I know, realistically, I can't go to Winston Cup and get in this caliber of team in Winston Cup and I can't go to CART and get in this caliber of team in CART. Really, that's the only two other places you can look at, so do you go to one of those two places and run at the back or do you stick it out and work your butt off to find a primary sponsorship for this deal and run at the front?

"To me, it's obvious. I would rather spend my time trying to find that primary sponsor for our deal so we can keep it going."

Schmidt can make great strides toward landing a sponsor with strong showings Sunday in Las Vegas and in the season finale next month at Texas Motor Speedway.

After finishing second (to Luyendyk) in last year's Vegas.com 500 at LVMS, Schmidt said he is confident he has the car and the team to win Sunday's race.

"After testing here and after watching everybody else test here, we've got a lot of confidence going into this week," Schmidt said. "I think the only way we're not going to win this race is if we give it away -- I really think we've got that good of a car.

"If we don't screw up a pit stop or if we don't totally whack ourselves out in practice with the setup, I think we should have a really good car that can compete for the win here."