Schmidt wins first IRL race on hometown track

Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 | 3:58 a.m.

With six laps to go, Brack led Schmidt by four car lengths. Schmidt, who started on the pole for the first time, pulled side-by-side with Brack, dipped inside the Swede on the third turn and zoomed out to a lead of six car lengths.

Schmidt averaged 124.936 mph in his G-Force-powered Oldsmobile Aurora on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He completed 208 laps in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 50.204 seconds, .617 seconds ahead of Brack. Brack, third-place finisher Robbie Buhl and Scott Sharp, who was fourth, all finished on the lead lap.

The 11th and final caution of the race came on lap 197 when Eliseo Salazar spun coming out of the fourth turn at the back of the pack. When racing resumed under green five laps later, Brack led Schmidt into the first turn, but Schmidt closed in quickly on the backstretch.

Schmidt picked up 53 points and moved from 12th to third in the IRL standings with 225 points. Greg Ray, who had won three of four previous races, including two straight, retained his lead in the standings despite finishing 21st.

Ray has 255 points - 13 ahead of Brack and 30 ahead of Schmidt. Sharp moved into fourth with 209 points and Goodyear dropped from second to fifth with 207. Goodyear wound up 25th out of 26 drivers after hitting the wall on lap 48.

The series title and a $1 million bonus will be decided Oct. 17 at the Lone Star 500 in Texas.

Brack led for 118 laps, with Schmidt in front for 35 as track temperatures reached 132 degrees.

The race's biggest crash occurred on lap 110 when John Hollansworth Jr. and Billy Boat made contact in the first turn and slid into the the outside wall. Mark Dismore, who started second, hit Boat and also went out of the race.

Eddie Cheever, who started from the 18th position, led for 32 laps and then settled in behind Brack for what he thought was a run to the finish. But his hopes of a second IRL victory this season ended on lap 138 when his engine failed.

Willy T. Ribbs, a two-time Indianapolis 500 starter and the first black to start in an IRL event, lasted just 18 laps before spinning 180 degrees and hitting the wall in the fourth turn. He wasn't injured.