Autumn of Sam: Schmidt wins Vegas.com 500

Monday, Sept. 27, 1999 | 10:46 a.m.

Through the first 12 races of Sam Schmidt's Indy Racing League career, the Henderson resident left as many races in an ambulance (six) as he did in his race car.

Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Schmidt finally left the track as a champion.

The 35-year-old Schmidt passed Kenny Brack with two laps remaining and held on to capture the crash-filled Vegas.com 500 on his hometown track. It was the first victory in 26 career IRL starts for Schmidt.

"This is just huge," Schmidt said, struggling to find the words to describe his emotions. "Next to what it must feel like to win the Indy 500, this is the next best thing."

Schmidt spent an inordinate amount of time in victory circle, posing for pictures and accepting congratulations from some of the hundreds of family and friends of his in attendance.

"This (win) has been a long time coming," Schmidt said when he finally arrived to meet the media. "I didn't care how long it was taking (in victory circle), I was going to get some memories here.

"You never know when you're get another one, this (series) is so darn competitive. The (Treadway Racing) team hasn't had one since here last year and there's a couple we should have won. We were going to suck it up for all we could and take as many pictures as they'd let us take."

It was Schmidt's picture-perfect pass of Brack on the 206th lap of the race that will be indelibly etched into Schmidt's memory.

And it looked for a while as if it would never happen.

After Schmidt, who started from the pole, had worked his way back up to second place late in the race, his Sprint PCS G-Force/Aurora was consistently slow on the restarts after caution periods.

"Do you want it or not?" Treadway Racing team manager Skip Faul screamed at Schmidt over the radio after Brack had pulled away from Schmidt on a lap 197 restart.

When the caution flag came out almost immediately after the green flag, Faul had calmed down. "You've got another shot at it," Faul said. "That was your practice one, now you gotta do it for real."

Schmidt received the message loud and clear. On the restart following the final caution, on lap 202, Schmidt finally kept up with Brack, caught him on the backstretch and passed him on the low side going into Turn 3.

Schmidt held on for a .617-second margin of victory over Brack, the defending IRL series champion, much to the delight of the partisan crowd estimated at 35,000.

"Ahhhhh ... this is great ... awesome, awesome," Schmidt screamed over his radio as he took the checkered flag.

Schmidt said he held nothing back as he attempted to overtake Brack in the closing laps.

"(Brack) does a great job of driving clean, but using (all of the track)," Schmidt said. "He was definitely using all his car had. I didn't know if I would get an opportunity there at the end (because) it was relatively easy to pass him before that last pit stop, but the balance wasn't there for us that last run, as good as it was before.

"I just told myself I was going to put as much pressure on him as I can. I knew I had only three laps to go and I drove it real hard into (turn) one and he seemed to not get on the gas as early as he had the previous lap. I might have brushed the wall coming off of two -- that's how close it was to just letting it all hang out.

"I knew we had a run on him and I knew I wasn't going to lift going into three and thank God he gave me room."

Robbie Buhl, who started 21st, finished third, Scott Sharp was fourth and Buzz Calkins took fifth. Rookies Robby McGehee and Jaques Lazier were sixth and seventh, respectively, and Stephen Gregoire, Tyce Carlson and Jeff Ward rounded out the top 10.

The victory, which was worth $146,200, vaulted Schmidt from 12th to third in the championship with one race remaining. Schmidt trails Greg Ray, who finished 21st, by 30 points and is only 17 points behind second-place Brack.

The race was slowed by 11 caution periods for 70 laps. Scott Goodyear's crash on lap 48 was the most violent, but didn't result in anything more serious than a bruised knee for Goodyear.

Rookie Ronnie Johncox suffered a minor fracture of his left foot when he made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2. Johncox was treated and released from the infield care center.

Donnie Beechler was involved in a single-car accident in Turn 4 on lap 124 and was taken by ambulance to University Medical Center for examination and evaluation of neck and chest pains.

There were 11 lead changes among five drivers, with Brack leading three times for 118 laps. Schmidt's average speed for the race was 124.934 mph.