Bumpy track makes Kentucky Speedway a tricky place

Mike Harris

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 4:58 a.m.

SPARTA, Ky. - Kentucky Speedway's broad expanse of asphalt racetrack is deceiving.

From the vast grandstands, which hold more than 70,000 spectators, the 1.5-mile oval appears smooth as glass. In an Indy Racing League car, it's a very different story.

"I think it's going to be real tricky," said Buddy Lazier, the series points leader and the fastest driver in Friday's opening practice sessions for the inaugural Belterra Resorts Indy 300.

"We're still trying to get a grasp on it," Lazier said, moments after turning a lap of 218.774 mph in his Oldsmobile-powered Dallara. "There's several bumps that really get your attention. I can see how hard they've tried to smooth it out because there's some patches out there.

"There's a bit patch and some little bumps in (turns) one and two, and some big bumps coming out of two. Then there's a real big patch down the middle of the front straightaway that everybody is trying to stay away from. It absolutely launches you, with parts flying off and everything."

Sarah Fisher, a 19-year-old rookie, was close behind Lazier at 218.420, followed by Jaques Lazier, the younger brother, at 217.602 in a car he had never driven until Friday.

"It is pretty rough in places," said Fisher, who was the fastest driver in testing at the new track located about 35 miles south of Cincinnati and 60 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

"Other than the length, it's completely different from Texas and Atlanta," she said, referring to two other 1.5-mile ovals on which the IRL cars race. "It's going to be hard to run two-wide here. But we're going to have to find a way to do it because I know I know I'm going to be stuck up there once or twice in the race."

Jaques Lazier, three years younger than his more experienced brother, got up to speed in a hurry in his first day driving for the Mid America Freight Systems team. He replaced Scott Harrington, who finished 10th in the race last month in Atlanta.

"I don't care about the bumps," Jaques said. "I love this place. We could run the whole series here, as far as I'm concerned."

But the rough track and little room for passing puts a premium on Saturday's qualifying, particularly for the drivers involved in the wide-open Northern Light Cup championship race.

Lazier leads Eddie Cheever Jr. by just 23 points, with Scott Goodyear, Scott Sharp, Eliseo Salazar, Al Unser Jr., Mark Dismore, Robbie Buhl, Donnie Beechler and Robby McGehee all still in the title chase, at least mathematically, with two races remaining.

Goodyear was fourth in practice at 217.496, with Unser sixth at 216.885. Among the other championship contenders, Beechler turned a lap of 216.554, Sharp 216.520, Dismore 215.991, Salazar 215.931, Cheever 215.380, Buhl 215.199 and McGehee 213.135.

Cheever, who lost the point lead to Lazier in Atlanta after leading the standings most of the season, was disappointed in his speed after running well in five days of testing here.

"Somehow we've lost 1 1/2 miles per hour since we tested here last week," he said. "We're not sure where we've gone wrong. We'll be porting over the data tonight to try to get our speed back. Qualifying near the front could be a key here."

Buddy Lazier, who managed only half a day of testing here after being rained out on three previous days, was a lot more optimistic.

"We never focus on qualifying," he said. "We're always focused on the race, and we're still doing that, so that shows how well we're doing."