Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: CART could lose two races by 2003

Wednesday, June 20, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Championship Auto Racing Teams apparently has lost one of its American oval races next year and could be in jeopardy of losing another in 2003.

According to industry sources, International Speedway Corporation has told CART that this year's race at Michigan Speedway, scheduled for July 22, will be the last one for CART at the 2-mile track. ISC also is rumored to be dropping its CART race at California Speedway after next season.

CART has held its season-ending race at California Speedway since 1997 and the event has been one of the series' best-attended oval races.

Bob Reif of the Indy Racing League confirmed on Sunday that the IRL would begin racing at Michigan next season and that a race at California Speedway also might be added to the schedule. Reif told the Indianapolis Star that he is open to racing on the same weekend as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in Fontana.

"Any opportunity to get an oval (track on the schedule), especially an International Speedway Corporation-owned oval, is something we want," Reif told the Star. "We want to take the product to the people, and right now the people are at Winston Cup races."

ISC has been aligning itself with Tony George's IRL series as of late; five of the series' 13 races are held at tracks owned by ISC, which is a publicly traded company owned by the France (NASCAR) family.

With CART apparently in the market to add more oval races to its schedule, Las Vegas Motor Speedway would be in a good position to land the open-wheel series' season finale if ISC drops its CART race in Fontana. However, negotiations between LVMS and CART are on hold pending the resolution of Texas Motor Speedway's lawsuit against CART over the canceled race at TMS in April.

Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway both are owned by Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

"Nic is a wonderful guy and this was a tough call to make," Ganassi told ESPN.com. "But this isn't about personalities. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt but it wasn't working. I was starting to lose my crew because they used to work with Juan (Montoya) and they're used to success."

Minassian's best finish in six races was an eighth place at Long Beach.

According to the Canadian press reports, Williams was incensed that Montoya told Villeneuve, "You've already killed someone this season" following an on-track incident between the two during a practice session prior to the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this month. The remark was a reference to the March accident during the Australian Grand Prix in which a course marshal was killed after being struck by a wheel from Villeneuve's car.

A Williams employee told a Canadian newspaper that Williams believed the comment was "out of order" and gave Montoya a "stern talking to and would not tolerate a repeat performance."

Fans can submit names through Monday, June 25, and Carpentier and Brack will choose a name from the submissions. The fan that submits the name chosen by the duo will receive a custom-designed Fender guitar signed by members of the band.

Letterman is a co-owner, with Bobby Rahal of Team Rahal, which fields cars for Brack and Max Papis in CART.

"I don't know these (other drivers); I'm not going to go wheel to wheel with them."