Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Schmidt ponders scaling back in IRL

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.

Sam Schmidt's two-year-old Indy Racing League team may step down in class next season if the Henderson resident is unable to secure a full-time primary sponsor by Oct. 15.

Schmidt said he would shift his operation to the developmental -- and more affordable -- Infiniti Pro Series for the 2003 season if funding for a full-fledged IRL team weren't available.

"We're right in the middle of trying to lock in a sponsor for next year," Schmidt said. "We can't do it the way we did it this year. We just don't have the budget to buy new cars next year and all the motor changeovers and all that stuff -- it's another couple of million dollars next year over what it was this year."

Although Schmidt has fielded a car in all 12 IRL races this season, he has done so without a full-time sponsor.

"We've got to get something locked up by October 1 ... if we don't, we're probably going to be running IPS cars next year," he said. "They're much more economical."

Schmidt estimated he could run a full IPS season on a budget of about $650,000, compared to the estimated $4-5 million he will spend this season in the IRL.

Schmidt said the rival Championship Auto Racing Team series, which has enacted several cost-cutting measures this season to make racing more affordable, is not a viable alternative to the IRL.

"It's still looking like it's going to be a minimum of six or seven million dollars (in CART) and there will still be people running on 10 or 12 (million dollars)," Schmidt said. "I think (in CART) you can outspend somebody else; you can get a competitive advantage by spending more money.

"Over here, I think the situation with Roger (Penske) has shown that you can't just necessarily spend more money and buy yourself victories. They're definitely spending more money and they're definitely going fast but, as we proved with (driver Richie Hearn), we're running this year with a pretty tight budget and we haven't been competing week in and week out for a win, but we've definitely been in the top 10 pretty solidly.

"I don't think we could do the same thing over in CART on four or five million bucks."

"The performance of the Toyota engine today paints a very optimistic picture for the future," Castroneves said after putting the engine through its paces on Monday.

"It's good to be involved closely with the Toyota program and be able to provide feedback from the same track, in similar conditions with similar equipment, that we used in (Sunday's) race. It allows everyone with the program to immediately see where we stand."

Lee White, vice president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development Group, said he was happy with the engine's performance.

"We're pleased with how far along the Toyota Indy V8 is so early in its development," White said. "While not getting too specific, our times today would have qualified us comfortably into Sunday's IRL race here at Kentucky and the car appeared to perform even better on longer runs.

"Of course, we still have a long way to go before we're ready to race and there's a lot of work left to be done before Homestead next season."

McGehee, who drove for Treadway in 2000, had been driving for Norwalk/Parsons Racing until team owner Ray Parsons recently became ill.

"I'm glad we were able to put this deal together," McGehee said. "I'm looking forward to being back in the car -- especially with the Treadway crew and in my hometown. I had my best IRL finish (second at Texas Motor Speedway) with Treadway and they were really strong in St. Louis last year before they broke, so we're hoping to build on that."

Hallisky, who was involved in a pit-road accident Sunday at Kentucky Speedway, underwent surgery Sunday night for a compound fracture of his right leg, multiple fractures in his pelvis and a left hip fracture, said Dr. Kevin Scheid, who performed the operation. Hallisky was moved from ICU for a short time Tuesday but returned after a blood clot developed in his lung.

Hallisky was scheduled to have additional surgery on his hip Thursday, but the operation was postponed until next week.

Although NASCAR is in favor of moving the non-points race from Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., and perhaps rotating the site among different tracks, it is believed the race will remain at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- the site of the race since 1987.

Fernandez was to have attempted to drive in today's first practice session. If he is unable to comfortably drive the car, Max Papis will take over for the remainder of the weekend. Papis replaced Fernandez last weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and finished 15th after dropping out with mechanical problems.

NASCAR Late Models, NASCAR Chargers, Legends Cars and Thunder Roadsters will make up the racing card for Saturday night's show. Spectator gates open at 6:30 p.m. and racing begins at 7:30.

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