Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Chicago Motor Speedway suspends 2002 schedule

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2002 | 10:38 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero, Ill., rumored to be in dire financial straits for several months, has officially suspended its racing schedule for the 2002 season.

The track, which opened in 1999, had been scheduled to host the Target Grand Prix CART race and a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race this year.

Charles Bidwell, who built the track along with CART team owner Chip Ganassi, blamed the sagging economy for his decision to close the track.

"With the entire industry in a period of widespread change, we know it's the appropriate decision," Bidwill said in a prepared statement.

"The people of Chicago and our sponsors have supported auto racing and other events at the Speedway, and we look forward to providing this region with continued entertainment and sporting events in the future."

CART president and CEO Chris Pook said in a statement that the open-wheel series is reviewing options for a race to replace the Chicago event this season.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which had been in negotiations with CART to hold a race before talks broke down, likely will not fill the void on the schedule, according to industry sources.

After a six-year absence from the Indy 500, Tracy said he was eager to get back to the famed Brickyard.

"It'll be great to get back to the Indy 500," Tracy said. "I've never had much luck there, but I plan on doing everything I can to change that this time. It's the greatest race in the world and I want to win it."

In four starts in the Indy 500, Tracy has failed to finish the race. His best finish came in his first start, in 1992, when he finished 20th. The following year, Tracy earned his best starting position when he qualified seventh.

While Tracy may be a veteran at Indy with four starts, teammate Franchitti will be attempting to make his first start at the legendary 2.5-mile oval.

Chip Ganassi Racing last week applied to the IRL for inclusion in the league's Leader Circle Program, an incentive program reserved for the top 24 full-time teams in the series.

"We've been working on a full-time IRL program but we do not have it done yet," the website quoted team managing director Mike Hull as saying. "If we are going to be in the Leader Circle Program, we will race at Homestead and the other 14 races in the IRL this season.

"We would very much like to run a car in the series and we don't want that in any way to take away from what we are doing with the cars in the CART series. We want to win races and championships in CART. If we undertake a program in the IRL, the reason this is taking a long time is in addition to being cautious, we are being very thorough."

Hull said Ward is at the top of a short list of potential drivers.

The 2002 IRL season opens March 2 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Laney was competing in the fourth annual King Of The 360s event at the .333-mile clay oval, and was leading the 'B' feature when his car veered sharply to the right and hit the outside retaining wall. Laney's car was then hit by another car. Laney suffered a broken neck and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The WoO Gumout Series is a developmental circuit for the Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series.