Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Tagliani restless for another street fight

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:17 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.

Alex Tagliani admitted he had trouble sleeping this week as he began mentally preparing for Sunday's Molson Indy Vancouver CART race.

The Las Vegas resident dominated on the streets of Vancouver last year, running in the top six in each of the three practice sessions, winning the pole and leading the first 68 laps of the 98-lap event before mechanical problems knocked him out.

A native of Montreal, the 29-year-old Tagliani returns to Vancouver this weekend still searching for his first CART victory.

"I was very, very, very sad and very disappointed last year because, like you saw many times, we were in position to win races," Tagliani said. "But last year, that race in Vancouver was the one that we dominate every session qualifying and in the race, and everything was right, even pit stop strategy, and I guess the only factor that we did not have on our side was luck. We had a mechanical failure on the car and we didn't win, so it was very tough."

Tagliani and Player's/Forsythe Racing teammate and fellow Las Vegas resident Patrick Carpentier are among only four drivers in CART that are running Reynard chassis. Some drivers have complained the Reynard is at a disadvantage on street circuits such as Vancouver, which no doubt contributed to Tagliani's sleepless nights this week.

"It's difficult to predict when you show up at the racetrack what's going to happen," Tagliani said. "Our car was not as fast this year in Toronto as it was last year, so I'm very nervous to jump on the track on Friday morning and see how the car is.

"But if the car is close to what we had and we are competitive, then we're going to try very hard to make up what we lost last year."

Tagliani is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Cleveland. His sixth top-10 finish of the season left him tied for eighth place in points and only 12 points out of third place with nine races remaining.

Although Andretti said he was supportive of CART president and CEO Chris Pook, he said he was not sure whether Pook could save the troubled series.

"It's a critical time (for CART) right now and the jury is out on whether it's going to be positive or negative," Andretti said. "I think Pook has been working on a lot of very positive things and now we have to wait and see how they play out.

"My heart's with CART, I love CART, I love this series, I love the format, but the question is, is it too late? This I cannot answer; I don't have a crystal ball."

"Buddy, who has been very impressive in testing with us, is joining the team to give us another shot at winning on Sunday," Cheever said. "Given our performance at the superspeedways this season, I am hopeful that with three cars in the field, Red Bull Cheever Racing can leave Michigan with a victory in hand"

It will be the first Winston Cup start of the season for Pruett, who drove fulltime for team owner Cal Wells in 2000. Pruett finished 11th in last year's race at Watkins Glen in Ganassi's No. 01 Dodge and took 12th in last year's race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., in a car owned by Andy Petree.

Nadeau came within two laps of winning last month's Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, but the car suffered a rear-end gear failure while he was leading by five seconds.

IROC president Jay Signore said Unser would be credited with the points he earned in the first three races of the season. Unser was second to NASCAR's Kevin Harvick in the standings after three races.

"We commend Al Unser Jr., on his decision to seek treatment and wish him all the best in his efforts toward recovery," Signore said in a statement. "We look forward to Al's return to auto racing and we're very confident he'll soon be adding more race wins and championships to his stellar career resume."

Unser said he hoped to return to racing "sometime in August."

Additional ticketing information for the two series can be found at www.pacesupercross.com or www.arenacross.com.. everything was right, even pit stop strategy, and I guess the only factor that we did not have on our side was luck."