Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.
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.
Despite the acrimony that exists between Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Indy Racing League, Las Vegas' Paul Tracy said he believes he will receive a fair hearing in his appeal to the IRL over the finish of the Indianapolis 500.
IRL director of operations Brian Barnhart ruled that Tracy's pass of Helio Castroneves -- an IRL driver -- for the lead on lap 199 of the Indy 500 came after officials had displayed the yellow flag for a crash involving two other drivers at the other end of the track.
Because the IRL does not allow racing back to the start/finish line when the caution flag comes out, Castroneves was ruled to have retained the race lead and Tracy had to settle for a second-place finish.
On Monday, Tracy's car owner, Barry Green, filed a written appeal to IRL president and founder Tony George, who has the "exclusive jurisdiction to resolve all appeals," according to the IRL rulebook. George may either select an individual or appoint an advisory committee to resolve the appeal.
"I've had to really bite my tongue a lot in the last week but I'm so confident in what we have with this appeal that I just don't want to say the wrong thing," Tracy said Tuesday. "We've got to let the system go through its course. Playing this thing out in the media is not going to win us the war -- you might win a battle but you won't win the war so we need to do it the right way.
"I know in my heart that I won that race. I wished the decision would have come down right after the race -- but it hasn't (and) it's going to take a long time."
But Tracy could bite his tongue for only so long and said he hoped CART-IRL politics would not come into play in his appeal.
"There's going to be a panel of judges, from what I understand, on this (appeal) that are unbiased," he said. "I hope that the right outcome will come out and it's not slanted. Regardless of what people say, there is a wedge between CART and IRL and there's politics involved in everything and I just hope it doesn't come down to that."
Tracy said the controversy over the finish of this year's Indy 500 would only deepen the chasm between the rival open-wheel series.
"I think it still drives a wedge between the two," Tracy said. "It would be nice if everything got back together but Tony George has really no interest in merging with CART -- he wants to have the whole pie to himself, no matter what it takes.
"There is interest from our side to merge; we've put the olive branch out many times and it gets snapped in half. That's just kind of the way it has been going."
Tracy shrugged off the suggestion that the win would be "tarnished" if the IRL ruled in his favor.
"In my garage, I've got some polish so I'll take a tarnished Borg-Warner Trophy anytime," he said. "The most important thing is when you see all those faces on the Trophy, if you're one of them then it's something special.
"All the interviews and all the TV shows and radio interviews, I can take it or leave it -- it's the trophy that matters the most. If you've won the Indianapolis 500, then you've really done something."
Grill2GO, which sponsored the car at Indy, will remain as the sponsor for Saturday's Boomtown 500. Schmidt's regular driver, Anthony Lazzaro, had been scheduled to return to the No. 99 car this weekend.
Hearn, 31, did not have a ride for Indy until Mark Dismore crashed prior to qualifying. Schmidt hired Hearn to qualify the car and he put it in the 22nd starting position.
"Sam has a great team and I just feel really comfortable here and especially with Tim Neff the engineer, and the entire crew," Hearn said. "I have to thank Sam and everybody at Grill2GO for their support. I'm ready to go to Texas with some team chemistry and a little momentum."
Saturday's race will mark the fifth time that Hearn has driven for Schmidt, also a Henderson resident.
"I can't say enough about Richie and all the guys on the team," Schmidt said. "We may not have all the resources of some of the bigger teams but we certainly have the talent, desire and team commitment. Richie did a great job and deserves this continued opportunity with us and Grill2GO."
Hearn, who won the inaugural IRL race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1996, has made 11 career IRL starts and has one win, one pole and six top-10 finishes.
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