Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Schmidt hires Ray for last 2 IRL races

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002 | 9:54 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.

Sam Schmidt finally found a way to repay Greg Ray for his hospitality during the final race of the 1999 Indy Racing League season.

Schmidt, who stayed with Ray and his family at their Plano, Texas, home during the 1999 season finale at Texas Motor Speedway, has hired the former IRL champion to drive the Sam Schmidt Motorsports No. 20 Dallara/Chevrolet in the final two races of the season.

"I'm very excited about it," Schmidt said. "In some sense, it feels a little strange for me because Greg and I were such fierce competitors back in 1999 for that entire year ... but I think this is a good fit, it's good timing and I think Greg will do a great job for the team."

Ray, who last week was granted his release from A.J. Foyt's team for the rest of 2002, said he was looking forward to driving for his longtime friend and second-year team owner.

"We were fierce competitors back in '99 -- on the racetrack -- but I only look at Sam as a competitor on the racetrack," Ray said. "It's one of those relationships (where) we know how to separate the business from the competition and the competition from the friendship.

"We have had this opportunity to work together before but the timing just worked right for both of us and I am extremely excited."

Ray replaces Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Richie Hearn, who broke his ankle in an accident Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway and is out for the remainder of the season. Anthony Lazzaro, who drove in four races for Schmidt earlier this season, replaced Hearn at Gateway International Raceway Aug. 25 but crashed the team's only car in practice and did not start the race.

Schmidt enters Sunday's Delphi Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway ranked ninth in IRL entrant points.

"I'm very proud of what our team has been able to accomplish this year, starting with the Indy 500 and finishing sixth with Richie and then having a pretty steady string of top-10 finishes," Schmidt said. "We have created a very competitive program ... on a pretty minimum budget.

"We're still in the top 10 in points and my objective as a team owner is to stay in the top 10 in points for the remainder of the season. That was our goal going into the season and I think Greg can easily accomplish that."

Ray, who is under contract with Foyt for the 2003 season, said there is a possibility he would return to Foyt's team next season "if the situation is right for me."

Representatives from Newman/Haas Racing, Fernandez Racing, Patrick Racing, Player's/Forsythe Racing, Walker Racing and Team Rahal announced their commitments to remain in CART.

Missing from the press conference, however, were two of the series' top teams: Target/Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Kool Green.