Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Close IRL race doesn’t surprise Gil de Ferran

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2003 | 9:58 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.

Only three points separate the top three drivers in the Indy Racing League standings after 10 of 16 races -- a fact that doesn't surprise Gil de Ferran.

De Ferran, who won back-to-back championships in CART before he moved over to the IRL last season with team owner Roger Penske, was in the thick of the IRL championship battle last year until he suffered a concussion and fractured wrist in an accident in the second-to-last race of the season.

"Last year, it was shaping up as an extremely tight battle," de Ferran said. "When I went out of the championship running with one race to go, I was just one point behind the lead with one race to go.

"I actually predicted this year it's going to be even tighter. We have all the ingredients, I think, to arrive at the last race with four or five guys fighting for the championship."

De Ferran, who missed one race this season due to a concussion and a cracked vertebra, came back from a six-week layoff and won the Indianapolis 500. In the ensuing six races, he has posted one win and three third-place finishes and has not finished out of the top 10. He is third in points, only three behind series leader Scott Dixon and two behind second-place Tony Kanaan, going into Sunday's Emerson Indy 250 at Gateway International Raceway.

Despite winning championship in CART in 2000 and 2001, de Ferran was asked if he is doing his best driving of his career this season.

"I would like to think that's probably the case," he said. "Perhaps I'm not at as a steep a learning curve as I was a few years ago, but I still would like to think that every year I've been able to polish my craft a little bit more and perhaps ... this year I've been able to take a little bit of the sharper edges, whatever was left there, off."

Although Dixon and Kanaan are de Ferran's closest rivals for the championship, Penske Racing teammate and fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves is only 20 points behind de Ferran in fourth place in the standings. Although fierce competitors on the track, de Ferran said his rivalry with Castroneves is a "healthy" one.

"I think there is a friendly competition there where, certainly, Helio's crew wants to do well -- especially when you see them working on pit stops -- against my crew and vice versa," de Ferran said.

"But it's never a destructive (rivalry). I think it's very much in the same light as Helio and compete against each other on the racetrack; I never once saw any hint of bitterness or sadness on the fact that I did better than Helio or even vice versa from my team toward Helio's. There is some competition there, but it's a very healthy one, I would say."

The Milwaukee Mile will play host to both American open-wheel series next year as CART also is under contract to race at the mile oval next season. CART's first night race in its history was in May at Milwaukee.

Montoya has two victories, three runner-up finishes and a third-place showing in his past six races.

Seven drivers remain mathematically eligible to win the World Championship. Schumacher, Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard.

Kinser holds a seven-point lead over Lasoski going into tonight's feature at Hartford Speedway Park in Hartford, Mich.

In Sunday's main event, Daryn Pittman spun under the checkered flag just inches ahead of Jason Sides the "A" feature at The Raceway at Powercom Park. Lasoski finished fifth in the finale.