Pit violation proves costly for Tagliani

Monday, Sept. 27, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Champ Car World Series officials penalized Alex Tagliani of Las Vegas two positions in the finishing order and stripped him of one championship point for an incident early in Saturday night's Bridgestone 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Tagliani was black flagged and issued a stop-and-go penalty in the race for failing to pit within the mandatory 37-lap pit window. Tagliani was heading to the pits on lap 37 when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun entering the pits and brought out a caution flag. Instead of pitting, Tagliani drove around and assumed the race lead.

Rocketsports Racing team owner Paul Gentilozzi, who also is a co-owner of the Champ Car series, maintained that the rules state that a car may not pit when the caution flag is thrown and that Tagliani should not have been penalized. Gentilozzi filed a protest with Champ Car, which was denied early Sunday morning.

Tagliani was dropped from 14th to 16th in the finishing order for failing to honor the black flag and also lost the one championship point that he had initially received for leading a lap.

Neither Tagliani nor Gentilozzi was available for comment after the race, which ended near midnight Saturday. Approximately 12 hours later, series officials announced that Champ Car's protest judges "unanimously ruled" that they would not uphold the team's protest, according to a news release issued by the series.

Carpentier, who led the race once for six laps, finished third but said he car was "horrible" on restarts because of the mechanical problem.

"I didn't even know you could them in the gearbox that way, but they were backwards," Carpentier said. "When I came in the pits the first time and I downshifted from sixth to fifth, it was like going from sixth to third -- I think the engine went to 17,000 rpms.

"After that, I said, 'man, that's it; I'm not going to finish this race.' I had to go from third gear to sixth gear on the restarts and that's where we lost a lot of ground."

According to published reports, Carpentier is expected to sign with Team Cheever and drive in the Indy Racing League next season. Carpentier would not confirm the report but said he would make an announcement on his future "within a week."

Vasser, who started on the outside of the front row, was running second as late as lap 98 before settling for a fifth-place finish.

"The car was just really loose at the end and we weren't really able to get the late charge to the front we were looking for," Vasser said.

"Maybe a podium slipped away tonight, but who knows. The PKV Racing guys did an awesome job all night long on the Gulfstream car, giving me solid stops throughout the race. It's another strong day for us in the point standings, so we'll take it."

Vasser moved from 11th to 10th in points with his fourth top-five finish of the season.

The SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Cup I will be July 28-30 and will feature two days of racing on a purpose-built racetrack with limited pavement and man-made dirt simulations of the desert terrain SCORE racers usually face. SCORE Trophy Truck and Class 1 competitors will race in separate events while the top points leaders from SCORE's 15 other classes will compete in their own special all-star race.

Racing will be held at night on July 29 and 30. The event will replace the SCORE event held in 2002 and 2003 on the Eldorado Dry Lake Bed between Boulder City and Henderson.