Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Carpentier reaches a fast conclusion — he likes IRL

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 | 9:43 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.

It dawned on Patrick Carpentier at the oddest time that he had made the right decision to leave the Champ Car World Series for the rival Indy Racing League.

Carpentier was turning laps at better than 165 mph around Richmond International Raceway in Saturday night's IndyCar Series race when it occurred to Carpentier how much he was enjoying his first season in the IRL.

"What a race," Carpentier, a Las Vegas resident, said Tuesday. "We had good battles with Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Scott Sharp and Tomas Enge. It was a fun race; side-by-side (racing) and passing, so I really had a good time.

"In fact, there was moment in the race that I was laughing I was having such a good time."

Of course, it didn't hurt that Carpentier was on his way to a season-high third-place finish in the SunTrust Indy 300.

"Since the beginning of the year, we struggled a little bit and we finally came through this weekend," Carpentier said. "Toyota helped us in the test previous to the race and the team did a good job with the car. It was the best that could happen for the team -- especially since the beginning it seemed like nothing positive was coming out."

Carpentier, who drives for Red Bull Cheever Racing, opened the season with three consecutive top-10 finishes before struggling to finishes of 13th, 21st and 16th prior to Richmond. Although Carpentier has more experience on road and street courses, three of his top-10 finishes this season have come on ovals.

"That's the reason why I came to the IRL -- I wanted to do the (Indianapolis) 500 but I wanted to also race more ovals," he said. "I did a lot of road courses and street circuits (in Champ Car) and I had a great time, too. Champ Car was a good series -- it gave me the experience to run with these guys this weekend at the front and I had a good time.

"I'm very happy about the decision I made and I feel like home where I'm at right now."

"This was simply a decision to move in a different direction after having our major U.S. motor sports emphasis on open-wheel racing since 1994," Toyota senior vice president J. Davis Illingworth said. "Just as our participation in IMSA sports car racing ran its course after 12 years of participation, so has our U.S. open-wheel racing program after 12 years in the IRL and CART."

The automaker said in a release that it is "in the process of reviewing how to re-allocate its resources for future motor sports plans." Those plans are believed to be an entry into the NASCAR Busch Series or Nextel Cup Series in the next two years. Toyota has fielded Tundra pickup trucks in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the past two seasons.

Toyota's announcement to leave the IRL followed Chevrolet's decision last year to stop supplying engines after this season.

"It's our first DNF in over a year and a half," Kanaan said. "I knew it was going to happen someday and (Saturday) was that day. Let's hope we've put all our bad results behind us and we can start some new streaks beginning this weekend."

The IRL IndyCar Series is in Kansas this weekend for the Argent Mortgage Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway. Sunday's race will be televised live on ESPN.

Steve Kinser, who finished fourth in Friday's prelim, continues to lead the WoO standings. Kinser, a 19-time WoO season champion, holds a 300-point lead over Jason Meyers. ...

Joey Saldana, who sustained a concussion in a crash June 17 at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska, is expected to return to the WoO circuit Friday night at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D.