Friday, March 18, 2005 | 9:04 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.
As the Honda engine's dominance increased during the 2004 Indy Racing League season, so did Scott Dixon's frustration level.
Dixon, who drives a Toyota-powered Panoz for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, captured the IRL IndyCar Series championship in 2003 with three victories and 11 top-10 finishes. Last season, Dixon failed to win a race -- Toyota won only twice in 15 races -- and finished 10th in points.
Honda-powered cars have won 15 of the past 16 IRL races, including the March 6 season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but Dixon said he is confident that Toyota is gaining on Honda in the horsepower department -- he just isn't sure if it will come in time for Saturday's XM Satellite Radio Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.
"I think looking over it last year, (I) probably did get frustrated," Dixon said. "(Toyota) made some changes over the winter ... I know they have made some good gains, it looks like, for Phoenix.
"They definitely have got a fire underneath them at the moment. They are under a lot of pressure from a lot of us. It's a little frustrating, especially on ovals because the only way you can pick up speed is to work a lot harder and get a lot faster. We have faith in Toyota, and I'm sure they are going to get it together and hopefully produce some big horsepower."
But Dixon said he isn't expecting the really big gains until next month, when the series heads to Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.
"It seems to work out that way, and I know it has in the years past," Dixon said. "Motegi is such a big race for Toyota and Honda that that's when they pull out a lot of the horsepower which, ideally, is just before the (Indy) 500.
"That's when they seem to bring out more stuff. You have the Japan race just before the Indy 500 where they -- because they are both Japanese engine manufacturers -- they try to pull out all the stops and that's where the power starts to crank up and you get more of a fair idea of how you're going to fare over the year. That's why you kind of hope to wait until then, I think, to hopefully get a big burst of power."
Dixon said he was hopeful that Honda's power advantage might be neutralized this weekend because the race is being held on a 1-mile oval.
"It helps you in some ways," Dixon said. "If you've got a better car, it's going to work over a longer distance, which hopefully that's the case for us and that's what we sort of have to work on now is more for a long stint in the races and try to pass people like that.
"As far as acceleration, it sort of hurts you a little more because you have big wings on and it's hard to pull those around and you may not have the equal power that the Honda can accelerate to. But I think handling-wise and for duration of a race, it does help us a little because the tracks are shorter at the moment."
Dixon is coming off a 16th-place finish at Homestead after getting caught up in an eight-car wreck 158 laps into the 200-lap race.
BERRIER OUT: Kevin Harvick's crew chief, Todd Berrier, will sit out Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway while team owner Richard Childress appeals his fine and suspension for a rules violation during qualifying last Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Berrier was fined $25,000 and suspended for four races after it was discovered that Berrier had rigged the fuel cell on Harvick's Chevrolet to appear full when it actually held only about four gallons of fuel during his qualifying run for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.
Although Childress has appealed the fine and suspension to the National Stock Car Racing Commission, he elected to have Berrier begin serving his suspension this weekend.
Chief engineer Scott Miller will take over for Berrier this weekend.
Two other crew chiefs who received suspensions from the Las Vegas race, Chad Knaus (Jimmie Johnson) and Alan Gustafson (Kyle Busch) , will be allowed to work Sunday's race while they await their appeals.
BUSCHES PROFILED: Las Vegas natives Kurt and Kyle Busch will be featured in a cover story next month in Life magazine, which now is distributed as a supplement in many Sunday newspapers. The interviews and photo session were conducted last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
TRIPLE DUTY: Shane Hmiel and Jimmy Spencer will attempt to run all three NASCAR races this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hmiel and Spencer are entered in tonight's Craftsman Truck Series race, Saturday's Busch Series event and Sunday's Nextel Cup race. Neither driver has competed in a Nextel Cup event this season.
Spencer will attempt to qualify the No. 50 Dodge, owned by Donald Arnold, and Hmiel the No. 08 Chevrolet, owned by Todd Braun, for Sunday's Golden Corral 500 Nextel Cup race.
SCORE AT LVMS: SCORE International has released its race format and event schedule for the inaugural SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Cup I stadium desert race, to be held July 29-30 at the dirt track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The event will mark the short-course stadium debut of the 800-horsepower Trophy Truck class. Trophy Truck and Class 1 (open-wheel desert racecars) will compete in separate races while Class 1-2/1600, Class 10 and SCORE Lite and the mini-trucks of Class 7, Class 7S and Class 7SX will compete in three separate groups.
Fields in the five groups will be limited to 24 entries with the exception of Trophy Trucks, which will have no limit on the number of entries.
Because the Las Vegas Terrible's Cup I will be on an off-weekend for the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Craftsman Truck series, SCORE officials are hoping NASCAR drivers Robby Gordon, Casey Mears and Brendan Gaughan will compete in the two-day event.
Tickets for the Las Vegas Terrible's Cup I are available at www.scorelasvegas.com. A complete event schedule can be found under "Press Releases" at www.score-international.com.
GOOD START: The Las Vegas-based Petersen Motorsports /White Lightning Racing team was awarded the GT2 class pole position for Saturday's 53rd annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after rain forced the cancellation of Thursday's qualifying session.
The grid for Saturday's race was set by combining the best practice times from Wednesday's two practice sessions and Thursday morning's session.
Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Lucas Luhr are piloting the team's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, which won its class at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
ANOTHER ANDRETTI: Marco Andretti, the 18-year-old son of Michael Andretti and grandson of Mario Andretti, is scheduled to make his Indy Racing League Menards Infiniti Pro Series debut April 3 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Andretti, who won the 2004 Formula TR Pro Series championship, will drive a car entered by Andretti Green Racing -- his father's team -- and prepared by Keith Duesenberg Racing.
FORMULA ONE VIEWING: Local race fans who want to watch Formula One racing but don't subscribe to digital cable or satellite television can watch every race of the 2005 season at Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas on Paradise Road.
Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas will show each F1 race beginning at 2 p.m. on the Sundays the series races. Additional information can be obtained by calling 853-2337.
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