Indianapolis Is Ultimate for Irwin

Ask almost any stock car driver which race he would most like to win and he’ll say the Daytona 500.

Not Kenny Irwin Jr., last year’s Winston Cup rookie of the year. He’ll tell you “any race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.” And if not there, then any at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a five-eighths-mile oval a few miles West of the Speedway.

That is because he was born in Indianapolis and lived here all his life, dreaming of racing in the Indianapolis 500. Now that he is a stock car driver in Robert Yates’ stable, he dreams of winning the Brickyard 400.

Irwin, who celebrated his 30th birthday Thursday, will start his second Brickyard 400 Saturday in the 15th position in the 43-car field after turning a lap Thursday at 178.052 mph. Last year, as a rookie, he surprised nearly everyone by qualifying fourth and was running a strong fifth when an accident ended his race on Lap 116.

“You know, if we were to win Saturday’s race, I could almost stop racing,” Irwin said between bites of his birthday cake. “It doesn’t matter what kind of car it’s in, just, to me, winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is what racing’s all about. Obviously, you want to win a lot of races, but if you could only win one, that’s got to be the one.”

Irwin warmed up for his task by driving in a U.S. Auto Club Silver Bullet--formerly Silver Crown--race Wednesday night at IRP. He finished second to Dave Steele.

“Driving a Silver Crown car again--that was my second race in two weeks--is the most fun I’ve had all season,” he said. “It’s still my favorite car to drive. I had hoped to move from midgets and Silver Crown into Indy cars, but when I was ready to make a move it was before CART and IRL had split, and NASCAR was the only place to go.

“I still believe it was best for my career. Whatever the biggest racing is, that’s where a driver wants to be, and there’s no doubt where the biggest racing is: NASCAR.”

Irwin also finished second, to Ryan Newman, in a Silver Bullet race last week at Gateway Raceway in Madison, Ill.

He has been coming to the Speedway for longer than he can remember.

“I think I was probably 5 or 6 when my folks brought me the first time,” he said. “We used to make practice or qualifying every year, but not too many 500s because tickets were so tough to get.

“When I got old enough to drive, I came with my buddies and we all talked about coming back some day and driving. To me, from the time I was maybe 10 or 11, driving here was my ultimate ambition.

“Now I’m here, and it’s all I ever dreamed it would be.”

Since his third-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, this has not been the year Irwin and Yates had hoped for. In 18 races, he has not finished better than 10th and has slid to 20th in the standings.

He’s been hearing rumors that Yates may seek another driver next season, rumors he says Yates has not addressed.

“Me and Robert had a long talk here during testing and nothing was ever discussed about what we were going to change, if it was going to change or if he wanted to make a change,” he said.

“He told me that this is what he wanted to do and that he was gonna keep progressing along. Other than that, I have no idea.”

SHORT TRACKS

Southern California racing enthusiasts will have a wide variety of activity to choose from Saturday night.

NASCAR stock car fans will have a 20-lap super-late model sportsman car race at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway. The $20,000 race will be run in two 100-lap heats on the banked quarter-mile paved oval.

Open-wheel followers will have Irwindale Speedway’s first Super Saturday of racing with U.S. Auto Club sprint cars and TQ midgets, plus 360 super-modifieds and a set of Twin 30 late model stock car races. With the track closed Friday nights, Irwindale has expanded its Saturday night program with four racing divisions.

Dirt track fans will have a full night of Sprint Car Racing Assn. action at Perris Auto Speedway’s half-mile oval. Cory Kruseman of Ventura, who won two main events during Indiana Sprint Week, returned home to win last week’s SCRA feature at Perris and will be back looking for two in a row Saturday night.

For motorcycle fans, speedway and sidecar racing will be featured at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

DRAG RACING

One of the closest top-fuel points races in National Hot Rod Assn. history reaches Sears Point Raceway this weekend with only 89 points separating the first six drivers.

Mike Dunn, with 866 points, holds a tenuous 32-point lead over Kenny Bernstein. Joe Amato is third with 840, followed by defending series champion Gary Scelzi with 786, Doug Herbert with 792 and Tony Schumacher with 777.

The race has special significance for several drivers.

“Sonoma is like a home track for us because Alan [Johnson, owner-crew chief] is from Santa Maria, and I’m from Fresno,” said Scelzi. “We’ll have a bunch of family, friends and basically everyone we’ve ever raced against or met through racing at Sonoma. Hopefully, they’ll be rooting for us.”

If Bernstein wins, he will become a rare car owner who has won races at the same facility in different major series. In 1989 when Ricky Rudd won the NASCAR Winston Cup race at Sears Point in a Buick Regal, Bernstein was the owner.

Although Bernstein is second in standings, he has yet to win an event this year. The Sears Point race is No. 14 of the 22-race NHRA season.

LAST LAPS

Three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip announced he will retire after next season, enabling him to conduct a victory tour in the Ford Taurus owned by Carl Haas and Travis Carter. Waltrip, with 84 victories, last won a championship in 1985 and scored his last victory in 1992 at Darlington.

Fran Muncey, widow of famed unlimited hydroplane driver Bill Muncey, will be inducted into the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum Hall of Fame on Saturday in Seattle. Fran, with 53 wins, has more wins as a boat owner than anyone else except Bernie Little. Her record also includes 10 Gold Cups and six national championships.

Former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen of Denmark will replace PJ Jones in Pat Patrick’s Swift-Ford in Sunday’s CART race at Detroit. . . . Anthony Lazzaro, leader in the Toyota Formula Atlantic series, will move up to the Busch Grand National series with Cal Wells’ new team. . . . Cort Wagner of Los Angeles extended his lead in the GT class of the American LeMans series with a win in his Porsche 911 last Sunday at Portland, Ore.

Open-wheel racing, specifically CART and the Indy Racing League, might have lost another promising driver to NASCAR, besides Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, John Andretti and Irwin.

Jason Leffler, USAC midget and Silver Crown champion from Long Beach, will make his debut in the Busch Grand National series tonight at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Leffler will drive a Pontiac Grand Prix for Winston Cup team owner Joe Gibbs.

NECROLOGY

Dave Camlin, 1997 AMA Harley-Davidson Sportster series champion and a regular on the Grand National dirt track circuit, died July 24 of injuries suffered in a crash during qualifying for the Du Quoin Mile in Illinois. Camlin, 29, had won the Du Quoin Mile twice.

Tommy Hinnershitz, one of sprint car racing’s pioneer champions and a three-time starter in the Indianapolis 500, died in his sleep last Sunday night at his home near Reading, Pa. Known as “the Flying Farmer,” Hinnershitz had 103 wins in sanctioned dirt track races before retiring in 1960. He was 87.

Chuck Mahoney, a driver who excelled in the early years of NASCAR four decades ago, died at 79 in Williamsville, N.Y.

Mahoney, who ranked seventh in total points on the Grand National circuit in 1959, the second year of what would become Winston Cup racing, died July 20 after a heart attack.

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Brickyard 400

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, (ESPN2, 10 a.m.); Saturday, race (Ch. 7, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (oval, 2.5 miles, nine-degree banking in turns), Indianapolis.

* Defending champion: Jeff Gordon

* Next race: Frontier at the Glen, Aug. 15, Watkins Glen, N.Y.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, Kroger 200

* When: Today, qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; race (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.)

* Where: Indianapolis Raceway Park (oval, 0.686 miles, 7.5-degree banking in turns), Clermont, Ind.

* Defending champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

* Next race: Pepsi 200, Aug. 21, Brooklyn, Mich.

CART, Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix

* When: Today, first round-qualifying, 12:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 10:45 a.m.; Sunday, race (Ch. 7, 1 p.m.)

* Where: The Raceway on Belle Isle (temporary road course, 2.362 miles, 14 turns), Detroit.

* Defending champion: Alex Zanardi.

* Next race: Miller Lite 200, Aug. 15, Lexington, Ohio.

NHRA, Autolite Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m. (ESPN2, noon, (taped, 5 p.m.).

* Where: Sears Point Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.

* Defending champion: Doug Kalitta.

* Next race: VisionAire Northstar Nationals, Aug. 19-22, Brainerd, Minn.