Three Drivers Are OK After Crashes

Alex Barron, Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge were involved in accidents Sunday, but all three of the drivers were checked and released from the infield care center.

“Everyone was going for it with 20 laps to go, and I just got in some dirty air,” Barron said of his accident.

“The car came around quick, and I ended up in the wall.”

*

A.J. Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was wearing a sling while masterminding grandson A.J. IV’s 19th-place finish.

Asked what happened, Super Tex admitted that he slipped while climbing aboard a bulldozer, fell and dislocated his shoulder.

*

Sam Hornish Jr., winner of the 2002 and 2003 Indy Racing League races at California Speedway, was inducted into the track’s Walk of Fame for the second time Sunday morning.

As a part of the ceremony, Hornish, a fan of the movie “The Fast and the Furious,” received a framed poster from the film signed by the cast.

“It’s cool to get something like this,” said Hornish. “It’s the only event that does this that I know of.”

*

No other sport is quite as blatant about plugging sponsors as auto racing.

Thus, if TV viewers thought they might not have heard correctly when team owner Michael Andretti, talking of celebrating driver Tony Kanaan’s newly won IRL championship, said, “We’re going to take Tony out tonight and have a little Jim Beam,” they had only to look closely at the Andretti Green cars.

Jim Beam is one of the team’s sponsors.

*

Scott Dixon, last year’s champion who drives for Chip Ganassi, drove a Target-sponsored car trimmed in pink, rather than the customary red, as part of Target’s campaign for breast-cancer awareness.

Casey Mears, who drives a Dodge stock car for Ganassi in NASCAR’S Nextel Cup series, drove a similarly colored Target car in Sunday’s race at Talladega, Ala.

*

British driver Darren Manning, who crashed hard Saturday on his second qualifying lap, spent the night at Loma Linda University Medical Center with what was described as a slight concussion and a severe back bruise.

He missed the race and will be reevaluated after returning to team headquarters at Indianapolis.