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Wheldon Remains in Hunt

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For all the success that Dan Wheldon has enjoyed this year in the Indy Racing League, it has still come up a bit short.

Wheldon began the season as the defending IndyCar series champion, his picture gracing the cover of the Indy Racing League’s 2006 media guide. He also was part of a new team, having moved to Target Chip Ganassi Racing from Andretti Green Racing in the off-season.

In the series’ first race this year, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, Wheldon promptly delivered his first IRL win to Ganassi by out-dueling Helio Castroneves of Marlboro Team Penske in a nail-biting finish.

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Wheldon’s post-race appearance also drew praise, as he soberly accepted congratulations while paying tribute to Paul Dana, an IRL driver who had been killed earlier that day in practice.

But Wheldon, 28, hasn’t tasted victory since, a drought he hopes to end Sunday with the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at the 2.26-mile Infineon Raceway road course in Northern California.

“I’ve got the feeling that this race is going to be very influential in turning things around,” said Wheldon, who qualified seventh at Sonoma last year but finished 18th because of mechanical problems.

It’s also a crucial race in this year’s tight championship battle, one that Wheldon could still win. Despite having won only one race -- compared with his series-record six victories in 2005 -- he’s finished second in three other races and has eight top-five finishes overall.

That has put Wheldon third in the standings, 24 points behind leader Sam Hornish Jr., whose teammate Castroneves is second, only seven points out of the lead. Wheldon teammate Scott Dixon is fourth, 33 points behind.

The Sonoma race is the next-to-last event on the 14-race schedule. The series finale is scheduled Sept. 10 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

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This year’s Indianapolis 500 was indicative of Wheldon’s season. He dominated much of the race, leading 148 of the 200 laps, and at one point had lapped two-thirds of the field. But late caution periods and a tire puncture shuffled him back to fourth as Hornish won.

“We just have to attack every weekend,” Wheldon said. “If we just do what we normally do and run up front and lead laps, we can hopefully close the [points] gap and maybe even come out on top.”

But Wheldon is realistic.

“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” he said. “If it’s not, I can say I think I’ve driven probably the best I’ve ever driven. It just hasn’t gone for me, and sometimes you have years like that.”

NASCAR in ’07

NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series unveiled its 2007 schedule Thursday, with only minor changes from this year.

The series will again run 36 races at the same 22 tracks -- starting with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18 -- and the only changes are in the order of some races.

In early July, the series will go from New Hampshire to the second race at Daytona and then to Chicagoland. This year the order was Daytona-Chicagoland-New Hampshire.

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In addition, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis will close out July, followed by Pocono Raceway’s second race of the season. That order was reversed this year.

California Speedway will again be the site of two races, on Feb. 25 and Sept. 2 during Labor Day weekend.

Last Laps

* The Formula One series resumes Sunday after a three-week break with the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul. Fernando Alonso of Team Renault holds a 10-point lead over Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher with five races left.

* USAC Western sprint cars headline the Saturday night program at Irwindale Speedway, with Tony Hunt of Lincoln, Calif., holding a 54-point lead in the series. The track also will have a giant video screen showing the Sharpie 500 Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

* Perris Auto Speedway will have public drag racing tonight and a five-race schedule Saturday night, featuring late models and sprint cars. Chad Jones of Temecula leads the late-model points chase.

* The Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino will have six races Saturday night, featuring the ASA modified division, along with a destruction derby on the quarter-mile oval.

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* A photo exhibit of 1960s drag racing in Pomona, presented by the Auto Club of Southern California, opens today at the Wally Parks NHRA Motor Sports Museum in Pomona.

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