Some of the sport's best endings have come at Texas, where IndyCars race tonight.
By JOANNE KORTH
Published June 7, 2003
When something happens fast, they call it the blink of an eye. But it takes about .025 seconds - that's 25 thousandths - for an eyelid to do its thing. That is an eternity compared to an Indy Racing League margin of victory at Texas Motor Speedway.
Blink, and you'll miss it.
The IndyCar series returns to TMS tonight for the Bombardier 500 with every reason to think the race - especially the finish - will be as thrilling as the past three, which have produced three of the four closest margins of victory in IRL history.
"It's one of my favorite places to race," two-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr. said.
The ultra-smooth 1.5-mile track has held 11 IRL races, more than any other in the series' eight-year history. Seven of those had a victory margin smaller of less than a second. The past three finishes were heart-stopping:
Oct.6, 2001: Hornish overtook Scott Sharp mere feet from the finish line to nip him by .0188 seconds and cap his first championship season with a victory. Third-place Robbie Buhl was just .0468 seconds behind Hornish in a wild three-way battle.
June 8, 2002: Jeff Ward nipped Al Unser Jr. by 0.0111 seconds for his first career victory. Ward led just one lap - the last. He made his move in Turn 3, driving to the outside to pull even with Unser by the exit of Turn 4. The two drag raced down the front straight, with Ward winning by about a foot.
Sept.15, 2002: Hornish edged Castroneves by .0096 in the season finale to claim the series title. The race featured 21 lead changes, but the final 24 laps were the most dramatic as Hornish and Castroneves crossed the start-finish line separated by more than one-tenth of a second only twice. Just .3628 separated the top five.
Hornish's victory would have been the closest in IRL history, but the week before Hornish beat Unser by a virtually imperceptible .0024 seconds at Chicagoland Speedway.
To NASCAR fans, Texas Motor Speedway has been a source of controversy since it opened in 1997. Though the facility is top-notch, the track surface has been criticized by Winston Cup drivers for its narrow transitions and one-groove racing.
But in open-wheel racing, few tracks put on a better show. With 24-degree banking, the turns at TMS are the steepest on the schedule, sending IndyCars rocketing around the track at speeds approaching 220 mph.
Side by side.
"I am always surprised when racing at Texas how many drivers are going for the lead," said Unser, who has led a series-high 221 laps in just six TMS starts. "I'm sure the fans absolutely love the action. Texas is a track that is fun and exhilarating, but at the same time it can be a little bit scary because you are running so close together at such high rates of speed."
Series leader Tony Kanaan, who holds a 14-point advantage over Castroneves, is in his first full IndyCar season after five years in Championship Auto Racing Teams. A bit nervous, he makes his TMS debut tonight.
"This will be my first time racing there, but I'm really looking forward to it," Kanaan said. "I've watched the races at Texas in the past and you are a lot of times just inches apart. You have to pay very close attention to what you are doing and what the people around you are doing."
