Goodyear pulls pole out of the bag

Shortly after the Indianapolis 500, Goodyear announced he would not return to the Pennzoil Panther IRL team. He was feeling frustrated and discouraged regarding his relationship with the team, mainly with team owner John Barnes.

It would be easy for a driver in a lame duck situation to give up and cruise for the remainder of the season.

Not Scott Goodyear - he's in the battle for the IRL season title.

He gained three more points in the race for the $1 million season prize by winning the pole at 219.191 miles per hour in a Dallara/Oldsmobile Aurora around the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway. He is currently in third place, 30 points behind the leader, Buddy Lazier.

It was the first pole of his IRL career. He won two poles when he was in the CART series, including the 1993 Phoenix 200 at Vancouver later that year.

"It hasn't been since my CART days that I've won a pole and that was a long time ago," Goodyear said. "The past few years, we have come and concentrated on race setup but we changed our approach for this year. We used one car for qualifying and one car to test the race setups. We have accomplished our goal. We knew it would be very, very tough.

"I was very pleased to see my speed pop up on the dash across the start/finish line. We need points right now to have a shot at the championship and I expect when we go to Texas, we will do the same thing with two cars."

Eliseo Salazar of Chile was the second-fastest qualifier at 219.087 mph in a G Force/Oldsmobile Aurora. It was the second-straight front row start for Salazar, who is fourth in IRL points and his third in eight races.

"The race for the points is really, really tight," Salazar said. "We are three points behind Scott Goodyear, but we still got two points today. I'm happy with our time. We have a good setup."

Greg Ray was third at 219.031 mph in a Dallara/Aurora followed by Sarah Fisher's 217.672 mph in a Dallara/Aurora and Jeff Ward's 217.540 mph, also in a Dallara/Aurora.

The 41-year-old Goodyear admits he is in a difficult situation, but one thing the team has been able to agree on is making a serious bid for the IRL title.

"I'm focused on the championship and the team is focused on the championship," Goodyear said. "I think we professional enough to focus on what our job is at hand and that is the championship and qualify as well as possible. In a way, it is probably easier on me now."

With Goodyear leaving at the end of the season, the Panther team has tested with drivers Alex Barron, Billy Boat and Sam Hornish Jr. All three of those drivers tested at Kentucky Speedway, which is new to the IRL series after it was completed earlier this year.

"It's been great for me because I didn't have to come here and do all the initial testing," Goodyear said. "They tested here quite a few times and those guys were able to do a lot with the car. The crew came here originally with more of a Las Vegas setup on the car. They found out it didn't work and ended up putting a Texas setup on it. They went through all those days searching for information and I'm fortunate I didn't have to do that."

Goodyear did not test at Kentucky Speedway until 10 days ago. By then, the team had developed a setup that was capable of winning the pole.

Now that Goodyear has won the pole, the team will transfer the race setup off the car that had been tested for the racing onto the car that was built for qualifying. Goodyear believes the two cars will be true to the same setup.

Goodyear will lead the field to the green flag at the 1.5-mile oval. Many of the drivers have mentioned the bumpiness on the track and the fact the race line may be just one groove.

"The bumps didn't affect us in qualifying, but it will in the race," Goodyear predicted.

Salazar believes there will be passing in the race, but there won't be as much side-by-side racing as there was at Texas Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year.

"I don't think you can expect to be two abreast all around the track, but there will be passing," Salazar said. "I think it will be close to Las Vegas, that there won't be a lot of side-by-side racing. We feel it's time to win one of the last two races to put us in a position to win the championship."

Lazier enters Sunday's race with a 22-point lead over Eddie Cheever. Lazier was the fastest driver in Friday's practice, but qualified seventh on Saturday at 216.546 mph. Cheever starts 15th after qualifying at 215.191 mph.

Goodyear has just two races left with Panther Racing, and said he has no idea what he will do next season.

"If you asked me back in April and May when I wasn't enjoying this too much which led to my decision to not be with the team next year, I would have said I probably wasn't going to return," Goodyear said. "I think having some time off and spending some time between races when you have such a long break, it's given me a bit of a recharge.

"When I came through the tunnel to come here and test, I felt that fire in my belly that we all have as competitors."

Goodyear said he enjoys spending time with his family, which may lead him to decide on a part-time career in sports car racing with Porsche. But, he is also driven to try to win the Indianapolis 500, a race that has been so elusive in his career.

"It's a lifestyle change," Goodyear said. "I'm sure I will stay in auto racing and maybe do something else, but with all the testing that goes on and the business side, it's very time consuming. You are always doing something for sponsors and whatever. But I'm going to find out what my body tells me.

"This week, I enjoyed having that fire back inside of me that gets you inside of a race car in the first place."

Winning the pole for the first time in seven years has uplifted Goodyear's desire.

"A lot of people ask me what is the greatest moment in my career - the two Michigan wins or finishing second in the closest Indianapolis 500 in history in 1992," Goodyear said. "To me, I can remember getting the pole in 1993 at Phoenix and breaking Rick Mears' record and beating everybody else that was there - Newman-Haas and Penske - to have the fastest lap that day, that to me made me feel like I belonged in Indy cars.

"That made me feel better than actually winning the race for some reason. I had that same feeling today."