Notebook: Lazier loses out

With rain washing out Saturday qualifiying, the starting line-up was based on the point standings so Hornish and Lazier started side-by-side. But when the green flag waved to start Sunday's race, Hornish drove away from the field and Lazier sunk in the running order like a boat anchor.

A sick engine took away any hope Lazier had at contending for the win and he finished 13th, 10 laps down.

Lazier now trails Hornish by 45 points with two races remaining. If Hornish finishes fifth or better in each of the final two races of the season, the 21-year-old from Defiance, Ohio will clinch the IRL title.

"We will have to see how it ends," Lazier said of the points race. "It's not good, especially when you know how good our car was before that happened. We were real fast through the corners, real fast in practice. It's a very disappointing day, but when you have no fuel pressure from the very start, that is what sort of bothers me.

"When something goes wrong in the race, that is one thing, but when you start off that way, it's frustrating."

Hornish thought he had snookered Lazier at the start of the race by getting a good jump before he realised there was actually something wrong with Lazier's engine.

"The first thing I though was it would be real nice to win and put a lot of points on him," Hornish said. "Sixty points ahead at this time would be real good, but 45 is pretty good and we'll just have to beat him at Chicago.

"We would like to go to Chicago and win the next race so we don't have to worry about it. But everybody wants to go there and win. We're real excited to be where we've been. Just the opportunity that I got last year to come and drive for Pennzoil Panther Racing has really meant so much to me and built my confidence so well."



Earlier this week, Mark Dismore was informed at Kelley Racing that unless the team found additional sponsorship for next season, the driver from Greenfield, Indiana would be out of a ride. Dismore took out his frustration on the field in Sunday's race by finishing second to race-winner Al Unser Jr.

"I'm not used to being here," said Dismore, who scored his highest finish of the season. "We've had a lot of good race cars this year. It has not been our day for a lot of races and we now have two races to try make something happen here. The last two races are on high-speed tracks, and I seem like I'm better at that stuff than I am at these bullrings anyway.

"It's been a tough year."

Dismore has had a bad week and admitted the frustration level was beginning to get to him after he was informed he could be rideless in 2002.

"Saturday, I had so many people talking to me about it that it distracted me and I was emotionally bankrupt at the end of the day yesterday," Dismore said. "I went home last night and went in the motel room and got in bed at five in the afternoon. I ordered a pizza and sat there and thought about a lot of things and woke up this morning with a new attitude.

"I had it all displaced out of my mind and came into this deal today starting 19th and I knew that wasn't a good thing, especially when you get on a bullring like this. Maybe things have changed. I know I can win races and have a lot of racing left in me. I've got two races this year to prove that and we've got to go forward from here and I'm looking forward to that."



Jaques Lazier was very impressive in his first race for Team Menard replacing the fired Greg Ray and was running in the top three for most of the race. But his shot at victory ended when he pitted on lap 133 with an engine problem. He dropped out on lap 139 and finished 16th.

"We had an overheating problem," Lazier said. "It melted something in the engine, but I'm not exactly sure what happened. These guys deserve a lot of credit. What an awesome ride. We would have had something for them if we had stayed in the race. It's a dream come true."

Lazier was able to pass in the high groove on the tight 1.25-mile oval.

"I like it," Lazier said. "I always like the high side. Maybe I just don't know any better."



Former CART driver Alex Barron and former Formula Atlantic driver Anthony Lazzaro competed in their first ever IRL race. The two drove for team owner Sam Schmidt and both encountered problems.

Barron crashed after 41 laps trying to get out of the pits and Lazzaro finished 18th after dropping out with an engine problem after 127 laps.

"We lost a cylinder in the engine," Lazzaro said. "It cut down our power. The guys changed the electronics, but it didn't help. I had fun. I got to race up front with the leaders for a little bit. We went a lap down early. If we had stayed on the lead lap, I think we could have raced with them."