Sharp fastest in practice

Sharp ran a lap at 168.262 miles per hour in a Dallara-Oldsmobile Aurora back-up car. That was faster than IRL point's leader Sam Hornish Jr's 167.579 mph in a Dallara-Aurora followed by Robbie Buhl's 167.509 mph in a G Force-Infiniti.

Earlier on Friday, the IRL announced Sharp had been fined an undisclosed amount of money by IRL vice president of operations Brian Barnhart for unsportsmanlike conduct during the Belterra Casino Indy 300.

"The Indy Racing League has established a reputation for presenting close, exciting open-wheel race," Barnhart said. "Instrumental in this style of racing is a code of ethics that's been developed by the drivers and league officials which creates an atmosphere on the track that allowed for wheel-to-wheel racing. Scott's actions were not appropriate at Kentucky."

Sharp admitted he is being used as an example to other IRL drivers to keep the tactics of blocking from escalating further.

"It's hard to answer that," Sharp said. "From a league standpoint, when I finally got through arguing and looked at their side of things I realised defensive driving needs to stop as much as it has escalated this year. I think a lot of it has happened from my side that you don't have the confidence that you don't want it to happen to you.

"They said, enough is enough and whether I was used as an example or not, the fact is from now on, it is not tolerated across the board after reviewing the Kentucky race."

Sharp has been openly criticised by Eddie Cheever, especially after a raucous finish at Texas Motor Speedway in June.

"Eddie whines so much, nobody pays attention to him any more," Sharp said. "At the end of the day, you want to have the respect of your peers, but there are other people that come ahead of them like Delphi, Kelley Racing and all of my team. I'm out to win every race and do whatever I can. I've never put anybody in the fence and I would never compromise safety like that.

"Nevertheless, everybody has gotten more defensive in their driving. Defensive driving has risen to a different level than it has a few years ago. If the IRL truly enforces it like they say they are going to, then I think it will be better racing."

Even Buddy Lazier, winner of the four of the last five IRL races, was criticised by Hornish, the second-place finisher at Kentucky two weeks ago for defensive driving. The 21-year-old Hornish said after that race, if those tactics are going to go unnoticed, then he will change his style, too.

"There really needs to be a boundary where if you step over that boundary, the rules will take effect," Hornish said. "The way I have always taken the rule is if somebody has a faster car than you and they are trying to get by you, you don't make a second move after they have made the move. I'm sure Brian was right in making that decision.

"The way I look at it is the fastest guy, the guy who makes the least amount of mistakes is the best driver on that day is the guy who deserves to win the race. It shouldn't be the guy who is intimidated to not wanting to make a pass on somebody because they are afraid they will get crashed."

Defensive driving will come into play at the very tight oval that is shaped like a paper clip. When CART raced at this facility from 1997-2000, passing was a rarity because of the long straightaways with two very tight corners.

"I think it is pretty tight," Sharp said. "The speeds you are running, it is hard to get the cars to want to turn in the corners. It is hard to pass a car when you are going fast."

Said Buhl, "We aren't going to see side-by-side, lap after lap because that is not going to work in the turns here. But I think you are going see some great racing. The premium will be on handling during this race, for sure. To make sure you have a shot off of Turns 1 and 2 and get your nose underneath somebody. Side-by-side racing isn't going to happen, but it will still be great race.

"We've seen that at Phoenix and this is going to be fun."

This year, the IRL replaces CART at Gateway and is hoping to put on a better show to help keep open-wheel racing in St. Louis - perhaps the best baseball city in the United States, but not one that is known for racing.

Last year's final CART race, the crowd was as small as 10,000 despite great weather. This year, the IRL is hoping to improve on those figures, but ticket sales remain slow at about 15,000.

"CART has been here the last four years, but this is our inaugural race here," Buhl said. "That is the way you have to view it, to see what the IRL is all about and to see how competitive our racing is. The last couple of years, they haven't drawn well here, but this is our first year and we have to draw on that.

"I feel confident when the fans come out here and see how accessible we are and how exciting our racing is, they will be back. I think we have shown that all season. It's been good racing; it's great racing. Let's hope we can add that here and build and not think about what has happened in the past here."