By Tom Reck
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE
March 28, 2008 12:06 am
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Dan Wheldon goes for a record-breaking fourth straight victory Saturday night in the Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300, but a lack of parts has caused a high-profile former ChampCar driver to withdraw from this weekend’s race.
Graham Rahal, who badly damaged his car in a testing accident earlier this week, will miss Saturday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team withdrew the entry for the 19-year-old Rahal on Thursday. The former Champ Car team will field a Dallara Honda for Justin Wilson in the GAINSCO Indy 300.
Teams making the transition from Champ Car to the newly unified open-wheel IndyCar Series have had little time to take delivery of their new cars to prepare for the opening race.
Rahal was among nine former Champ Car drivers who tested on the 1.5-mile Homestead oval earlier this week.
Rahal crashed hard during Tuesday’s test and a team official said Newman/Haas/Lanigan was unable to overcome an ongoing shortage of parts in time for today’s opening practice.
Rahal was not injured in the wreck.
Rahal’s team now will focus on rebuilding the crashed car for a test at Sebring International Raceway on Tuesday in preparation for next week’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
“It’s disappointing that we’re not going to be racing in the season opener and I feel bad about it,” said Rahal, the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal. “It will be tough not to be out there. But, at the same time, we need to take it slowly and not rush putting the car back together.
If Wheldon achieves the feat — and he thinks he can do it — he will do it in the first event of the unification era of open-wheel racing with 25 cars in the field that will include several drivers from the Champ Car Series.
The native of England has won 13 times in the series and eight have come on 1.5-mile ovals including the one in Florida.
“It is a great facility and I have always been blessed with good equipment,” Wheldon said during a teleconference, stating that Milwaukee and Indy are two other favorite tracks.
The newlywed driver is in his second year with Team Ganassi Racing, teaming with Scott Dixon. They and Tony Kanaan of Andretti Green Racing are the three champs still in the series.
Two other champs, Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr., now are competing in NASCAR.
With more cars than usual on the track with variable banking, Wheldon says handling will be a key. “You will be in traffic and strategy will be different … it will be important to be in a car you feel comfortable with on the track,” he said.
He said his team has done a lot of work in the off-season to be better on the track this season. Dixon was second to Franchitti in the points last year and Wheldon was fourth, two years after winning at Indy and claiming the series title.
He said it is always good to be successful in the early events and to maximize points in races when not competing for the win.
“I can’t wait to get going after the way last year ended,” said Wheldon.
He expects Team Penske and Andretti Green Racing to be strong again in spite of losing Hornish and Franchitti. “They have talented drivers [and] some of the new drivers could spring surprises,” he said.
“Winning Indy and the championship will be even more rewarding, knowing you are going against the best drivers and driving at the best venues,” said Wheldon.
Pit stops — Effective immediately, the new name of the Indy Racing League developmental series is Firestone Indy Lights and the first event in the series — formerly Indy Pro Series — will be Saturday afternoon.
• Qualifying for both races will be tonight.
• The second event on the IndyCar Series schedule is April 6 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., followed by an April 19 race in Japan.
• Saturday’s race marks the seventh year in a row for the opener to be run at Homestead-Miami. The season ends Oct. 26 in Australia with the final U. S. race to be Sept. 7 at Chicagoland Speedway.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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