Monday, March 24, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
PHOENIX -- The clich'es were flying around Phoenix International Raceway faster than the Indy Racing League cars themselves following Jim Guthrie's improbable victory in the Phoenix 200.
Cinderella story ... David slays Goliath ... Rocky. One of sports' most gripping story lines is the underdog prevailing against seemingly overwhelming odds, and Guthrie played it to the hilt in capturing Sunday's caution-marred 200-mile race.
Guthrie, an IRL rookie who mortgaged his Albuquerque home and business to help fund the unsponsored Blueprint Racing team he co-owns, passed big-money racer and pole-winner Tony Stewart on lap 153 and held off the Glidden-Menard's Special for his first IRL victory.
"This is a big relief, obviously," said Guthrie, who estimated he still would be $85,000 in debt after the win earning him $170,010. "I'm going to be able to pay off some bills, give my crew a little bonus and -- who knows -- I might even buy a spare engine if I have some (money) left over."
Guthrie's Blueprint Racing teammate, Las Vegan Sam Schmidt, didn't have the storybook ending he envisioned to his first IRL start. After qualifying a strong seventh in the 22-car field and running in the top 10 most of the race, Schmidt hit the wall in turn three on lap 179 after something broke on the rear end of his Aurora-powered car.
Schmidt, who complained of lower back pain after being extracted from his mangled car, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center with a suspected spinal fracture and was being held overnight. Schmidt finished in 10th place.
Guthrie, like Schmidt, was driving in the Phoenix 200 without a big-time sponsorship deal for his Dallara-Aurora. Despite beating well-financed teams like Stewart's and Las Vegan Davey Hamilton, who finished third in one of A.J. Foyt's cars, Guthrie said he didn't feel like a giant killer.
"I wouldn't say I killed the giant," Guthrie said. "It's nice to win, of course, but this is just practice for Indy -- Indy is the big one. I guess if I win Indy, then I'd consider that we slayed the giant."
Stewart, whose team owner John Menard spent $1 million on wind-tunnel testing prior to the season, appeared genuinely happy about Guthrie's win.
"If we've got to get beat, I'm kind of glad it's like this," said Stewart, who has led six of the seven IRL races but has yet to win one. "It's kind of neat to see the low-buck guy get a win. Nobody's worked harder than those guys. You talk about guys keeping their fingers crossed ... these guys had one motor for the whole week.
"Every time I looked in my mirror at the yellow car I thought, 'Man, I just wish he would go away.' He was fast all day. I would rather get beat by a real driver than someone who is buying a ride."
Guthrie appeared to have the race won easily after he took the lead with 47 laps remaining and pulled away from Stewart, but Schmidt's accident on lap 180 allowed Stewart to pit and take on new tires.
"I knew after Sam hit the wall and (Stewart) pitted, I knew he was going to get stickers (new tires) on there and he would be coming with a vengeance," Guthrie said. "I was just hoping that I could run fast enough and get far enough ahead of him to outlast him. Who knows, 10 more laps or five more laps, he probably would have caught me. But it so happened that luck came my way today."
The race was marred by nine caution flags for a total of 79 laps, which dropped the average speed to a plodding 89.190 mph -- a track low for a 200-mile race.
Hamilton, who started 15th, was running the same pace as Guthrie and Stewart until Schmidt's accident brought out the yellow flag with 20 laps remaining.
"The car was running pretty good up until that yellow," said Hamilton, who has a part-time job at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "We were expecting good things after the yellow flag, unfortunately I just picked a huge push.
"The first time I sat in that car was Friday ... for a small amount of track time. We're pretty happy with the car."
There were 10 lead changes between five drivers and Guthrie's margin of victory was a scant .854 of a second. Only nine of the 22 cars that started the race were running when the checkered flag dropped and as many as 11 of the 13 that dropped out did so with blown engines.
Nevertheless, Guthrie said he doesn't foresee a problem with the new nonturbocharged engines when the IRL cars head to Indianapolis for the 500 in May.
"I've got 850 or 860 miles on this engine and the top end has never been rebuilt," Guthrie said. "I think these engines are fine -- Aurora has built a fine motor."
And Guthrie, on a shoestring budget no less, has built himself a fine race team.
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