Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Despite jarring crash Schmidt OK to race

BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. His motor sports column appears Fridays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]. For the latest in the world of auto racing, check out the Sun Racing web site at http://www.lasvegassun.com/sports/ racing/

Watching the replays of his seemingly bone-jarring crash in last weekend's Indy Racing League event at Dover Downs International Speedway, Sam Schmidt was amazed at how good he felt Monday morning.

"I saw the news highlights -- they all seemed to have highlights of the crash -- but it looked worse than it was," the Henderson resident said of the incident, which was caused by a blown right rear tire. "I wasn't even sore. It looked like it was going to be a doozy, but I didn't get hurt at all."

With back-to-back races at Dover and Charlotte Motor Speedway, Schmidt seemed even more surprised -- albeit pleasantly so -- that he was able to qualify for Saturday night's Visionaire 500 at CMS.

His qualifying speed -- 191.829 mph -- was the slowest of 22 cars that posted speeds Thursday. Schmidt was a whopping 29 mph off the pace of polesitter Tony Stewart.

Although the car Schmidt wrecked last weekend won't be ready for Saturday's race, the one he put into the turn three wall during the Indy 500 in May has been repaired and is ready for Charlotte.

"The car that we had at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway, we had already repaired that and we skipped the test in Atlanta and prepared that car for Charlotte," Schmidt said. "That was the car we were planning on running there anyway."

Schmidt, who had a pair of top-10 finishes in his first two races this season, enters Saturday's race 13th in points after four straight races in which he has finished out of the top 10.

Last weekend's 17th-place showing at Dover was especially disappointing for Schmidt because his intentions were to drive a conservative race because of the anticipated attrition. Only 10 of the 22 cars that started the race were around for the finish as the narrow and bumpy Dover track took its toll on the cars.

"Jim Guthrie is a perfect example -- he was like a moving pylon out there," Schmidt said of his IRL colleague. "I don't think he had any problems, he just drove around there all day and wound up 19 laps down and still finished seventh.

"(My finish) was pretty disappointing because we had a good opportunity to catch up on the points situation and we didn't. We've just got to get it together and try again this week."

* NASCAR: This weekend's Pennsylvania 500 Winston Cup race will be Darrell Waltrip's last in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet. Waltrip will return to the No. 17 Chevrolet for the Aug. 1 Brickyard 400. Waltrip sold the No. 17 team to Texas businessman Tim Beverly earlier this season. ... Ted Musgrave will be replaced next month by Kevin Lepage as the driver of the No. 16 Roush Racing Ford. Musgrave will drive the next three races before Lepage takes over at Michigan on Aug. 16. ... Jerry Nadeau, fired last week by team owners Bill Elliott and Dan Marino, has a one-off deal to replace Lake Speed in the No. 9 Melling Racing Ford this weekend. Speed resigned last Friday. Wally Dallenbach will replace Nadeau in the No. 13 FirstPlus Financial Ford for two races. ... Two-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, his wife Brooke and crew chief Ray Evernham will field a Busch Grand National team next year. The team plans to compete in as many as 12 events, with Gordon taking the wheel in selected races.

* CART: Sunday's U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway marks the debut of the new Handford Device, a wing-like aerodynamic piece designed to help contain the speeds of the CART cars at superspeedways. The device has received largely favorable reviews from the drivers, who are in favor of slowing down the Champ cars. "We tested the new rear wing CART developed to slow cars down, at the end of June," Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy said. "We were able to run a variety of different setups, trying a range of settings for qualifying and under race conditions. It will be interesting to see how everyone adjusts to the new wing. Personally, I feel the new wing makes it pretty easy to run full throttle when you're the only one on the track; the big challenge will be getting the car comfortable in traffic race conditions." ... Jimmy Vasser, another Las Vegas resident, will make his 100th career start this weekend, at Michigan. Vasser and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Zanardi have teamed to win 21 of their past 43 starts. ... Zanardi was named second-quarter winner of the Driver of the Year award, voted on by a panel of 15 motor sports journalists. NASCAR's Rusty Wallace won the first-quarter honor.

* IRL: Despite the high number of cars (12) that did not survive last weekend's crash-filled race at Dover, IRL officials expect a full field of 25 to 26 cars for Saturday night's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. ... Eliseo Salazar suffered a broken right hip, pelvis, right leg and right arm in a crash last weekend. Rookie Andy Michener will replace Salazar behind the wheel Saturday night. ... Robby Unser broke his left foot in one of the crashes at Dover. ... Two-time USAC midget champion Stevie Reeves will make his IRL debut this weekend at Charlotte. Reeves will drive for Pagan Racing. ... Defending IRL champion Tony Stewart has won the pole at three of the four night races, failing to set fast qualifying speed only at the Las Vegas 500K last October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* BACKMARKERS: Late Model Sportsman points leader Mike Ray held off a furious charge by Scott Gafforini last weekend to record his 12th victory of the season and highlight NASCAR Winston Racing Series stock car racing action at the 3/8ths-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval. Rounding out the top five were Dick Cobb, Steve Anderson and Brent Bell. Randy Swalwell gained his third triumph of the year in the Grand American Modifieds while Brian Kelley registered his first win of the year in the Limited Late Models. David Froelich beat Stoney Gray, Greg Haase and Bobby Ruppert in the Legends feature. In last week's action at the 1/3-mile clay track, Ray Elam beat Donnie Berger in the Modifieds while Allan Levinson took the Street Stock feature and Larry Mechek grabbed the Dwarf Car main. Kathy Wheeler picked up her first Street Stock victory of the year on the 3/8ths-mile paved oval. ... A full field of cars will compete Saturday night when the National Hot Rod Association/ Craftsman ET drag race series resumes at LVMS. ...

Troy Herbst, the youngest of Las Vegas' three racing brothers, repeated as the overall and unlimited Class 1 winner last Saturday at the 27th SCORE Fireworks 250 desert race. Battling a rugged course and blistering 126-degree heat, Herbst, 32, covered the 248.5-mile Mojave Desert course in 4 hours, 42 minutes, 34 seconds, averaging 50.96 miles per hour in his hybrid Smithbuilt desert race car powered by a Ford V8 engine. It was Herbst's second straight Class 1 victory, and boosted his lead in the driver point standings. Not far behind Herbst in the overall race were his older brothers Ed and Tim, who co-drove their Ford F-150 to second place in the featured Trophy-Truck division and third overall in a time of 4:48:59. Brian Collins of Las Vegas won Class 8 for the second straight race in a Chevrolet C1500 fielded by the White Lightning team. Las Vegas' Kory Scheeler finished fourth in Class 1 with a time of 5:01:41 in a Jimco. In Class 1-2/1600, Henderson's Kenny Freeman was second, finishing exactly one minute ahead of his younger sister, Bekki Freeman, who placed third.

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