Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Tracy not giving up on CART championship

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. His golf notebook appears Wednesday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4089.

His most recent outing at the new Chicago Motor Speedway notwithstanding, Paul Tracy is having the most consistent season of his nine-year CART career.

Even in 1993, when he won five races with Team Penske, the 30-year-old Canadian driver did not have as many points-paying finishes as he does this season driving a Reynard/Honda for Team Kool Green.

Tracy enters the final five races of the CART FedEx Championship Series season in fourth place in the championship, only two points out of third place and 50 points behind series leader Juan Montoya.

The Las Vegas resident has four podium finishes in his past five starts and has scored PPG Cup points in eight of his past nine starts.

But second- and third-place finishes won't carry Tracy to his first series championship, a fact he acknowledged as he prepared for Sunday's Molson Indy Vancouver.

"I definitely need to win some races to get back into the championship race with Juan and Dario (Franchitti, who stands second)," Tracy said. "There are still 110 points left to get and we're only 50 points behind -- anything can happen.

"I think (not scoring points at Chicago) makes it more of a long shot. Our goal at the beginning of the season was to finish in the top three and I think we can achieve that goal. But now that there's still a mathematical chance we can win the championship, we've got to keep pushing forward and try to get everything that we can."

Whether or not he wins the title this year, Tracy said his run during the past nine races will make him a legitimate contender for the championship in 2000.

"I think next year is going to be a real key opportunity," Tracy said. "Now that I really understand the car and I've got my team in place, I think the way I'm running now, if we can start off the season that way, then you're right in it.

"I think this year has been good; we've got all the bumps in the road ironed out in terms of our crew and engineering and if we can finish off this year strong in the top three, then next year we're looking at a championship."

Tracy said the difference between this year and last, when he finished 13th in points, has been his comfort level with his Reynard/Honda.

"I think I understand the car a lot better this year and I think I've been more patient this year in situations," Tracy said. "I've just realized that if we're going to win the championship, we've got to score points every week and that's really what the goal has been."

But that doesn't mean Tracy has completely toned down his aggressive driving style -- as evidenced by his collision with Michael Andretti at Chicago while trying to protect his third-place position.

"I don't think you can be too conservative because you'll just get walked on by other guys, but there's a time to wait for the right spot in a race to make pretty risky passes," he said. "When you try to alter the way you have done things, it's pretty tough to relearn how to drive. We've just altered the strategy.

"We started off the year and had some bad luck and didn't finish the first few races and that really put us behind. From then on, we tried to be real conservative for about four or five races and we scored good points and then we wanted to get a little bit more aggressive and push a little bit harder and that led to the string of podiums."

Tracy said he likes his chances of improving his position in the championship during this final stretch of races.

"I think it's good for me; this was my strongest point of the season last year," Tracy said. "Things started to come together at Vancouver, Laguna Seca, Houston, Australia and Fontana -- these are all good races for me. I'm pretty excited about these next five races."

* NASCAR: NASCAR moved one step closer to consolidating its television package when it confirmed that all of the current Winston Cup and Busch Series TV rights holders have released their contractual rights for all events beginning with the 2001 season.

The release included Las Vegas Motor Speedway's contract with ABC Sports, which had been a five-year agreement that was not set to expire until after the 2002 race. ...

NASCAR is expected to release its 2000 Winston Cup schedule this weekend amidst widespread speculation that there will be no second race awarded to Texas Motor Speedway -- or Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for that matter.

* CART: Roger Penske announced Thursday that Marlboro Team Penske will switch to Reynard chassis for the 2000 season.

The move was made to accommodate Gil de Ferran and Greg Moore, who are moving over to Team Penske next season and have been running Reynards for several years.

Reynard has won 63 CART races and 69 poles since competing in CART in 1994.

* IRL: Niclas Jonsson, who crashed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during his rookie test last month, passed his test this week at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

Jonsson, from Sweden, plans to make his IRL debut with Blueprint Racing Enterprises at the Vegas.com 500 Sept. 26 at LVMS.

* BACKMARKERS: Figure 8 racing will make its debut at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3/8-mile paved oval Saturday night.

Instead of the normal 15-lap feature race, oval Street Stock competitors will drive their cars on a Figure 8 course. The course will utilize the infield and turns of the speedway but not the straightaways.

The Figure 8 race will be held in conjunction with a regular race program featuring NASCAR Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Legends, Limited Late Models, Mini Stocks and Bandoleros.

With only two races remaining, the most notable battle is between NASCAR Late Model points leader Scott Gafforini and second-place driver Chris Lowden. Gafforini leads Lowden by eight points in the battle for the track championship.

Gates open at 5 p.m., with racing starting at 7. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for seniors, college students, and military. Children under 12 are free, and the Family 4 Pack is $25.

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