Lured by the Indianapolis 500, Patrick Carpentier jumped to the Indy Racing League in the latest switch of a top driver from the rival Champ Car World Series source: sports.espn.go.com Carpentier will join the IRL's Red Bull Cheever Racing next season, a series change he said Thursday he had been considering for the last few years to race at Indy and on more oval tracks. "I always for some reason have done well on ovals,'' he said. "It is always a type of racing that I have always enjoyed.'' The 33-year-old Canadian has driven in Champ Car for eight years, the last seven for Forsythe Racing. He has five victories, including a win this year at Monterey, Calif. Carpentier finished third this year in the season points, trailing only Newman/Haas Racing drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira. That matched Carpentier's career best in the Champ Car series. The Forsythe team said it had hoped to keep Carpentier as a driver and regretted that he made his decision so soon after Sunday's season-ending race in Mexico City. Carpentier, however, said he had told Forsythe long ago about his interest in the IRL. "I have always wanted to race the Indy 500, and I have always wanted to race ovals,'' he said.
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