Two separate accidents left Chevy IRL Indy Car
drivers sidelined at the conclusion of Saturday's XM Satellite Radio Indy 200.
The two Chevy drivers, unharmed in the accidents, started near the front of the
field but finished 17th and 20th at the end of the race
source:
irl.racing-live.com
With nine laps remaining, Tomas Scheckter in the No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Racing
Chevrolet made contact with the SAFER Barrier in turn four and finished 17th.
Scheckter started the race from the outside second row, had an average speed of
133.957 and continued to run fourth earlier in the race.
"I was going to let one of the Cheever cars by and he moved me up the track,"
said Scheckter. "I could have had a seventh or eighth place finish out of our
Pennzoil car, even though we were struggling today."
"It was another great motor from Chevrolet. We'll be back but I'm still
disappointed. The car was a little off, but I still wanted to get clean stops
and finish the race."
Rookie Tomas Enge in the No. 2 Rockstar Panther Racing Chevrolet finished the
race 20th after making contact with the SAFER Barrier in turn four on lap 75.
Enge, who started from the seventh position and was fastest in this morning's
practice session, was unable to return to the field in his first race at Phoenix
International Raceway.
"After the first pit stop, I was not able to stay with the cars in the pack,"
said Enge. "The leaders were coming and I didn't want to hold them down so I let
Dario (Franchitti), coming into turn three, go on the inside. He slowed down
probably because he wanted to pit and I couldn't slow down anymore. I ran on the
marbles and got wide between three and four unfortunately. We had some promising
results from our Chevy during the practices. The car was good until I lost some
of the power and fell off the pace."
"We'll look forward to the next race in St. Petersburg. Hopefully the first road
course of the season will suit me and we have a good result out there."
The third round of the 17-race IndyCar Series will be on a road course taking
place on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.