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Olds Indy 500 Notes, 5/20

21 May 1999

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 22:12:17 -0400

 Olds Indy 500 Notes, 5/20


OLDSMOBILE MOTORSPORT REPORT: Thursday, May 20, 1999

Immediate Release


www.oldsmobilemotorsports.com

RAY SCORCHES SPEEDWAY WITH 227 MPH LAP

Team Menard Driver Turns Fastest Lap Ever for New-Formula Cars at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway with IRL Aurora V8

INDIANAPOLIS, May 20, 1999 - Greg Ray sent an unmistakable message to
his rivals today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he turned the
fastest lap ever at the Brickyard with a new-formula IRL car. Ray gunned
his Glidden/Menard's Oldsmobile-powered Dallara to a 227.192 mph run on the
sixth day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. His time eclipsed Tony
Stewart's 226.683 mph lap on Wednesday and bettered his own unofficial lap
record of 227.072 mph set during open testing in April.

Tomorrow, we'll try to go even faster because we'll need every bit of
speed we can get," said Ray. "But more importantly, we'll need to keep it
off the walls."

 Oldsmobile engines turned the five fastest speeds today as 50 cars
completed a total of 1,906 laps. The 50 car/driver combinations was the
most on the Speedway's 2.5-mile oval in six days of practice leading up to
the Indianapolis 500. The IRL Aurora V8 is the engine of choice in the Pep
Boys Indy Racing League, with 45 of the 50 cars relying on Oldsmobile
power.
 Family Tradition: Robby Unser, the 1998 IRL Rookie of the Year, turned
the second fastest time of the day in Team Pelfrey's PetroMoly Oldsmobile
Dallara at 225.079 mph. Robby's father Bobby, uncle Al Unser, Sr. and
cousin Al Unser, Jr. have won the race a total of nine times.
We've been working all week on getting mechanical grip with the race car,
and when we trimmed out the wings, the speed was there," Robby reported.
It's really great to be here; this place means so much to us. Indy is a
great place to find out who you are and what you can do. It can be a very
hard place, and at the same time it's beautiful every time you go around
it.
Birthday Surprise: Tony Stewart, the 1996-97 Pep Boys Indy Racing
League champion, turned 28 today, but his birthday celebration was soured
by a close encounter with the Speedway's unforgiving concrete wall. Stewart
was uninjured in the accident, and his Tri Star Motorsports team will have
his Home Depot Oldsmobile Dallara repaired in time for qualifying. Stewart
will commute to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., where he will
drive Joe Gibbs' NASCAR Winston Cup Pontiac on Friday, and will return to
Indy for Pole Day on Saturday.
I went flat out into Turn 3, made it down to the center of the corner
pretty good, and then the last third of the corner I lost the nose a little
bit Stewart said. I needed about 12 more inches of race track.
Unfortunately, I ran out of track and hit the wall.We're changing an engine tonight, but we haven't changed an engine this
whole week," noted co-owner and crew chief Larry Curry. "This (the
accident) is a bump in the road as far as I'm concerned. We will have that
car ready to run by the time the track closes tomorrow night. It will be
just as good as it was when it ran 226 mph.

 Oldsmobile Update: Ten independent builders are supplying Oldsmobile
IRL Aurora V8 engines for the Indy 500 field. The four fastest cars on
Thursday represented four Oldsmobile engine builders: Team Menard (Greg
Ray), Brayton Engineering (Robby Unser), Comptech Machine (Arie Luyendyk),
and Roush Technologies (Stephan Gregoire).

 Today's Aurora Factoid: A production Aurora V8 water pump moves 106
gallons per minute at peak rpm - enough water to fill your bathtub in about
19 seconds.

* TOP 10 DRIVERS OF THE DAY

Pos/Car #  Driver            Entry           Engine        Speed
1. 2T      Greg Ray          Team Menard     Oldsmobile    227.192*
2. 81      Robby Unser       Team Pelfrey    Oldsmobile    225.079
3. 5       Arie Luyendyk     Treadway Racing Oldsmobile    225.073
4. 7       Stephan Gregoire  Simon Racing    Oldsmobile    224.792
5. 91      Buddy Lazier      Hemelgarn Rcng. Oldsmobile    224.361
6. 51      Eddie Cheever     Team Cheever    Infiniti      224.193
7. 99      Sam Schmidt       Treadway Racing Oldsmobile    224.131
8. 14      Kenny Brack       A.J. Foyt Ent.  Oldsmobile    223.708
9. 8       Scott Sharp       Kelley Racing   Oldsmobile    223.691
10. 11T    Billy Boat        A.J. Foyt Ent.  Oldsmobile    223.564

*Fastest unofficial lap during Indy 500 practice