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Sunday, June 09, 2002

By The Associated Press

Jeff Ward overtook Al Unser Jr. just inches from the line last night to win the Boomtown 500 in another incredible finish at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ward never led until he beat Unser, who had the preferred inside line, by a nose -- just .0111 seconds -- in the closest finish in Indy Racing League history. That broke the record set at Texas just last fall.

Airton Dare finished third, just .0595 seconds behind Ward, who won for the first time in 51 career starts with an average speed of 169.984 mph.

“I don’t know how we did it on the outside,” said Ward, who is in his first season with Chip Ganassi Racing. “This is a turnaround point. We can look forward now.”

Helio Castroneves, who has won the last two Indianapolis 500s, finished fourth.

The front pack of cars all had to make splash-and-go fuel stops between laps 190-192 of the 200-lap race on the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked quadoval where the IRL ran its 10th race, more than any other track.

Other races

Canadian Grand Prix: Juan Pablo Montoya ended Michael Schumacher’s string of poles, leading a record-breaking assault on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

A 26-year-old Colombian driver, Montoya sped through the 2.747-mile, 13-turn course in 1 minute, 12.836 seconds, 133.934 mph, easily breaking Schumacher’s year-old record of 1:15.782, 130.494.

Monterey Grand Prix: Cristiano da Matta, a 29-year-old Brazilian and the dominant road-course driver on the CART circuit this year, edged Kenny Brack for the pole at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif. It was da Matta’s first CART pole after qualifying second five times, and the first for Newman-Haas Racing since 1999. Brack’s Chip Ganassi teammate Bruno Junqueira was third. All three, and seven of the top eight drive Toyota-Lolas.

Inside Traxx 300: Jack Sprague passed Greg Biffle to regain the lead with 23 laps to go and held on to win a Busch Series race at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn. Sprague led four times for 144 of the race’s 225 laps.

News

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said yesterday that Michael Waltrip has been informed that Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- the race team founded by his late father -- is looking at a possible replacement.

“His job is in his hands, so to speak,” Earnhardt said of Waltrip. “It’s been a tough situation over the past several weeks for us. We tried to deal with it as best we can.”

Waltrip, 39, is in his 18th season in a Winston Cup car. He has only one victory -- the 2001 Daytona 500, on the day the elder Earnhardt was killed -- in 511 starts.

Also in jeopardy of losing his ride is Steve Park, who sat out most of last season and the first four races this year with a head injury.