IRL: making strides: thanks to the emergence of Sam Hornish, its largest-ever schedule, and a few photo finishes, the IRL enjoyed its finest season - The 2001 Season In Review: IRL - Indy Racing League

Auto Racing Digest, Feb-March, 2002 by J.J. O'Malley

SAM HORNISH OPENED THE 2001 Lady Racing Northern Light Series season with two victories and ended the year with a sensational lastlap win. In between, the 22-year-old did very little wrong as well, putting together one of the most consistent single-season performances in modern Indy Car history.

Hornish nipped Scott Sharp to win the Texas Motor Speedway finale by .019 seconds. Robbie Buhl was only .049 seconds behind in third in a three-wide finish for the Chevy 500, rewarding the crowd of 65,000 with the most amazing finish in Indy Car racing history. That race ended a solid season by the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. In its sixth season, the IRL visited six new venues to boost its schedule to 13 races.

Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Kansas Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Gateway International Raceway, and Chicagoland Speedway all held successful inaugural IRL events.

"All together, this was the best season yet for the IRL," says Hornish, who ran eight races as a rookie in 2000 for PDM Racing with his best finish third place at Las Vegas. "There was a lot of action and good, competitive racing."

Hornish should know. He was in the thick of the action all year from behind the wheel of Panther Racing's yellow Pennzoil Olds-Dallara. "The highlight was probably our first win of the season," says Hornish of his 1.3-second victory over Eliseo Salazar at Phoenix. "After the second win [in Miami, Where he held off Sarah Fisher by 1.8 seconds] we were thinking about the championship. But, then again, you're always thinking about it."

Along the way to the championship, Hornish became to first IRL driver to finish every race in a season. In recent CART history, only Jimmy Vasser (1996) and Al Unser Jr. (1992) accomplished that feat. Hornish completed all but seven of a possible 2,650 laps. You have to go back to 1979 to beat that, when Rick Meats completed all but six laps--but that was only out of a possible 1,461.

Hornish not only finished laps, he consistently ran up front, leading an IRL record 11 of the 13 races. His 765 laps led are second all-time only to Tony Stewart's 812 in 1997.

On paper it seems as if Hornish enjoyed total domination this season. The truth is that after recovering from a slow start, defending IRL champion Buddy Lazier challenged Hornish for most of the season. After opening the year with a third-place finish at Phoenix, Lazier placed 20th at Miami, sixth at Atlanta, and 20th in the Indy 500. He then reversed his fortune, placing fourth at Texas and enjoying victories at Pikes Peak and Richmond, then placing fifth at Kansas before winning at Nashville and Kentucky.

In addition to becoming the first IRL driver to win four races in one season, Lazier also became the league's all-time leading winner with eight career triumphs. "We had a great run through the middle of the summer," says Lazier.

Lazier's Kentucky victory cut Hornish's lead to 25 points with three events remaining. The defending champion stumbled down the stretch, however, finishing no better than 11th in the final three races.

Hornish, meanwhile, locked up the title with a third-place finish at Gateway, followed by a second and place at Chicagoland. He seemed headed towards another top-three in the finale at Texas, but Hornish wanted to end the season a winner. He did, inching past Sharp in the sprint to the checkered flag. "That was a good day," says the soft-spoken Hornish. "I think it was a very good day. I'd like to have a lot [more days] like that."

Hornish and Lazier were not the only drivers to experience the elation of victory in the IRL in 2001--six others enjoyed wins. Eddie Cheever scored the first victory for the updated Infiniti 35A engine at Kansas Speedway. That was the highlight of the year for the Formula One veteran, who placed sixth in the points. Helio Castroneves took his fence-climbing act to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the exuberant Brazilian gave Roger Penske his 11th victory in the Indianapolis 500.

Scott Sharp, the winner of a photo finish at Texas in 2000, won that speedways spring race, prevailing in the Casino Magic 500 when Cheever and Greg Ray tangled with a backmarker with four laps remaining after running three-wide with Sharp throughout the closing laps. Sharp finished third in the final points.

Ray won the third race of the season, the zMax 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, for Team Menard, but lost his ride before the end of the year. Ray--one of the IRL's best qualifiers--led the series with four MBNA Pole Awards and rebounded to land a ride with A.J. Foyt Racing for the season finale. Jacques Lazier, the younger brother of the 2000 champ, was hired to replace Ray with Menard Racing with three events remaining in the season. He quickly made good on the opportunity by winning in his second race with the team, the Delphi Indy 300 at Chicagoland.

Al Unser Jr. scored his second career IRL victory for Galles Racing in the Gateway Indy 250, on his way to finishing seventh in points.