Indy 500 2000 - Montoya motors, Sharp struggles at Carburetion Day

Montoya motors, Sharp struggles at Carburetion Day
ESPN.com news services

INDIANAPOLIS -- Many drivers took it easy during Thursday's Carburetion Day practice session, but some encountered problems and others spent all two hours preparing for Sunday's 84th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Scott Sharp may have been the most unhappy driver today. He did not get on the track until the final four minutes and managed to make only three laps, the fastest at a mere 140.199 miles per hour. The clutch on his Delphi Automotive Systems racer would not engage and the team had to spend most of the session fixing it.


	Juan Montoya had the fastest lap during Carburetion Day.

Sharp, who starts in the middle of the second row, waved off a would-be interviewer afterwards, "Not right now."

At the top of the speed chart was front-row starter Juan Montoya, the defending CART champion who reached 218.257 mph on the 13th of his 14 laps around the 2.5-mile oval. Montoya was the only driver above 218 mph.

Eddie Cheever, the 1998 winner, was second-fastest at 217.909 mph on the 11th of his 18 laps on a picture-perfect afternoon.

"It's an awesome day to be a race car driver," Cheever said. "The track is in perfect condition."

Like many drivers, Cheever kept practice to a minimum and did not do any serious work on the chassis setup. With the race four days away and the weather sure to change, not much can be done in the way of serious fine-tuning.

"If you haven't got your race setup yet, I doubt like hell that you will find it on Carburetion Day," Cheever said.

Still, 13 drivers ran at least 25 laps. Davey Hamilton ran the most at 45 or 112.5 miles. Aside from Sharp, Jimmy Kite ran the fewest at 11 laps.

Rookie Sarah Fisher spent much of the session practicing pit stops, making a full circuit before coming into the pits for tire changes and a "dry" refueling. She stalled her car on the first stop, then nailed the next four. The best of her 23 laps was 211.736 miles per hour.

"The car is really comfortable at 210 or 211," she said. "That's where we think the race pace will be come Sunday.

Buzz Calkins had run more than a dozen laps when a problem developed in the rev limiter.

"There was a bad connection between two wires," he said. "I think if we switch it out, we'll be fine."

Calkins's crew did just that, and he took his car back out for a final couple of laps before calling it a day.

Another type of problem --- lack of manpower --- kept pole-sitter Greg Ray off the track during the first part of the session, which began at 11 a.m. ET.

"We're still sort of suffering from running two cars out of a one-car team," Ray said. "We really didn't have enough for Robby Gordon's car and my car at the same time. That's really one of the problems we've had all week long. I hope we get that straight on race day. But the car feels pretty good."

Even though Ray won the pole, Gordon took priority on Carburetion Day because he had obligations later at Charlotte Motor Speedway in his full-time job as a Winston Cup driver. Gordon was done by 12:20 p.m. and left the track soon after.

When Ray finally got on the track, he discovered the gearing in his transmission was slightly off.

"It's nice to know we have some good information with which to make intelligent decisions on race day," he said.

Most drivers and teams wanted to make sure, more than anything else, that everything was working properly while getting a final few laps with full fuel tanks.

"We went out initially and checked to make sure we didn't have any leaks," said rookie Andy Hillenburg. "We found a couple of little problems and got those fixed. Then we went back out and ran on full tanks. We ran around a couple of the other cars, tried to pass a couple of cars and let a couple of cars pass me to see how the car would react. We're real happy with our package for Sunday."

Jacques Lazier, brother of 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier, also used the session to develop a strong platform for his car.

"We just wanted to see how stable the car was," he said. "That's the whole key here, to have a nice, stable, consistent car. That's exactly what our car is. We can run all day long at that speed."

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