The postponement comes at a time when safety is a top concern inracing, the attention heightened after the death two months ago ofNASCAR star Dale Earnhardt in the season-opening Daytona 500.įour NASCAR drivers have been killed in the last 11 months,including truck series driver Tony Roper last October in the onlyfatal accident at Texas Motor Speedway since it opened in 1997.Roper was killed when he lost control of his truck in traffic onthe frontstretch and slammed into the wall head-on.ĬART drivers had a lengthy meeting last year after PatrickCarpentier crashed in practice for the Honda Grand Prix of Montereyin Laguna Seca, Calif. The IRL qualifying record of 225.979 mph was set byBilly Boat in 1998. The Indy Racing League has competed at Texas since the trackopened, and returns June 9 for the first of two IRL races therethis year. TMS is the only speedway in the country withevery major form of American automobile racing - Winston Cup,Busch, NASCAR trucks, Indy Racing League and American Le Mans - andalso is booked almost daily with racing schools. Gossage said it could be hard to clear a weekend date for CARTfor the rest of 2001. Gossage said track officials would beconsidering their options. This was supposed to be the first of three CART races under thecontract signed last summer. "This is not an issue of safety at this track," Heitzler said."This was safety of the drivers in their performance of theirskills." He believes the accidentswas caused by the G-force stress on the cars and drivers, and theaffect of turbulence from other cars.ĬART President Joe Heitzler said attempts would be made toreschedule the race, and that determinations would be made on whatchanges could be made to the cars to make them safer at TMS.
Russell, who talked to both drivers, said there appeared to beno mechanical problems with either car.
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