IndyCar
IRL: Atlanta Jeff Ward Practice
Pagan Racing Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500 July 15, 1999 Practice Driver: Jeff Ward Car: Pagan Racing Yahoo! No. 21 Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear Position (Afternoon Session)- 8th 25.285 seconds / 213.565 mph (Evening Session)- ...
Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 5:47 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Pagan Racing
Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500 July 15, 1999 Practice
Driver: Jeff Ward
Car: Pagan Racing Yahoo! No. 21 Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear
Position (Afternoon Session)- 8th 25.285 seconds / 213.565 mph (Evening Session)- 11th 25.258 seconds / 213.794 mph Jeff Ward took a cautious approach to today's practice sessions for Saturday night's 500K race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The last time the Yahoo! team visited a high banked, one and a half-mile track, the car experienced some problems with excessive tire wear.
"We just did more of a race day setup on our car today," said Jeff Ward. "We had some tire problems at Texas and we wanted to be sure that wouldn't happen here. Atlanta is very similar to the track at Texas."
While other teams went in search of speed today, the Yahoo! team worked on setting the car up for race day conditions. "We'll go out and work on a qualifying setup in the last session tomorrow. Right now we're more concerned with having a car that will provide the best performance during the race," said Ward.
Some of the top runners today admitted to getting a tow, running in another driver's slipstream, when they set their fastest laps. Sam Schmidt, who set the day's fastest lap at just over 216 miles per hour said, "I had a tow, plain and simple. I got up under Greg Ray's gearbox and he pulled me around."
Ward admitted that he had a slight tow for a portion of his fastest lap. He still spent most of today running alone. "I couldn't find a dancing partner out there today. I ran by myself most of the time and found that I could run 212 (mph) all day long. 212 (mph) will be a good speed to run in the race. Race speeds are never as fast as those posted in practice and qualifying. We'll have a good race car on race day and if we don't have any trouble, we'll be running at the front at the finish."
Qualifying for the Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500 takes place at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Live coverage of Indy Racing League qualifying will start at 6:00 p.m. EDT on SpeedVision.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article CHAMPCAR/CART: Cal Wells Always on the Move
Next article CHAMPCAR/CART: Detroit In-Line Skaters for March of Dimes Aug 1
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jeff Ward
Third annual Global Rallycross Washington DC returns to RFK Stadium July 29-30
Global Rallycross
Global Rallycross
Washington, DC
Third annual Global Rallycross Washington DC returns to RFK Stadium July 29-30
Two-wheeled superstar makes a splash at Daytona
Global Rallycross
Global Rallycross
GRC: Daytona
Two-wheeled superstar makes a splash at Daytona
Eriksson dominates second Daytona final
Global Rallycross
Global Rallycross
GRC: Daytona
Eriksson dominates second Daytona final
Latest news
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 2 h
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
2 h
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
3 h
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe