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IRL: Kansas Firestone race notes
Indy Racing Northern Light Series Ameristar Casino Indy 200 - Kansas Speedway Sunday, July 8, 2001 Kansas Cooks Up A Great Race For Fans The inaugural appearance of the Indy Racing League at Kansas Speedway was a barn-burner event, giving the ...
Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 5:47 AM
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Indy Racing Northern Light Series
Ameristar Casino Indy 200 - Kansas Speedway
Sunday, July 8, 2001
Kansas Cooks Up A Great Race For Fans
The inaugural appearance of the Indy Racing League at Kansas Speedway was a barn-burner event, giving the estimated 75,000 fans in the stands some superb motorsports action. While the extreme heat was tough on equipment and drivers, the audience saw non-stop competition among a strong group of drivers for the lead position. Eddie Cheever Jr. collected the win, his first of the 2001 IRL season.
"I have never been in a race car that abused tires as much as my car did today," Cheever said. "The Firestones were superbly engineered. When you're turning into a corner at 200 mph, and the tires have their tongue hanging out because it's too hot, it's a good feeling to know you've got something safe underneath you."
Al Speyer, Bridgestone/Firestone Motorsports Director: "Today was a lot like racing in a skillet, giving the Firehawks their most challenging workout this season. The left side tires were the same construction and compound as used in this year's Indy 500, while the right side tires featured the hardest compound we currently have in our IRL tire inventory. Even with that hard compound to provide durability, teams still had the grip needed to provide the quality of racing we saw today. We know some teams had more than 60 laps on a single set of tires, which for this heat is exceptional. We tip our hats to them for their expertise in setting up the cars to make that happen. We also congratulate Eddie Cheever and his team for a great job today."
Team Cheever Engineer Owen Snyder: "I'm pretty impressed given all the talk there was before the race about heat and tire performance. Our tires never gave up. The pressures were very controllable, we kept the car handling well and there was no wear problem. We had some bad looking spots, but if you didn't look at the tire, you couldn't tell any difference in how the car performed. We're just as happy as we can be, and I think these tires look pretty good here (in victory circle).
Race session temperature ranges: 93-98 degrees ambient (F) 126-137 degrees track (F).
-Firestone
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