Team Menard to Stick with IRL in 2001

It's another long stretch before the Indy Northern Light Racing Series gets back to the track for the final race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway on October 15 for the Mall.com 500, but there's been a lot of news out of the league over the past few weeks.

Probably the biggest news is that John Menard has announced that he will continue to field an IRL team for the 2001 season with Greg Ray in the cockpit. Rumors were flying earlier that Menard, one of the founding owners of the IRL would scrap the team in order to concentrate on other series and that Ray might move over to NASCAR next year. When asked about the possible move, Menard told reporters, "Someday that's something Greg may want to do in his career, but we've got a situation now that I think Greg feels he's got a pretty good situation where he's at. I know Greg would be a success in any series he'd run, but as it stands now he's given every indication of fulfilling the contract."

In a period when several teams are moving back into IRL competition from CART, this was good news, since a defection to another series by one of the established IRL champions might reverse the trend toward positive changes for the IRL. Ray, who was the 1999 IRL Champion has had a difficult time finishing races this year and has won only one race so far, although he appears back on track and ready to challenge for the win at Texas next month.

In an administrative note, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner and founder of the IRL, Tony George announced that long time Indy Car mechanic and administrator for the IRL, Brian Barnhart has received a promotion. George announced that Barnhart has been promoted to Vice President, Operations of the Indy Racing League. Currently he is the Director of Operations for the IRL, a job he has held since 1997. The promotion will put him into a closer working position with George and track owners, and allow his experience to be better used by the league. Barnhart has a long working relationship with George and for several years was the Track Superintendent for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the pits, he has served as lead mechanic on two "Indianapolis 500" winning teams.

Finally, the race for the IRL Championship remains close as three drivers have a very real possibility to bring home the trophy for the Y2K season. Buddy Lazier leads with one race to go with 258 points, followed closely by Scott Goodyear with 220 and Eddie Cheever, Jr. with 217. In the race for Rookie of the Year honors, Airton Dare continues to lead with 124 points, followed by Jeret Schroeder with 122 and Sam Hornish with 107. Sarah Fisher's great finish at Kentucky has moved her into 4th place in the rookie standings with 105 points.

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