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IRL: Hamilton has Dual Purpose at Texas

12 September 1998

FORT WORTH-DALLAS - Davey Hamilton has a dual purpose in the Sept. 20 Lone Star 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The Pep Boys Indy Racing League driver will be looking for his first career Indy Car triumph and a path toward his initial Pep Boys IRL championship, worth $1 million.
Davey Hamilton

Hamilton will wheel the Reebok Dallara/Olds Aurora in the second IRL appearance of the season at Texas Motor Speedway. He expects it to be a 225 mph shootout from start to finish.

"Our team game plan for the Lone Star 500 is 208 laps of wide-open racing," Hamilton said. "We are not going to hold anything back. As competitive as it is in the Indy Racing League, there are at least ten drivers who will just pull away if you are not driving flat out all the time at tracks like Texas.

"We want to win the championship so much," Hamilton continued. "There are lots of chances to get wins, 10 to 15 per year. But there aren?t many chances to win championships. That is our number one goal."

There is a great irony in recent IRL events. Hamilton drove for racing legend A.J. Foyt last year and finished second in the point standings behind Tony Stewart. Hamilton and Kenny Brack "swapped" cars for the 1998 campaign, Hamilton moving to Bob Nienhouse?s operation run by Rick Galles, Brack?s owner last year. Point leader Brack is currently on a three-race IRL win streak, driving for Foyt.

"We are all out to stop Kenny at Texas," Hamilton said. "If he pulls off another win in the Lone Star 500, it will be nearly impossible to catch him in the point race. We want to make sure that doesn?t happen."

The weekend kicks off Friday, Sept. 18 with The Dallas Morning News Pole Day followed Saturday, Sept. 19 with the Cowtown 250 for ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde stock cars. The Lone Star 500 green flags drops at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20.