Sharp Wins With the Help of His Friend

PHOENIX — After missing most of the 1997 Indy Racing League season because of a series of head injuries, Scott Sharp demonstrated Sunday that he was as sharp as his name by winning the Dura-Lube 200 in a tense finish with series champion Tony Stewart.

Stewart led the most laps, 127 of 200, and ran the fastest lap, 163.666 mph early in the race, but at the end, he was no match for Sharp in a three-lap shootout at Phoenix International Raceway that had an estimated 30,000 fans on their feet.

What made the win remarkable was that Sharp drove for a team, Kelley Automotive, that had been formed only four months ago by Tom Kelley, a Fort Wayne, Ind., businessman.

Sharp left A.J. Foyt to join Kelley, with Mark Dismore as a teammate.

The driver who replaced Sharp on Foyt’s team, Billy Boat, finished third.

“A.J. told me the ride was mine if I wanted back [after recovering from injuries], but I decided it would probably be better for me if I started out with a clean sheet of paper,” Sharp said. “After the way things worked out today, I couldn’t be happier. This was unbelievable.”

For the first 170 laps, it appeared that Stewart, who won the IRL opener last month in Orlando, Fla., would be a runaway winner. Only Kenny Brack, Boat’s partner on Foyt’s team, seemed capable of running with Stewart, but he could not catch him.

The race turned during a caution flag on Lap 169 when Sam Schmidt spun. The caution lasted only two laps, but when Stewart pitted for four tires and fuel, Sharp stayed on the track and took the lead.

With Stewart having to fight his way through heavy traffic, Sharp gradually extended his margin from 1.1 seconds to 4.2 seconds until Brack and Mike Groff sideswiped wheels on Lap 186 to bring out the 10th caution of the race.

It took 12 laps to clear the debris, setting up a three-lap trophy dash.

Sharp’s teammate, Dismore, was between Sharp and Stewart, although he was 25 laps behind after having crashed early in the day. It appeared that Dismore slowed dramatically in front of Stewart, and when green-flag racing resumed, Sharp quickly pulled away to win by 2.3 seconds.

“Dismore slowed me down so much I had to put my clutch in or else I would’ve stalled the motor,” Stewart said bitterly. “We’ll never know if I could have caught him [Sharp] or not.”

Stewart was unable to catch Dismore, much less Sharp, once they started racing.

“If Tony could have passed me, he would have,” said Dismore. “If Tony has a beef with me, then he better watch the last few laps [on video] again.”

Sharp, who collected $106,750 for his two-hour two-minute ride, said he was sure he had Stewart covered, with or without his teammate.

“Just before the restart, I asked Tom [car owner Kelley] how quick Tony was, and he said I was quicker,” said Sharp. “At the restart, Mark was pulling away as well. Of course, it was nice to know Mark was there. He wasn’t going to run Tony off the road, or do anything drastic, but he wasn’t going to do him any favors either.”

Kelley credited crew chief David Cripps with much of the team’s success, including the gamble not to pit when other leaders came in about 30 laps from the end.

“I’d much rather gamble and win than finish third or fourth,” Kelley said. “To me, winning is everything in this league.”

Sharp averaged 98.110 mph, slowed by 10 caution periods for 80 laps.

Two spectacular accidents sent Groff to the hospital and left Indianapolis 500 champion Arie Luyendyk with a headache.

When Groff tangled with Brack, it send Groff’s car into the outside wall, where it burst into flames before sliding back across the track into an infield wall. Groff was evaluated for a possible concussion.

Luyendyk’s accident was even more spectacular. When Eliseo Salazar spun coming off the second turn on Lap 59, he was hit by Luyendyk. The impact flipped Luyendyk’s car upside down, and he slid about 200 yards with his helmet scraping the asphalt.

“The pavement was scraping my hand too, so I scrunched down and held onto the seat belts, but I kept talking to my crew the whole time,” said Luyendyk, who was not hospitalized. “I could hear the helmet scraping, and it was getting hot inside the helmet.”

Sharp set the tone for the entire field when he said, “Phoenix leads into Indy really well.”

The Indy 500, on May 24, is next for the IRL.