Monday, July 03, 2000
Steele's victory caps busy day at Speedway
ARCA driver extends record on superspeedways
By Tom Groeschen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Tim Steele celebrates.
(Brandi Stafford photos)
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SPARTA, Ky. — NASCAR has Dale Earnhardt as its king of its superspeedways. ARCA has Tim Steele, a one-time Winston Cup hopeful who dominated the Kentucky 150 at Kentucky Speedway on Sunday night.
Steele's victory was the 22nd of his career on a superspeedway (1.5 miles or longer), extending his ARCA record. It was the 35th overall win for the Coopersville, Mich., driver, who has won three ARCA season championships.
A crowd of 27,312 watched on a warm, dry summer night. Attendance was slightly less than projections of 30,000, but large for an ARCA/Bondo Mar-Hyde series event.
Steele, 32, was a rising Winston Cup hopeful before suffering head injuries in an autumn 1997 crash. He was testing a car that day for the Bud Moore Winston Cup team.
David Keith leads the start.
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Cars head into the pits.
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Steele beats Bob Strait across the finish line.
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Michael Waltrip is forced off the track by a broken wheel after colliding with Stephan Gregoire in the Legends race.
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The crash put Steele out of commission temporarily. He returned part-time to ARCA in June 1998, winning four races in just six starts. He drove full-time on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series in 1999 before returning to ARCA this year.
And he likes where he is.
“I could retire right now in ARCA,” he said. “And in this series, you can still have a life.”
Steele spoke of how things have changed since he was a hotshot Winston wannabe. There was the crash, the head injuries, some perspective. And then another jolt last month with the death of ARCA driver Scott Baker, killed in a racing accident.
“This race was for Scott Baker,” Steele said. “I don't want to say much more because I'll get too choked up.”
He acknowledged that his superspeedway record helped him Sunday night.
“It didn't hurt, I don't think,” he said. “But we've also won a few races on short tracks.”
The race also featured some drivers with local ties:
• Willie Green, a 36-year-old Scott High School (Ky.) graduate, finished 20th in the 37-car field. Green started 24th and worked his way up as far as 16th. His day job is transportation director for Covington Public Schools.
• Matt Hutter, a 29-year-old University of Cincinnati graduate, crashed on Lap 65 and was eliminated. Hutter is from Chardon, Ohio, near Cleveland.
Among other notables, pole sitter David Keith departed on lap 55 with shock absorber problems. Season points leader Bob Strait finished second.
Shawna Robinson, who gained attention as the only female in the field, ran well early but then had mechanical problems. She started sixth and finished 24th.
The ARCA race capped a daylong racing festival, including Indy Racing League testing and an appearance by three NASCAR Winston Cup drivers.
The absence of Winston star Jeremy Mayfield was a disappointment, but that could not be helped.
Mayfield was to headline a four-man contingent of visiting Winston drivers, but instead was recuperating from an accident in Saturday night's Pepsi 400 at Daytona. Mayfield, an Owensboro, Ky. native and two-time winner this season, suffered a bruised right shoulder.
Ernie Irvan, who retired from Winston Cup racing in 1999, sat in for Mayfield in the autograph booth Sunday afternoon.
Winston Cup drivers Steve Park, Michael Waltrip and Kenny Wallace also signed autographs, and those three later participated in a short “Legends” exhibition race on a quarter-mile asphalt oval in the speedway infield.
Indy Racing League drivers J.J. Yeley and Stephan Gregoire joined the Winston drivers in the Legends race, which featured two 10-lap dashes. Park won the first dash and Yeley the second, in miniature (5/8 scale) replicas of old hot rods.
The Winston drivers signed autographs before their race, as did several Indy Racing League drivers including Buzz Calkins, Tyce Carlson and Sarah Fisher.
The IRL drivers were testing this weekend for their 300-mile race at Kentucky Speedway on Aug. 27.
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