Rain, a 22nd-place starter and a last-lap pass decided the opening round of the 2000 Indy Racing League season in Orlando.
The 2000 Delphi Indy 200 was the first round of the 2000 Indy Racing League season, held on 29 January 2000 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando. Robbie Buhl of Dreyer and Reinbold Racing won it from 22nd on the grid, with Buddy Lazier second and Eddie Cheever third.
Robbie Buhl won the 2000 Indy Racing League opener at Walt Disney World Speedway after a weekend disrupted by rain. Starting 22nd, he worked his way forward through a race of gearbox failures and traffic, then took the lead in the closing laps to claim the only win his team managed in the series.
Who won the 2000 Delphi Indy 200?
Robbie Buhl won the 2000 Delphi Indy 200 for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. It was his second and final Indy Racing League victory, and it ended a winless run that dated back to August 1997. Buhl led the final two laps after starting 22nd, the lowest grid position of any IRL winner up to that point.
The deal that put Buhl in the car had come together only three weeks before the race. He later said the win was a big boost for the team. Over the final ten laps he and Cheever had good race cars, and neither gained or lost much ground until traffic came into play.
Starting 22nd, Robbie Buhl won the last IRL race at Walt Disney World Speedway and gave Dreyer and Reinbold its only win in the series.
Why was the race held at Walt Disney World Speedway?
The Delphi Indy 200 had been held at Walt Disney World Speedway since its inaugural running in 1996, on a paved three-turn tri-oval 1 mile (1.6 km) long in Orlando. Delphi was announced as title sponsor in December 1999, which gave the event its new name for the 2000 running. It was the fifth annual edition of the race.
Eddie Cheever was the defending winner, and he returned to the track with his self-owned Cheever Racing team.
What changed in IRL cars for 2000?
For 2000 the Indy Racing League cut engine capacity from 4 to 3.5 litres to reduce costs and speeds. The engines no longer had to be based on production units, so Oldsmobile Aurora and Nissan Infiniti could build engines that differed from those in their showrooms. A new crankshaft also changed the sound of the engines considerably.
Three chassis makers produced new cars after the league introduced driver safety rules: Dallara with the IR-00, G-Force with the GF05, and Riley and Scott with the Mk VII. The new cars brought a sequential shifting gearbox, a cockpit opening widened to 480 mm (19 in), a thickened headrest and widened sidepods.
Pre-season testing took place at the same track. Two sessions, in December 1999 and January 2000, each involved 14 teams, and Greg Ray set the pace in both. In the first test his fastest lap came within three tenths of a second of the track record Scott Sharp had set in a 4-litre car earlier that year. The second session ended with a crash involving Sam Schmidt, who suffered a spinal injury that left him a quadriplegic and forced him to end his racing career.
Who was in the field for the 2000 Delphi Indy 200?
The field had 26 cars from 21 teams, and every car ran Firestone tyres. Six drivers were making their first Indy Racing League start, including Al Unser Jr., a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner who was not declared a rookie because of his long CART career.
Unser rejoined Galles Racing, the team he had driven for when he won his first Indianapolis 500 in 1992. Sam Hornish Jr. and Airton Dare left CART's feeder series to join PDM Racing and TeamXtreme, while Jon Herb and Doug Didero made their series debuts.
Greg Ray arrived as the reigning champion and wore the number 1 in pre-season testing as a reminder of his 1999 title.
How was the grid set when qualifying was rained out?
Rain cancelled qualifying, so the starting order followed the 1999 entrant points standings. Greg Ray, the defending series champion, took pole, with Jeff Ward second and Mark Dismore third. Cars that had not competed in 1999 were placed behind those that had, sorted by their practice speeds.
Practice had been affected by the weather too. Stephan Gregoire was fastest on Thursday afternoon at 21.266 seconds, after Ray's morning lap of 21.332 seconds had topped the speed charts. The final session on Friday ended early after rain, with only 16 drivers completing a lap, and qualifying was cancelled at 2:28 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Because qualifying was rained out, the top three starters received no bonus points. Ray therefore began on pole with a points advantage, and Buddy Lazier started fifth on the grid. Cheever, Scott Sharp, Scott Goodyear, Billy Boat and Eliseo Salazar completed the top ten starters.
How did the race unfold?
The race started at 12:00 p.m. with a rolling start under overcast skies, with the air at 26 C (78 F) and the track at 29 C (85 F). Ray kept the lead and built a 3.4-second advantage over the rest of the field, but a series of cautions soon bunched the cars. The first caution came when Jaques Lazier spun at the exit of turn two, and by lap 10 Buddy Lazier had climbed from fifth to third.
The middle stages were shaped by pit-stop timing and mechanical failures. Davey Hamilton spun into the outside wall, bringing out the second caution on lap 24, and Scott Sharp's gearbox failed during the same stoppage. The third caution, on the 44th lap, gave the leaders a chance to pit, and Billy Boat, who had skipped that stop, led the restart on lap 49 before Buhl passed him the following lap.
Boat soon lost second and third, and Buhl held the lead while Buddy Lazier stayed close behind. Al Unser Jr. retired with engine trouble on lap 66, bringing an early end to his first IRL race, and the fourth caution followed on lap 67 when Herb slowed at turn three and made contact with other cars. Buddy Lazier passed Ray for second on lap 75.
The fifth caution, on lap 95, came after Robby Unser hit the wall. Later on, Mark Dismore set the fastest lap of the race at 22.205 seconds, but his race ended with a gearbox failure on the 147th lap, and Jeret Schroeder also retired with gearbox trouble. Lap 145 brought the lead to Buddy Lazier, who overtook Robby McGehee, and by lap 150 McGehee had dropped to third behind Cheever.
The eighth and final caution came on the 176th lap, after Didero spun on the back straight. On lap 192 Hornish held up Lazier in turn one, and Cheever took the lead. Buhl passed Lazier for second the following lap, and by lap 196 he had cut Cheever's advantage from 0.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds.
On the 199th lap Didero, who had already been lapped several times, steered low and forced Cheever off the racing line. Buhl dove to the inside to take the lead from Cheever and led the final two laps to win. Lazier overtook Cheever on the final lap to take second. The lead changed hands 11 times among eight drivers, and Buhl led 49 laps, more than any other driver.
What was the final result of the 2000 Delphi Indy 200?
Buhl finished first, ahead of Buddy Lazier and Eddie Cheever, with Scott Goodyear fourth and Eliseo Salazar fifth. Buhl earned $139,000 for the victory, and the team's arrangement with him had been finalised only three weeks before the race.
The top ten finishers are shown in the table below, with notes on how each driver's race ended or began.
| Position | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robbie Buhl | Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, started 22nd |
| 2 | Buddy Lazier | Hemelgarn Racing, last win in the 1997 VisionAire 500 |
| 3 | Eddie Cheever | Self-owned Cheever Racing, defending winner |
| 4 | Scott Goodyear | Fourth place |
| 5 | Eliseo Salazar | Fifth place |
| 6 | Donnie Beechler | Sixth place |
| 7 | Jeff Ward | Started second on the grid |
| 8 | Calkins | Eighth place |
| 9 | Billy Boat | Ninth place, skipped an early pit stop |
| 10 | Robby McGehee | Started fourth, pitted repeatedly for front wing repairs |
Two drivers were hurt in crashes during the weekend. Davey Hamilton was diagnosed with a minimal fracture to the T12 vertebra, and Jaques Lazier suffered an L1 compression fracture and was fitted with a brace.
Why were Buddy Lazier and Eddie Cheever unhappy?
Buddy Lazier had not won since the 1997 VisionAire 500, and he left the track subdued, although he said he wanted to win again. Eddie Cheever, the defending winner, was furious over the radio and had to be calmed by track officials, including IRL founder Tony George. He blamed traffic that got in the way and likened the finish to the 1997 Pennzoil 200, which he also lost to Buhl.
Al Unser Jr., despite his early retirement, said he had enjoyed the race more than he had in some time. He said the team had taken a chance on its race setup because it had not been able to practise, but his crew chief, Alan Mertens, had dialled the car in well. Dismore was unhappy about his gearbox failure, but he said he looked forward to the next round at Phoenix International Raceway.
What did the result mean for the 2000 championship?
After the opening round Buhl led the Drivers Championship with 52 points. Buddy Lazier was 12 points behind him, Cheever was 17 points back, and Goodyear and Salazar were on 32 and 30 points. Eight races remained in the season, with the rest of the nine-round calendar still to run.
Injuries affected the next rounds too. Davey Hamilton was cleared to drive at Phoenix, while Jaques Lazier was replaced by Bobby Regester for that race before returning for the Vegas Indy 300.
In the manufacturers' standings, Oldsmobile Aurora earned 10 points in the engine championship and led Nissan Infiniti by three points. In the chassis championship G-Force led on 10 points, followed by Riley and Scott on seven and Dallara on five.
What happened to Walt Disney World Speedway after 2000?
The 2000 race was the last Indy Racing League event at Walt Disney World Speedway. Track officials and the league could not agree on a race date for 2001, and the speedway never hosted another professional motor race. It remained available for testing and for the Richard Petty Driving Experience until it was demolished in 2015.
For Dreyer and Reinbold Racing the result was a debut to remember, and Buhl's win is still the only victory the team has taken in the series.
