The Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero is a local treasure to anyone who has ever watched NASCAR or any car racing on television. This is the first time that the Craftsman Truck Series held its event at this new location to the tour. The weather was beautiful on the day, but also very questionable for the entire weekend. Officials and drivers had their fingers crossed for the race that the weather would hold, and it did.
Joe Ruttman, who is a young 55 year old gent, last raced in the Chicago area many years ago at Soldiers Field. He was a Polaris factory snowmobile racer, as was his brother. He didn’t win the race at Soldiers Field, but this race was another story. This race belonged to Joe Ruttman and the DANA team. Joe Ruttman posted his second win in the last three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races.
Greg Biffle's Grainger Ford came
in second .330 seconds
after Joe Ruttman. Joe
is the most senior of all the drivers
in this circuit and brings a
lot of class with him.
Joe Ruttman who has been on a
winning streak ever Fred Wanke joined the team as crew chief, a month ago.
Joe
began looking real good as he
took the lead on the 163rd
lap of the race.
Joe Ruttmans crew must be congratulated for the superb job that they did in keeping their man in the lead. Mr. Ruttmans crew Chief is the aforementioned Fred Wanke. Mr. Danny Rollins is on the front tires, Mr. Dale Newcomb on the rear tires, Mr. Gary Mann on the tire carrier, Mr. Dana Ebersole on the other tire carrier, Mr. Tim Horton on the jack, Mr. Rick Garrels on the gas, and Mr. Mike Goins on the catch can position.
From the photos you can see many
sponsors on this fine autos, though little recognition goes to the teams
that keeps these babies on the track. We will change that trend on all
of our racing reporting.
The NASCAR drivers are very down to earth folks who enjoy their fans and have an accessibility similar to the players of AA baseball teams. A lot of today’s sports could learn from these fine folks and their public relations….good public relations.
For those of us in the Chicago area the Chicago Motor Speedway is only ten minutes away, a lot shorter than a drive to South Carolina. I would recommend this facility to anyone wanting a day of excitement filled with competition and class.
I would only suggest that next time the JellyBelly race car blows an engine, they would get more sympathy if they continued to give away samples of their JellyBellies. I had some on time trial day, but none after their engine had blown.
Have a look at some more items
including
streaming video with no plug
in required:
NASCAR color drawing of Racing Winston Truck
Streaming
Video of Joe Ruttman
Press
Interview
Chicago Motor Speedway Parking Map
Chicago Motor Speedway Homepage
Starting Line Up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Sears
Craftsman 175 of the Chicago Motor Speedway
1. 18 Joe Ruttman
2. 50 Greg Biffle
3. 99 Kurt Busch*
4. 60 Andy Houston
5. 2 Mike Wallace
6. 25 Randy Tolsma
7. 66 Rick Carelli
8. 24 Jack Sprague
9. 3 Bryan Reffner
10. 4 Chad Chaffin
11. 1 Dennis Setzer
12. 46 Rob Morgan
13. 90 Lance Norick
14. 02 Jim Inglebright
15. 72 Randy MacDonald
16. 43 Steve Grissom
17. 12 Carlos Contreras*
18. 32 Anthony Lazzaro
19. 75 Marty Houston
20. 41 Jamie McMurray*
21. 14 Rick Crawford
22. 88 Terry Cook
23. 44 Mark Petty
24. 73 B.A. Wilson
25. 10 Thomas Carey Jr
26. 86 Scott Riggs*
27. 20 Coy Gibbs
28. 16 Jimmy Hensley
29. 54 Brian Sockwell
30. 00 Ryan McGlynn (Provisional)
31. 51 Rick Ware* (Provisional)
32. 9 Lance Hooper (Provisional)
33. 27 Ricky Sanders (Provisional)
* = Rookie driver
Results of the CART Target Grand Prix race at
Chicago Motor Speedway.
Starting position in parentheses,
Driver, Car type, laps completed and
other information, ie, reason out.
1. (5) Cristiano da Matta, Toyota Reynard, 225.
2. (15) Michael Andretti, Ford Lola, 225.
3. (10) Gil de Ferran, Honda Reynard, 225.
4. (4) Kenny Brack, Ford Reynard, 225.
5. (19) Adrian Fernandez, Ford Reynard, 225.
6. (13) Roberto Moreno, Ford Reynard, 225.
7. (16) Mauricio Gugelmin, Mercedes Reynard, 224.
8. (9) Jimmy Vasser, Toyota Lola, 224.
9. (8) Alex Tagliani, Ford Reynard, 223.
10. (20) Memo Gidley, Toyota Reynard, 223.
11. (18) Michel Jourdain Jr, Mercedes Lola, 207, mechanical.
12. (1) Juan Montoya, Toyota Lola, 177, mechanical.
13. (22) Shinji Nakano, Honda Reynard, 172, mechanical.
14. (12) Patrick Carpentier, Ford Reynard, 170, contact.
15. (14) Oriol Servia, Toyota Reynard, 160, pit incident.
16. (3) Tony Kanann, Mercedes Reynard, 146,mechanical.
17. (23) Luiz Garcia Jr, Mercedes Reynard, 99, mechanical.
18. (24) Tarso Marques, Ford Swift, 84, mechanical.
19. (7) Paul Tracy, Honda Reynard, 75, contact.
20. (11) Dario franchitti, Honda Reynard, 74, contact.
21. (2) Helio Castroneves, Honda Reynard, 35, mechanical.
22. (21) Gualter Salles, Ford Lola, 25, contact.
23. (17) Mark Blundell, Mercedes Reynard, 18, mechanical.
24. (6) Max Papis, Ford Reynard, 0, mechanical.
Time of race: 2 hours, 1 minute, 23.727 seconds.
Margin of victory: 1.69 seconds.
Winner's average speed: 114.432 mph.