IRL TESTING AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TRACKSIDE REPORT, THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1996

At 8:17 a.m., Richie Hearn turned a lap at 218.385 miles per hour in the
Della Penna Motorsports car, fastest of the week. At 8:45 a.m., Roberto
Guerrero turned a lap at 218.703 in a Pagan Racing car, fastest of the week.
At 9:53 a.m., Scott Sharp turned a lap at 219.005 in an A.J. Foyt
Enterprises car, fastest of the week. At 10:39 a.m., Buddy Lazier turned a
lap at 219.601 in the Hemelgarn Racing/Delta Faucet car, fastest of the week.

The track opened for practice at 6:35 a.m. Tony Stewart was first out in the
#30 Team Menard car and recorded a lap at 211.144 at 6:40 a.m., fastest of
the day. When told the lap was believed to be the fastest ever run before 7
a.m., Stewart wasn't enthused. "I'm not excited about doing ANYTHING before
seven in the morning," he said with a smile.

Lee Kunzman, general manager of Hemelgarn Racing, recalled the final laps
of the Indianapolis 500 this morning.

"Ronnie (Dawes, engineer for Buddy Lazier) was on the radio with Buddy all
day calming him down, telling him, 'We're on the plan, we're on the plan,'"
Kunzman said. "About Lap 186 or 187, he told Buddy, 'Show us what you got.'
Buddy said, 'O-o-o-KAY.' He'd been waiting to hear that all day."
Lazier, as history shows, then gathered up the leaders and won the
Indianapolis 500.

Andy Michner passed the second phase of his two-phase USAC refresher test
this morning in a car owned by Brickell Racing and prepared by PDM Racing.
Rob Wilson completed his two- phase refresher this morning in the #14 A.J.
Foyt Enterprises car.

Sprint-car veteran Dave Blaney took his first-ever laps in an Indianapolis
car this morning, all in the Brickell/PDM car. In less than an hour, he had
completed all but five laps of the 40- lap USAC driver's test before the
engine blew, ending driver's tests for the week. "I guess there were no
surprises," Blaney said. "I had ridden around the race track with Johnny
Rutherford and Tony Stewart and they kind of told me what to expect. I had
never driven one (an Indy car). I wasn't too comfortable just sitting in it.
It's a lot different than what I'm used to. It's just a different race car.
I'm still committed to sprint cars. It would have o be a good opportunity to
do it. I'm sure Ted Johnson at the World of Outlaws would work with us on
scheduling. That would give several of us an opportunity to do it. I grew up
in sprint-car racing and that's where we've been trying to excel. This has
been out of reach. We may have the opportunity now." Blaney said he had
driven an ARCA stock car on the 1 1/2-mile oval at Atlanta previously. "This
doesn't feel that big in these cars," he said. "They scoot around here
pretty good." Phil Casey, the IRL operations coordinator, said the League
planned to try to have two cars available for driver's tests at the IRL open
test July 23-25 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Entry invitations for the True Value 200 Aug. 18 at New Hampshire
International Speedway, opening race of the 1996-97 Indy Racing League
season, were distributed to Indy Racing League entrants at a meeting
Wednesday night in Las Vegas and also sent to all other potential entrants
this morning.

At 10:30 a.m., the temperature was 80 degrees.