Detroit flashback: In 1999, driver changes were everywhere - MotorSportsTalk

Ryan Briscoe (No. 4 Panther Racing) and Mike Conway (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing) are last-minute replacements for this weekend’s IZOD IndyCar Series Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit.

It brings back memories of another year in Detroit, when the CART field had a night-and-day difference between its previous race at the Michigan International Speedway and its race in Detroit, some 75 miles east two weeks later.

In 1999, some six cars changed driver lineups from the 500-mile race at Brooklyn, Mich. to the street race at The Raceway on Belle Isle. The changes are below, which occurred after a mix of injuries and/or driver replacements:

No. 3 Team Penske: Michigan, Alex Barron. Detroit, Gonzalo Rodriguez.
No. 11 Newman/Haas Racing: Michigan, Christian Fittipaldi. Detroit, Roberto Moreno.
No. 15 Walker Racing: Michigan, vacant. Detroit: Naoki Hattori.
No. 18 PacWest Racing: Michigan, Roberto Moreno. Detroit, Mark Blundell.
No. 20 Patrick Racing: Michigan, P.J. Jones. Detroit, Jan Magnussen.
No. 34/71 Dale Coyne Racing: Michigan, Dennis Vitolo (No. 34), Detroit, Memo Gidley (No. 71).

Juan Pablo Montoya’s pole-winning lap is below. Dario Franchitti won the race, with a link to the full race on YouTube here.

Chase Sexton announced on Instagram he will sit out this weekend’s Pro Motocross race at Hangtown in Rancho Cordova, California after a practice crash on Tuesday left him with a concussion.

Sexton’s crash on Tuesday happened during a test session at Fox Raceway.

“Bummed to make this post but I’ll be sitting out this weekend,” Sexton said. “As you guys saw I had a big one during qualifying at Pala, then another one on Tuesday this week that banged me up pretty good. Nothing broken just need a few days to get back to 100%.”

Despite his crash in the first qualification session in Pala, California, Sexton mounted up for both motos and finished second in each race behind his teammate Jett Lawrence, who was making his Motocross debut and won with a pair of first-place finishes. Sexton padded his SuperMotocross points’ lead over the injured Eli Tomac, who is still second in the combined Supercross and Motocross standings despite missing the SX finale at Salt Lake City and the outdoor opener with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Sexton has an advantage of 78 points over Cooper Webb and cannot give up his SMX lead by missing this round.

At stake, however, is the risk of losing ground to Lawrence in the Pro Motocross championship. Sexton currently trails his teammate by six points and is liable to lose significant ground this weekend.

In addition to his concussion, Sexton has also been diagnosed with mononucleosis and the combination of the two conditions caused the team to make the difficult decision to keep him out of the lineup at Hangtown.

“I’m super-bummed to miss this weekend’s race,” Sexton said in a press release. “I feel like I rode well at Pala, and I was really looking forward to Hangtown because it’s a good track for me. Unfortunately, I was already pretty banged up from my qualifying crash on Saturday, and now with mono and Tuesday’s concussion on top of it, I want to do the right thing and hopefully be back on the track soon.”

A return date for Sexton has not yet been announced.

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