Paul Tracy finally drinks milk in victory lane at Indy, another Unser wins too - MotorSportsTalk

NBCSN IndyCar analyst and 2002 Indy 500 runner-up Paul Tracy finally earned what he’s sought his entire racing life: he drank from a bottle of celebratory and victorious milk in Victory Circle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

During this past weekend’s Sportscar Vintage Racing Association’s Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational, Tracy won top honors in the “B Production” class in a 1965 Ford Mustang GT 350.

“For me, it’s a joy to be here and to run here, and to finally go up on top of that podium is obviously a great feeling, and to hold a bottle of milk – that’s the one thing I didn’t get to do in my career that I felt I should have done,” Tracy said. “To be able to do it today with this group of guys, it was a hoot.”

Tracy also provided one of the event highlights when he put a winner’s wreath around legendary IMS historian Donald Davidson on the podium. Indianapolis Star photographer Matt Kryger captured the moment below.

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#IMS historian Donald Davidson is shocked as former IndyCar driver Paul Tracy places the winner's wreath on him following the #SVRA #Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational Pro/Am race @indianapolismotorspeedway.

A post shared by Matt Kryger (@matt_kryger) on Jun 18, 2016 at 2:18pm PDT

Another highlight of the event was a fourth member of the famous Unser racing family can now proudly say he’s also an Indianapolis Motor Speedway champion.

Robby Unser, son of three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, drove a 1965 Cobra CompR to victory with teammate Andre Ahrle in the Indy Legends Pro-Am, the marquee event of the four-day Sportscar Vintage Racing Association’s Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational.

“You have no idea how much it means to be on this podium,” Robby Unser said in a media release.

Robby Unser is also the nephew of four-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser and the cousin of two-time 500 winner Al Unser Jr.

Robby Unser and Ahrle won first place overall and in the “A Production” class. Seven-time Indy 500 starter Richie Hearn and teammate Clair Schwendeman finished second, followed by Al Unser Jr. and Peter Klutt.

“This SVRA event is a fantastic event and we love it,” Unser Jr. said.

Other notables that competed in the SVRA weekend included 11-time Indy 500 starter Davey Hamilton, A.J. Foyt IV, Roberto Guerrero, Lyn St. James, Davy Jones, Willy T. Ribbs, Bill Elliott and Ray Evernham.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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