By Jaime Aron
Associated Press
Sunday, Oct. 17, 1999; 8:53 p.m. EDT

FORT WORTH, Texas – Greg Ray, the local driver who went from unknown to favorite over the last two years, captured his first Indy Racing League championship Sunday by finishing third in the season finale.

Ray, who lives about an hour away in Plano, was locked in a tight duel for first on the track and in the points race with defending champ Kenny Brack until tire problems wiped out the Swede with 22 laps left.

Ray was easily in the lead then, but he pitted for fuel and new tires. It cost him a chance to win the race because shortly after he returned, Robby Unser wiped out, forcing 11 of the last 13 laps to be run under caution.

Mark Dismore (AP)

Mark Dismore, who started on the front row alongside polesitter Ray, ended up winning his first IRL event with Davey Hamilton second. The sixth-place finish by Scott Harrington gave him the rookie of the year title and a $50,000 bonus.

The points championship was worth a $500,000 bonus for both Ray and team owner John Menard. Ray joined Menard's team last October in hopes that his deep pockets would take the driver farther than his low-budget team could.

Ray finished 21st in the season's first three races, then turned things around with a second-place finish in Texas in June. He won three of the next five events before returning to his home track for the capper.

Although Ray insists he's not the superstitious type, his results improved once he started carrying in his pocket and taped to his leg some good-luck charms given to him by his oldest son.

Ray, who finished 21st and 23rd in the two races he forget the trinkets, won't divulge all of them, but he's said they include some Pokemon trading cards and a black-and-white portrait photo of his sons, 6-year-old Winston and 1-year-old Simon, with a penny taped to the back.

The 33-year-old Ray celebrated the season championship by doing donuts at each end of the frontstretch. It was his way of thanking the home crowd, which was smaller than 50,000 because of rain that delayed the start of the race by nearly four hours.

Dropping temperatures forced precautions to be taken to keep tires warm. Although there were several incidents, none seemed to be because of the weather.

The first big crash took out Scott Goodyear while he was in the lead. On the restart, Scott Sharp knocked out Sam Schmidt, who came into the race third in the points standings.

Schmidt broke his left foot and fractured a toe on his right foot. Goodyear reinjured the left leg he broke in the previous race. The two shared a helicopter ride to a Dallas hospital.

None of Sunday's collisions were as bad as the Saturday incident on pit road when rookie Niclas Jonsson lost control of his car and injured 12 people, including nine members of Tyce Carlson's crew.

Using borrowed crew members, Carlson finished 13th. Jonsson was unable to compete.

Sarah Fisher's first race ended in disappointment when a broken timing chain knocked out the 19-year-old after 99 laps. The youngest driver in IRL history and only the second female plans to join the circuit full-time next season.

"I am a little upset now, but I really like the people that I'm around and I'm looking forward to racing next year," she said.