Paul Tracy Set for Trucks, Possibly Edmonton

Written by: Robin Miller for SPEEDtv.com
Date: 06/19/2008 - 07:07 AM
Location: Indianapolis, Ind.

File this in the Makes No Sense Department.

The co-owner of one of the top teams in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series has hired Paul Tracy to run later this season but the 2003 CART champion still can’t get a ride in an Indy car.

However, Derrick Walker is trying to make it happen (with a little help from Tony George) for next month’s inaugural IRL show at Edmonton.

“Paul wants to do it, Tony wants to do it and I want to do it so now we’re trying to make it happen,” said Walker, whose longtime open wheel operation has been idle since the Champ Car finale at Long Beach last April.

“I’ve got a couple people in Canada up there pitching for us with about a dozen companies so hopefully we can come up with something in the next week or so.”

George, responding by email Wednesday night from Las Vegas, said he had a car available and would be willing to help get Canada’s favorite son into it.

“I definitely want to run Edmonton but right now it seems like there’s more interest from NASCAR than the IRL, so I’m hoping Derrick can put something together,” said Tracy, who will drive the Germain Racing Toyota on Sept. 20 at Las Vegas.

“I think I could help sell tickets and promote that race.”

Edmonton promoter Jim Haskins is all for it.

“It would be great for our event and Paul deserves to be in a unified series, as does Tags (Alex Tagliani),” said Haskins. “They’ve both been good ambassadors for our races in the past.

“I’m still expecting an outstanding crowd and the fact we’ve got Danica (Patrick), Marco (Andretti) and Helio (Castroneves) is huge but, obviously, P.T. is a legend of this era and we’d love to have him.”

Tracy’s lone appearance this year was also at Long Beach, driving in what appears to be his final race for Gerald Forsythe. The 39-year-old veteran has a contract with Forsythe, who declined to move his team to the IRL following last winter’s unification.

A few weeks ago, P.T. tested Todd Bodine’s truck at Chicagoland Speedway and impressed Bob Germain enough to get a one-off deal.

“Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown,” said Germain, who along with his two brothers owns 19 car dealerships in Ohio and Florida.

“He’s our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike.”

Tracy, who had a few rides in the old Busch series with mixed results, looks at his truck debut as something bigger.

“I figure it’s an audition for 2009 with those guys, because I think Todd wants to go to the Nationwide series,” said Tracy.

Currently, Germain runs Mike Wallace in the Nationwide series, plus Justin Marks and Bodine in the trucks (along with Chrissie Wallace, Mike’s daughter, in selected events), and may be looking to expand.

“We’re going to run Chrissie full-time in the trucks next year and we’ve got another year for sure with Mike (sponsored by Geico),” said Germain. “I know Todd would like to run the Nationwide series and we’ve got about a dozen different possibilities we’ll be looking at.

“And running Paul full-time in the trucks is one of those.”