Alex Barron revives racing career in IRL Story by Joe Brittin MADISON, IL - Four-time Grand National Karting Champion Alex Barron has revived his Indy car racing career by competing in the Indy Racing League with the Rayovac sponsored Blair Racing team. Highlights this year include a win at Nashville and a fourth place finish at the Indianapolis 500, and a third place finish at Gateway. He was also named Co-Rookie of the Year for the Indianapolis 500. His first start in the Indy Racing League was last year at Gateway for Sam Schmidt Motorsports finishing 21st. He was then picked up by Blair Racing to run the final two CART races of the season where he led the race and finished 9th at Fontana in a year old car. Blair Racing jumped ship to the IRL this year and signed Barron to run the full season. Team owner Larry Blair describes Barron as "the complete package. He is a talented driver who is at ease working with the team, with our sponsors, with fans and the media. It's important for our driver to deliver off the track as well as on it." Barron has not forgotten his kart racing roots. He raced karts from 1979 to 1997 and still likes to hone his racing skills in a shifter kart. He won the first shifter kart race held at the famous Quincy South Park street race. He was a seven time California state karting champion in both 100cc and 125cc classes. He culminated his kart-racing career with the U.S. Gearbox karting championship in 1997. He recently opened his own kart shop, Barron's Hi-Performance Karts, which specializes in shifter karts. Barron's shifter kart experience propelled him into the Toyota Atlantic Series in 1997 where he won five races and the point championship in his rookie year. In 1998 and 1999 he raced in CART for Dan Gurney's All American Racers but had limited success since this team was more of a developmental team. In 2000 he made six CART starts for Dale Coyne Racing with his best finish of eighth at Fontana. His recent success capped a long, hard climb that sometimes found Barron sleeping on the floor at friend's motel rooms just to come to races in order to be seen. "This has been a long time coming," Barron said. "We've had a good time all year. To do what we did feels really, really good. It just shows what kind of team Rayovac Blair racing has." At the Gateway Indy 250, Barron qualified 14th and charged his way to the front by lap 119 making an outside pass around Helio Castroneves through turns three and four. He led for 29 laps until pitting during a caution, where Barron came out in second place to Castroneves. On the restart, Barron made a charge around Castroneves in the tight turns one and two and almost brushed the wall, slipping back to fifth. Barron was able to charge back to third place for a podium finish.