Renna at speed, out of groove.(Competition)(briefs)

The Indy Racing League still hasn't concluded its investigation of Tony Renna's fatal crash Oct. 22 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But this much has been released by the league: Renna's final pass through one of the track's many time lines was at full speed (227 mph at the end of the backstretch), and he was driving below the third turn's normal groove when he lost control of his car, spun and flipped into the catch fence.

"The car was low on the racetrack; he went through the apex portion lower than the groove, no doubt,'' said Brian Barnhart, the IRL's senior vice president of operations who is heading the investigation. "We just don't know why.''

Barnhart added there is no sign of tire deflation as both right-side tires remained inflated. The left-side tires were damaged in the crash. But Barnhart stopped short of calling the incident "driver error'' because there are still too many details of this complex investigation to sort through. The reason for the difficulty: No videotape and virtually no eyewitnesses.

Barnhart said the first stage of the investigation is to figure out what caused the chassis to break apart and what caused it to get airborne. Barnhart said the most significant impact came with the fence's two five-inch-wide poles that were knocked out. G force figures have not yet been downloaded from the car's damaged black box. Later, he said, officials will try to determine what caused the spin in the first place.

Barnhart discounted a link between Renna's airborne ride and similar ones taken in the past six months by Mario Andretti, Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves and Kenny Brack. Barnhart said Renna's car was the first to get off the ground "without any other outside influence.'' Andretti hit debris from another crash, Wheldon's car hit the wall first, and Castroneves and Brack had tire-to-tire contact with other cars.

Critics have called on the IRL to dramatically slow the cars for the 2004 season. Barnhart said the league will be doing well to corral them by 5 to 6 mph. Barnhart said the grandstand faade of the North Vista was "mildly impacted at worst'' and likely did not cause Renna's injuries (blunt force to the head and chest). Renna was pronounced dead 23 minutes following the crash.

IRL teams getting drivers