Avondale - In a hard-fought race, marred by collisions and mishaps, Jon Herb emerged as the victor of the Phoenix 100 Infiniti Pro event at the Phoenix International Raceway.  So devastated was the field, that the race was shortened to 90 laps by league officials because of time constraints and unusually high attrition.  However, the shortened race had little effect on the outcome as by that point, Herb was comfortably in command of the event and barring an unforced error, would have easily been able to hold the lead until lap 100 if necessary.

After an eight lap caution, the race was restarted only to have Jaime Camara spin in Turn 4 on the restart.  As Camara spun, he collected Jeff Simmons and they both ended up in the wall, bringing out the safety crews again.  At this point, with zero laps run under green, five cars were already out of the race, with four of them being extremely competitive entries.

As the field turned for the next restart, Jon Herb, who started fourth, passed Travis Gregg, who won the race at Homestead in February, for the lead.  Also on the restart, Wade Cunningham, a rookie, made a quite impressive pass of Arie Luyendyk, Jr. a series veteran and former championship runner-up.  Luyendyk seemed to be fighting problems with his car all day and was never really a factor in the contest once Cunningham passed him.

The mid-race looked to be relatively benign with the cars spacing out into a single-file running order.  Mishael Abbott, the Inifinti Pro Series' only female driver, was consistently falling back and Jon Herb was extending his lead.  Then, on lap 33, Mishael Abbott spun in Turn 1 and made moderate contact with the SAFER barrier in Turn 2.  It looked like a case of pushing an ill-handling car just a little too far. 

As the field restarted on Lap 41, Travis Gregg spun while exiting Turn 4, collected Al Unser and pushed him into the inside wall.  In a fine example of racing luck, Gregg only suffered minor damage to his front wing, while Unser was eliminated from the race by contact with the wall.  During the caution, Gregg entered the pits where his crew changed his front wing, allowing Travis to re-enter the race after only losing two laps.

The rest of the race was relatively uneventful.  Jon Herb did make an excellent outside pass of two slower cars (Travis Gregg and Scott Mayer) on Lap 58 which allowed him to hold his lead over Chris Festa who was running in second place at the time.  Festa appeared to have the ability to run with Herb, but whenever he would close the gap, Jon Herb always seemed to find some extra speed in Turns 3 and 4 which enabled him to pull away.  Marty Roth repaired his car and was able to re-enter the race, however, running 40 laps down, he later spun his car and brought out the caution yet again.  During this caution period, the Infiniti Pro Series officials shortened the event to 90 laps.

As the race ended, Jon Herb won comfortably, with Chris Festa finishing second and Wade Cunningham placing a well-deserved third.  Perhaps the most impressive feat in the race, short of Herb's solid victory, was the fact that Wade Cunningham was able to finish at all.  According to Cunningham, "Every accident except one was when I was directly behind that person.  I guess it was just good luck and a lot of timing, but I got by unscathed, but it was always very close. "  Whether it was luck, or timing, or both, there were seven other drivers sitting in the pits during the last lap who wished they had a bit of what Wade Cunningham possessed at the Phoenix 100.