Boat switches to Infiniti.

Indy Racing League veteran Billy Boat and CURB/Agajanian/Boat Indy Racing are switching to Infiniti engines starting with the Ameristar Casino Indy 200 this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Boat, 1998 Indianapolis 500 pole winner, thinks the switch will be a good fit for his No. 98 CURB Records Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone entry during the second half of the IRL season due to Infiniti's strong performance on longer tracks. Five of the seven remaining tracks on the 2002 schedule are 1.5 miles or longer.

"The Infiniti has shown to excel on these longer tracks, and they've come a long way in terms of power and reliability," Boat said. "It's all about winning. We want to win one or two of the races still left on the schedule. We just feel that we will have a better opportunity to do that with the Infiniti.

"We've had a great relationship with General Motors, Chevrolet, Speedway Engine Development and RPM Engine Development. They've done a fantastic job for us. But the timing is right to move on and try something new. We've been facing a lot of gremlins this year, so we feel like we need to make a drastic move to jump-start our season."

Eddie Cheever Jr. won the inaugural Ameristar Casino Indy 200 last July with an Infiniti-powered car.

"We're hoping that this engine will give us the added edge that our team may have been lacking so far this season," Boat said. "The team is really looking forward to putting the CURB Records car up front on race day."