INDIANAPOLIS -- The world's fastest human seems downright pedestrian next to the world's fastest oval-track race cars.\nJustin Gatlin, who set a world record for 100 meters Friday night, was honorary starter at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.\n"These cars are fast and I'm addicted to speed. I'm like a kid all over again," said Gatlin, who also used his visit to promote the USA Track & Field national championships next month at the nearby IUPUI stadium.\nHis time of 9.76 seconds in the Qatar Grand Prix was .01 second faster than the previous world record set last year by Jamaica's Asafa Powell.\n"I also want to break the world record again, hopefully on American soil," he said. "Hopefully here, in June. It won't be as fast as these cars here, but hopefully I'll get the job done."\nThe previous best for Gatlin, 24, a former NCAA 100 and 200 champion at Tennessee, was 9.85 seconds in winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
He also won the 100 and 200 at the world outdoor championships last year in Helsinki.\nHe said he doesn't know whether he will run both events at this year's nationals.\n"I think more it's going to be a showing, just putting on a great performance for the fans," he said. "It's not a world championship year or an Olympic year, so I want to put an `A' effort when I step on the track. I don't have to hold back and peak at a certain time of the season."\nBut lowering the 100 world record to even 9.70 seconds is "achievable," Gatlin said.\nIndy cars cover the same distance in about 1 second.\n"Knowing these cars are traveling 200 miles (per hour) plus, especially in those curves and taking on those G forces ... I take my hat off to them," Gatlin said. "They're great athletes. It's all mental and physical out there, and it's dangerous as well."\nHis own record, he said, is only beginning to sink in.\n"I'm still in shock," Gatlin said. "It really set in this morning when I woke up. I got out of the shower and I wrote 9.76 on the foggy mirror. I had to sit back and look at that time and look how fast that was _ I did that! _ I can't believe it."\nThe U.S. nationals are scheduled at IUPUI on June 21-25. Florence Griffith Joyner set a world's record for the women's 100 at the same track during the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials.
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