Penske teammates Castroneves, de Ferran dominate the field at Miller Lite 200

Monday, August 14, 2000

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Team Penske's revival continued yesterday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with the most dominating performance by any team this season in the Championship Auto Racing Teams series.

Gil de Ferran started from the pole for the Miller Lite 200 after tying the track record, but teammate Helio Castroneves drove a better race. He tucked under de Ferran's rear wing for the first 28 laps, took the lead during the first round of pit stops and never had to look back.

But if Castroneves did glance in his mirrors, the only other challenger he saw was de Ferran. Midway through the race, Castroneves was able to maintain a 10-second lead over de Ferran and open a 34-second lead on the rest of the field at the 2.258-mile road course between Akron and Columbus.

Even after two full-course cautions bunched the field late in the race, Castroneves was still able to pull away, beating de Ferran to the checkered flag by 4.425 seconds.

"Gil was tough at the start," said Castroneves, who has been battling a viral infection all weekend and needed IV fluids before climbing into his car yesterday. "It was going to be tough to pass him so I just tried to stay with him because I knew we both had good cars and we could go away from the field."

Although the race was 83 laps long, the outcome was decided on the 29th circuit. De Ferran, who drove hard over the first 28 laps, and Castroneves, who conserved fuel by drafting off his teammate, had a 21-second lead on the field. De Ferran decided to stop on lap 29, but Castroneves had enough fuel to last one more lap, and took advantage by going all out while de Ferran was stopped. When de Ferran exited the pits, he was stuck behind cars fighting to stay on the lead lap; when Castroneves left pit road, he had clear sailing and was on his way to his second victory of the season and his career.

"I could tell Helio was very strong and I knew if he got by us it would be tough to beat him," de Ferran said. "By the time I got by the traffic, Helio was 15 seconds ahead. I wanted to be aggressive, but I had to manage my own instincts and bring it home."

Penske's drivers turned the race into such a laugher that Christian Fittipaldi was celebrating his third-place finish like a victory.

"I'm happy I won the race of the rest," Fittipaldi said. "Hats off to Penske. It's obviously frustrating when it's pretty visible that their machines were better. We've all got to get our act together to catch up.

"It's not that they were better on traction or better going in [the turns], it's just that they were a little bit quicker in every single corner. They really had their act together."

Rounding out the top five were Team Rahal's Max Papis and Kenny Brack.

For owner Roger Penske, it was victory No. 103 and his team's fourth this season after going winless since May 24, 1997. After struggling through a dismal 1999 season, Penske switched to the popular Honda-Reynard combination and hired rising stars de Ferran and Castroneves to drive. Yesterday, the two combined to give Penske his first 1-2 finish since 1994 with drivers Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr.

With his second-place finish yesterday, de Ferran has scored points in 11 of 13 CART races and trails Michael Andretti, 125-106, for the series championship. Andretti finished eighth after being caught on pit road when the second caution came out.

Defending race winner Juan Montoya and the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team made mistakes uncharacteristic of a team which has won the past four CART championships.

Montoya started 10th, but his troubles began on lap 11 when he spun off course and fell to 23rd after pitting to look for damage. On lap 23, and racing all out trying to catch up to the field, Montoya went off road -- and about three feet in the air. He recovered, but ran out of fuel on lap 43, ending his race in 24th place.

"That's the first time we've run somebody out of fuel in a couple years," Fox Chapel's Ganassi said. "We don't know yet if it was a miscalculation on our part or a miscalculation in a computer or a logging error in the car."

Jimmy Vasser, normally a mistake-free driver, raced Dario Franchitti, who was two laps down after early mechanical problems, hard into a turn on lap 54. With Franchitti slightly ahead, Vasser failed to allow enough room for both cars to negotiate the turn and they collided, ending both their days with Vasser in 21st.

"It's obviously difficult to stomach," Ganassi said. "We're certainly not happy with the result, not that those guys are going to be complacent about it. We have to sit down and look at the results and see why they were happening and what we can do to rectify it.

"Franchitti was two laps down, but on the other hand, Jimmy left the door open. I'm disappointed about that, but I'm more disappointed about the things we have control over."

Yesterday's results virtually end any chance Ganassi's team can win an unprecedented fifth consecutive series title.

"It's going to be very difficult to win the championship," Ganassi said. "That doesn't mean we can't win a lot of races between now and then."

Ganassi also faces the prospect that Montoya, the defending series champion, will leave for Formula One next season. On Saturday, Vasser said "it's safe to assume" Montoya was gone.

"He's a professional," Ganassi said. "He has mountains to climb here yet no matter what we decide. I'm sure his focus will be here while he's in the car."

NOTES -- Before the race began, Bobby Rahal, CART's interim CEO, announced that beginning next year, there will be no testing during the season, and a maximum of 20 test days for a two-car team during the off-season. Single-car teams are allowed 14 test days. Currently, teams can test 36 days in a year, 20 times during the season. ... Castroneves' victory was the 50th for Honda since it first competed in CART in 1994.