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Tuesday, March 6
Title as wide open as ever in 2001
By Robin Miller
Special to ESPN.com
Picking the CART champion was pretty simple a few years ago. Whomever was driving for Chip Ganassi wound up with No.1 on his nose. But Team Penske ambushed everyone last year and, going into Sunday's opener of the 2001 FedEx Championship Series at Monterrey, Mexico, there appears to be almost as many title contenders as there are questions.
Such as:
|  | | Teammates Helio Castroneves, right, and Gil de Ferran will try to keep Team Penski atop the standings in 2001. |
Is Team Green's talented triplets of Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti more of a threat to the competition or each other?
Can Franchitti bounce back from a disastrous, and winless, season?
Will finally having a Honda engine behind him get Andretti his first championship since 1991 -- his only one in 17 seasons?
Is losing engineer/tutor Tony Cicale going to retard Tracy's spark?
After plucking champs Alex Zanardi and Juan Montoya out of relative obscurity, can Ganassi's magic touch continue with rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian?
Heated rivals in F3000 the past two years, will Junqueira and Minassian be able to work together? And can these two road racers hope to carry Montoya's torch at Indy?
Can Zanardi, following an aborted return to Formula One and a year of spectating, regain the fire that carried him to back-to-back titles?
Will Team Penske continue its resurgence with Helio Castroneves and defending champ Gil de Ferran?
If Castroneves catches a few mechanical breaks, can anybody catch him?
Does Roger Penske's Reynard still have the upper hand on road courses?
Can Penske duplicate Ganassi's impressive romp at Indy in his first visit since 1995?
Are '96 champ Jimmy Vasser and Patrick Racing the sleeper of 2001?
Or would that be Tony Kanaan and Morris Nunn's team?
Will Adrián Fernández profit from being a driver/owner or lose the momentum he's built up the past two years?
Does 42-year-old Roberto Moreno have another title run in his tank?
Ford looks doomed again in F1, so can Kenny Brack and Max Papis bring the American engine manufacturer and Bobby Rahal some happiness over here?
Will the addition of engineers Cicale and Bruce Ashmore be enough to finally get Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani and Player's/Forsythe back in Victory Lane?
Can Cristiano da Matta make Newman/Haas forget about losing Andretti?
Does Christian Fittipaldi step out of Andretti's shadow and cast one of his own?
Is rookie Scott Dixon talented enough to push PacWest back to the front after a three-year absence? And bring out the best in teammate Mo Gugelmin?
Will Derrick Walker's latest oriental import, Tora Takagi, finally prove that somebody in Japan can drive a champ car competitively?
Or will Shinji Nakano do the Rising Sun proud in his second pass through CART?
Can Oriol Servia, the surprise of 2000, wring some good races out of his brand new Sigma team?
Has Lola made any gains on Reynard?
Does Toyota pack the punch to knock Honda off CART's catbird seat after five years?
Can Americans Memo Gidley and Alex Barron ever hope for a fair shot in CART?
The past three Michigan 500s arguably have been CART's greatest shows ever, but will the grandstands remain half full?
Check back in nine months and 21 races for the answers. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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