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Sunday, July 15
Andretti again wins in Toronto
Associated Press
TORONTO -- For once, Michael Andretti didn't have to worry
about fuel, and he had a blast.
Shuffled to last place after a bump from rookie Scott Dixon on
the first lap of the CART Molson Indy, Andretti took advantage of
11 cautions to keep his fuel tank full and won the race Sunday for
the seventh time in its 16-year history.
|  | | Andretti took the checkered flag for the 41st time in his career. |
"We made four stops in this race," said Andretti, who won here
for the second straight time. "We were able to take advantage of
the early yellows since I was in the back of the pack and just kept
coming in and topping off.
"We knew we were going to be in good shape, so we didn't have
to stretch any of our stops and so I was always able to run at full
rich, and that was a big advantage."
Alex Tagliani was second and Adrian Fernandez third followed by
Alex Zanardi and Dixon.
The win vaulted Andretti past Helio Castroneves into second place in the series standings with 73 points, 11 behind leader
Kenny Brack. It also broke a CART record Andretti had shared with Al Unser Jr. for most wins in one event. Unser won Long Beach six times when he raced in CART.
"I was able to race today. It's the first time I've been able
to do that in a long time," Andretti said. "Normally, it's 'Save
fuel! Save fuel!' I didn't have to today, and it was fun."
Polesitter Gil de Ferran, who led the first 49 laps and seemed on his way to victory for Team Penske, wrecked the right rear of
his car on lap 76 in a collision at Turn 3 with Cristiano of da
Matta and was through for the day. That wreck cut the 26-car field in half.
"The race was going very well for us," de Ferran said.
"Unfortunately, the timing of the caution flags didn't play in our
favor and then I got tagged."
Brack, who started third, lost his engine to an electrical
problem on lap 62 while running sixth. Penske's Castroneves, who
started on the front row, parked his Reynard-Honda four laps later
after his engine caught fire. Dario Franchitti, third in the
standings before the race, was running in second when he lost his
engine on lap 32.
Andretti, who won this race four times in a five-year span in
the early 1990s, seemed out of contention just seconds into the
95-lap race on the temporary street circuit.
Andretti, who started 13th, hit the wall at turn 3 on the first
lap when Dixon drove inside his Reynard-Honda and knocked it
sideways. Andretti was shuffled to the back of field at the restart
but slowly made his way back up as accidents and engine troubles
knocked out the leaders.
Andretti had the lead on a restart at lap 72, and held a
seven-second advantage when Christian Fittipaldi and rookie Bruno
Junqueira crashed together on the 88th to bring out the final
caution.
That set up a five-lap shootout, but Tagliani was running on old
tires and Andretti pulled away to a 2.7-second victory, the 41st of
his career, most in CART history, and first this year.
"We had enough fuel, but the problem was that I was on older
tires than Michael and the team wanted me to save enough fuel to
finish the race," Tagliani said after his best career finish in
two years in CART. "After a while, I was getting really strong,
but with so few laps to go I needed to be quicker on the
restarts."
The race had three cautions on the first nine laps. A four-car
pileup on the fifth lap brought out the second caution. Roberto
Moreno caused it when he spun out at turn 5, a 90-degree
left-hander, and collected Dixon, Jimmy Vasser, and da Matta.
Just moments later, Toronto native Paul Tracy slammed the back of Oriol Servia on lap 9 to bring out the third caution. Servia had moved to eighth when Tracy made contact.
Servia, running two laps down, eventually was knocked out of the
race on lap 42 when Japan's Tora Takagi slammed his car from behind, lifting it off the track and hard into the wall at turn 3,
the tightest turn on the 11-curve circuit.
Takagi also caused the seventh caution, slamming Moreno on lap
48.
Tracy, who has finished on the podium here the last two races,
managed to climb back to sixth at the finish after dropping out of
the top 20 early in the race. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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