MONTEREY, Calif. -- Things definitely were not cool for Team Kool Green at the Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday.

First, Dario Franchitti was knocked out of the race when it had hardly begun, an innocent victim in a seven-car pileup on the second turn.

Then, after lap 15 in the 87-lap race, a pit crew member failed to secure the left rear tire on Paul Tracy's car before he sped onto the track. He lost the tire on turn four of the 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track, and his car slammed into the tire wall.

"It's a fitting end to the weekend we had here," team manager Kyle Moyer said.

Franchitti, starting 14th in the 19-car grid, said he was intent on staying out of trouble on the always-crowded first corner. But Michel Jourdain Jr. was knocked into a spin directly in front of him.

"One guy hit Michel and spun him around, but I thought I was clear because I could see him behind me," Franchitti said. "I went to the outside as far as I could, but there were cars on the right. When Michel tried to rejoin, he spun in reverse and hit me. You can't do much in this type of situation. You've got nowhere to go."

Rookie's best
After his car survived a hit in the pileup at the start of the race, rookie Townsend Bell went on to earn his first CART championship points with a seventh-place finish.

"I went wide to stay out of trouble and some guys got together and hit my left rear, spinning me around," he said. "I stalled and I was screaming for someone to push start me because I really wanted to run the distance."

The pit crew got the car running again, and a pit stop on the early yellow flag after Tracy's crash helped Bell to his first finish of any kind. He earned six points.

"I would like to have been a little more aggressive at the end of the race when I was challenging Scott Dixon," Bell said, "but seventh place scored us solid points and hopefully it will give us the momentum we need to start scoring points on a consistent basis."

Papis perseveres
Defending champion Max Papis and his crew had to scramble just to make it to the starting line.

He crashed in the warmup because of suspension failure. The vastly underfunded Sigma Autosport team scrambled to get the car ready for the race, and Papis struggled to a 13th-place finish in a field of 19, just missing on scoring any championship points.

"Today was just a difficult day," he said. "We had a mechanical problem in the morning that put us in the wall. The guys did a fantastic job of getting the car back together in time for the race."

When the race began, Papis said the car had braking problems.

"We were really slow on the first set of tires," he said. "I guess we were not quick enough to deserve a point, and that's discouraging because we all worked so hard."

You got it, Toyota
Toyota had its best day yet in a CART race. All three drivers on the podium -- in fact the top four in the race -- had Toyota engines.

Six of the top seven finishers were powered by Toyota. The exception was Patrick Carpentier, who drove his Ford-powered Reynard to fifth place.

Toyota leads the manufacturer's championship with 88 points. Honda has 77 and Ford 69. Honda's top driver Sunday was Michael Andretti in 11th.

Michael's climb
Michael Andretti had something of a moral victory, starting dead last in the field of 19 and finishing 11th.

"Boy, today was a lot of hard work for those two championship points," the 42-time winner said.

Andretti has 30 championship points, 21 behind leader Cristiano da Matta.

"I don't think we could have done any better than we did today," he said, "and in the end I'm just happy we were able to get a couple of points. We've definitely got our work cut out for us going into Portland."