Papis

FONTANA, Calif. -- Max Papis was frustrated and disappointed Sunday after an engine failure left him 14th in the Toyota 500 at California Speedway.

The Italian driver, who lost his full-time ride after just five races this season when his team ran out of money, has been looking for a job ever since.

Papis drove for Eddie Cheever in the Indianapolis 500 in May, filled in for injured Adrian Fernandez in a race at Mid-Ohio in August and was back in the Mexican driver's car Sunday after Fernandez was hurt in a crash the previous week in Australia.

Papis was driving a conservative race, hanging with the leaders and waiting for the final 25 laps to make a challenge. His strategy came up short when his Honda-powered Lola, which had been running seventh, pulled slowly into the pits and Papis got out of the cockpit after 214 of 250 laps.

"I came here after a long time out of the car and I drove like a lion all day," Papis said. "I was fighting like a lion for the win. I came to drive, I didn't come to watch.

"I don't think it's necessary, but I proved again I belong out there."

Fernandez, CART's only owner-driver, watched from the pits, wearing a neckbrace after fracturing two neck vertebrae in Australia.

"I have to thank Max for the great job he did for us this weekend," Fernandez said. "He was holding on out there and doing a good job. I thought he would finish in the top six for sure."

Papis said, "Sometimes, it's not your day. Unfortunately for me, the racing stops here for now."

Stopped short

	Jourdain

Another unhappy driver was Michel Jourdain Jr., who was the only driver who had finished each of the first 17 races this season.

A blown engine relegated him to 13th, finishing 218 laps after running in the top 10 most of the day. The Team Rahal driver was third when his engine erupted.

"It's very, very sad," Jourdain said. "We had everything today to win and I was saving everything and lifting as much as I could," he said.

"Something happened there in the back (of the car), but they knew we were here all day and Michel just drove a great race," said Scott Roembke, Team Rahal's CEO.

The driver had made a pit stop out of sequence after spinning on cold tires coming off pit road on lap 100 and was using that to his advantage until his engine problem.

"Our pit strategy was looking pretty good there for the end and I think we would have had something for them."

His teammate, Jimmy Vasser, won the race.

Raging Rahal
Team owner Bobby Rahal was upset after Dario Franchitti's blown engine brought out the fourth caution flag of the day and led to a 9-minute red flag stoppage with just four laps remaining.

"I'm just glad they stopped it because it was pretty bush league for Dario to be driving around out there with an engine he knew was going to blow," Rahal said.

The red flag worked to the Rahal team's advantage, giving Vasser a chance to pass leader Michael Andretti on the restart with two laps to go.

Franchitti is Andretti's teammate and will drive for the new team owner next year in the rival Indy Racing League. Franchitti, who had been as high as seventh place only a few laps before his car blew, said he was simply trying to finish to score points as he fights for second place in the standings.

The new red flag rule, allowing CART officials to stop the race and try to assure a finish under green, was adopted last winter after Cristiano da Matta won here under caution last November in a furious race that featured a record 73 lead changes but ended quietly.

If the red flag has not been used Sunday, Andretti would have won the event under the yellow.

The rule was previously used in July in Vancouver when the race was halted with six laps remaining and Franchitti then held off teammate Paul Tracy for the win.

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