IN SIGHT We have nothing to say about this. FOCUS: CRISTIANO DA MATTA Stay in CART and be the heavy favorite to repeat as champion or move on to Formula One and risk being a backmarker. That was Brazilian Cristiano da Matta's dilemma last year. He chose F1 and thus far it's been a decent choice. Toyota's certainly no Ferrari, McLaren or Williams -- nor is it close to Renault, for that matter. But Toyota has plenty of money to spend and is very interested in finding success in Formula One. And this past weekend at Hockenheim, both da Matta and teammate Olivier Panis finished in the points -- a first for Toyota. "Everything ran smoothly for me in the race. The car felt good and I got the most out of it," said da Matta, who has scored eight points this season and actually led 17 laps in the British Grand Prix a couple of weeks back. "With Olivier getting fifth position, this is the first time that we have finished a race with both cars in points-scoring positions and it is a brilliant result for all the team's efforts. "It shows that we are making progress, which is the most important thing, and we are getting closer and closer. We have to keep this level of performance up and continue to work hard. Then the results will keep coming naturally." Da Matta and Panis, who has scored six points this year, will have plenty of time to keep those results coming, too. Toyota announced this week that it is retaining both drivers for the 2004 season. "They have both performed very well throughout this season and have played an integral role in developing the TF103 race car," said Toyota boss Ove Andersson. "We look forward to continuing our work with both Olivier and Cristiano as one team." This is no backmarker that da Matta has joined. Rather, he's a part of a solid and promising F1 effort. PIT PASS Next test subject: After Sam Hornish's successful debut of the ChevyWorth engine at Michigan (Hornish finished second), Red Bull Cheever driver Buddy Rice will be the second driver to fire up the new powerplant this weekend at Gateway. "The test at Gateway went really well. We were able to get done everything we had planned and we learned enough information about the Gen IV Chevy Indy V8 to use for the upcoming race," said Rice. "We also worked on our setup and made small changes since everything is a little bit different now with the new engine." The new engine is an obvious boost to all Chevy teams, and Rice's effort is no exception. After notching two top-five and four top-10 finishes in five races last season, Rice and his Cheever team have struggled in 2003, securing just three top-10s (all ninth-place efforts) in 10 races. But the new Chevy engine should change all that. "The team worked really hard the past few days to install the new engine in time for the test. We're going to continue to work on the details and we're confident that we're going to be competitive and able to run in the front of the pack." Mailbag: In your honest opinion, what would be the best resolution of the CART/IRL competition? I have grown to enjoy IRL racing, but I still think CART has something to offer open-wheel racing fans. Am I wrong to dislike Tony George for what he's done to the sport? Craig Cassioppi New Orleans New Orleans. Cool town. Go Syracuse. Anyway ... This issue is a tough one. CART fans are taking exception to the IRL's plan to add road courses, citing the infamous "vision" the league was founded upon. Folks, that was eight years ago. Get over it. Visions and plans can change. If it makes financial sense for the IndyCars to hit the road, so be it. At the same time, yes, Tony George is absolutely primarily to blame for the split and subsequent waning popularity of open wheel racing. A solution? One series. Worst case scenario: CART dies and the IRL picks up the pieces (venues and teams/drivers). Better case scenario: They find a common engine formula and merge into one league with two divisions, ovals and road/street courses. They then meet three or so times per year in the ol' Triple Crown on the superspeedway, including Indy. We'd say the IndyCar division should also have to race a couple of select road courses. It's a complicated solution with many, many obstacles and probably even more logistical problems. But it's also a solution that makes at least a modicum of sense to those involved without making diehards of either series vomit. Got your own idea on this? Let's hear it. Or, got your own questions about what's happening in the pits? Ask away, and we'll answer a question or two in the next Gas&Go. Name: E-mail address: City, state: Your comment: Feeling a little down now that Daytona, Indy and Brickyard all are in the record books, leaving us with dog days of summer and reams of speculation regarding the fate of CART to chew on? Fear not. There's still fun ahead. Even if the Winston Cup points race is less exciting than a Dale Jarrett pit stop, at least our leading man Matt Kenseth is still angling for actual race victories and NASCAR is talking about changing its point system this off-season. There is hope after all. And the other series' are seeing thrilling battles for the driver's titles. Think Michael Schumacher's a lock to wrap up another F1 title? Certainly not, with former CART champ Juan Montoya (remember when 'former CART champ' carried weight?) running him down. The Ferrari team has got its hands full, and you can bet Bridgestone is going to take some flak -- both for Schumi's blown tire in Germany and, on a larger scale, for ceding dry-weather superiority to Michelin this year. The U.S. Grand Prix is shaping up to be a late September treat for American fans. Question is, will they even notice? One thing we did notice this weekend, aside from the fact that CART no longer has a clue what to do in rain, is that Paul Tracy no longer is leading that series' points race. What?! The guy has been dominant all year, he slips up at Road America and suddenly he's second, to a guy who just won his first race of the year. Again, that consistency vs. victories thing pops up. NASCAR's not the only one battling it. But at least with the CART scenario, nobody is running away with anything. Bruno vs. Paul should be a great slugfest to the very end -- and in CART's case, the very end could be literal. While Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan are separated by just one point in the IRL battle, it seems a little juice is lacking in that rivalry. One of these guys needs to start a pit road rumor about the other, or be accused of blocking, or refuse to look at each other on the podium after races. Now that would be entertainment. Not to say the series isn't going to do its part to help keep us amused -- they've already changed rules during the season allowing for an engine swap, and the barbs flying about between the Honda and Toyota drivers and the 'Chevy-worth' group is riveting drama. If none of this has convinced you there's still fun ahead on the auto racing schedule, remember the musical chairs speculation game will be in full swing from here on out. Will Chip Ganassi steal Tony Stewart away from Joe Gibbs? Is Sam Hornish Jr. going to jump ship to stock cars? And, the question on everyone's minds, will anything be left of CART? Stay tuned. EXHAUST FUMES It was fun. After all of the buildup -- much of which was on this very Web site -- Sunday's Brickyard 400 turned into a pretty entertaining show. From Kevin Harvick's record-setting qualifying performance to Tony Stewart's charge to the front. To Dale Jarrett's costly mistake to Jeff Gordon's closed-pit fueling. From Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman battling at the front to Stewart returning to the top. From Jamie McMurray's surprise performance to Robby Gordon's key performance. From Matt Kenseth's yellow-flag disappointment to Kevin Harvick pulling away to the checkers. And let's not forget the fence climbing. OK, so this race wasn't exactly one for the ages. But it was obvious there was a lot on the line. Mr. Consistency Matt Kenseth was gunning for a win. Mr. Popular Bill Elliott was ticked about lapped cars on a key restart. There was even a little Daytona flavor, with a major wreck -- let's call it "The Little One" -- occuring when the cars were bunched up following a restart. And drivers who normally would be disappointed with a bad finish but would accept it diplomatically were a little more peeved at failing to succeed at Indy. "We should have had a top-10 finish," said Sterling Marlin, whose efforts were dashed by a pit road penalty and an accident. "This is a big race with big money. We should have done better but we'll just have to move on from here." "It's very disappointing," said Elliott Sadler, who finished 42nd with mechanical problems. "We had high hopes coming here, we always want to run well." Tony Stewart didn't even say anything after the race, he was so upset about seeing a would-be victory slip through his fingers... On the other hand, the race-winner was obviously excited. "How did I get here? I wish someone would tell me," said Kevin Harvick. "It's really hard to put into words how much it means to me. It means a lot to these guys too." No, it's not the most exciting racing on the schedule, but yes, the Brickyard 400 is a big deal. Everyone wants this one just a little bit more and it showed on Sunday. This race might have been manufactured with open wheel racing tradition combined with stock car popularity, but seeing the drivers and teams go all-out all day should be payoff a'plenty for the fans. And because of the effort and emotion involved, it's more rewarding than manufactured side-by-side racing on a 1½-mile oval. Indianapolis is racing. And after 10 years, it's abundantly clear that stock cars belong at Indianapolis. Change it already! Race fans should be excited that NASCAR VP Jim Hunter announced there could be a change in the points system for next year. While it's nice giving everyone a reason to race, as the current system does, it seems more weight needs to be given to victories and pole winners. Jeff Gordon summed up the current state of affairs. "The way the championship points are structured, winning is not the most important thing,'' said the four-time Winston Cup champion. "It pays the most points, but a top-five these days is almost as good as a win.'' And that's not a good thing, in our opinion. OVERHEARD Helio Castroneves On going from first to seventh in IROC race. "Those guys, side-by-side, I don't know how they do it. (Kevin) Harvick was just pushing Jimmie (Johnson) like crazy and I was thinking, 'How is this possible?''' Juan Montoya On the possibility of winning the F1 world title. "No, I am not talking about it or thinking about it. Anything can happen. There are four races to go and we'll just see what happens." Kevin Harvick On his post-Brickyard celebration. "Hey man, if you're going to win big, you might as well leave your mark. You might not get another chance. It was just a lot of fun."

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