1999 Motorola 300

The 1999 Motorola 300 was the sixth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on May 29, 1999 on the Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.

Report

Race

Juan Pablo Montoya, looking for a record-equalling fourth consecutive series win, led from pole in the early stages of the race from Paul Tracy. After a caution caused due to a crash by Tarso Marques, the leaders came in for stops, and Roberto Moreno led on an alternate pit strategy. Moreno led for a period of time and then pitted, handing Tracy the lead ahead of Michael Andretti, although the second period of stops reversed the order, whereas Montoya lost a lap and dropped out of contention after a fuel miscalculation. Andretti led, until another caution came after Tracy and teammate Dario Franchitti collided while battling for second. This led to another round of stops from certain drivers, including Andretti, whereas Hélio Castro-Neves stayed out and took the lead. Castro-Neves led comfortably till lap 189, when the final round of pit stops took place. Castro-Neves, being on older tires and having his last pit stop well back had to pit on new tires and more fuel, as did all behind him. Andretti and others who pitted on lap 152, did not have to put on new tyres, and also required less fuel, resulting in a much faster stop. This meant that Andretti led after the stops, with Moreno up to second, and P. J. Jones in third. Both Castro-Neves and Franchitti took advantage of the newer tires to pass everyone in front of them and move up to second and third behind Andretti. Andretti, however, was able to hold them off and take his first win in over a year, with Castro-Neves settling for second and Franchitti third.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Michael Andretti	Newman-Haas Racing	236	2:25:35.829	11	20+1
2	9	Hélio Castro-Neves	Hogan Racing	236	+0.329	3	16
3	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	236	+1.047	5	14
4	18	Roberto Moreno	PacWest Racing	236	+5.735	19	12
5	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	236	+10.977	13	10
6	99	Greg Moore	Forsythe Racing	236	+11.203	6	8
7	44	Tony Kanaan	Forsythe Racing	236	+16.851	7	6
8	20	P. J. Jones	Patrick Racing	236	+25.769	16	5
9	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	236	+25.981	8	4
10	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	236	+26.531	10	3
11	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	236	+27.305	1	2
12	2	Al Unser, Jr.	Team Penske	235	+1 Lap	24	1
13	10	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	234	+2 Laps	25
14	24	Scott Pruett	Arciero-Wells Racing	234	+2 Laps	20
15	16	Shigeaki Hattori	Bettenhausen Racing	229	+7 Laps	26
16	36	Alex Barron	All American Racing	212	Electrical	23
17	25	Cristiano da Matta	Arciero-Wells Racing	185	Engine	12
18	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	161	Fuel Pressure	21
19	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	147	Contact	2
20	19	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Payton/Coyne Racing	141	Electrical	22
21	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	132	Clutch	7
22	33	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	114	Contact	4
23	8	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	113	Contact	17
24	34	Dennis Vitolo	Payton/Coyne Racing	62	Handling	27
25	5	Gil de Ferran	Walker Racing	36	Pit incident	15
26	3	Tarso Marques	Team Penske	31	Contact	18
27	22	Robby Gordon	Team Gordon	10	Contact	9

Caution flags

Lap Leaders

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	69
2	Dario Franchitti	65
3	Michael Andretti	61
4	Greg Moore	53
5	Christian Fittipaldi	53

References