Andretti takes chequered flag at Gateway

There was drama on the circuit as the lead changed frequently, as well as action in the pits until Andretti, who started in 11th, won with Helio Castro-Neves second and Dario Franchitti, Roberto Moreno and Max Papis al right behind.

Pole sitter Juan Montoya brought the field around for the start under a yellow flag and the racing was clean until an early incident as Robby Gordon hit the wall with an unidentified mechanical problem.

He was not seriously injured and while the debris was cleaned up several of the teams chose to make pit stops.

Montoya maintained the lead when the green flag was shown several laps later.

Tarso Marques was the next driver to smash into the Turn 4 wall bringing about another round of pits stops.

Roberto Moreno, substituting for the injured Mark Blundell, inherited the lead as he chose to pit during the first caution period. The leader board changed significantly as a result of the out-of-sequence pitting.

Moreno continued to lead for 38 laps before he was passed by Al Unser Jr. Unser held the lead for 11 laps but Moreno got past him to regain the lead for another four before stopping for a pit stop, handing the lead to Paul Tracy.

Another series of pit stops and another caution period for the stalled car of Mauricio Gugelmin put Andretti in the lead for the first of three times this afternoon.

He lost the lead to Castro-Neves during another round of pit stops. Castro-Neves turned in a perfect race for the next 38 laps before relinquishing the lead back to Andretti in the pits on lap 190.

Andretti held the lead for the rest of the race, but he was never comfortable as Castro-Neves dogged him for the remaining 47 laps.

On the last pit stop Andretti's team decided to just stop for fuel, leaving the old tyres on the car.

Castro-Neves got a new set and they allowed him to stay in Andretti's mirrors for the rest of the day.
It is win number 38 for Andretti, the first win for the Swift-Firestone-Ford/Cosworth combination.

Andretti gave the credit to both the tyres and the crew for his victory.

On the last stop the crew convinced him to continue with the old tyres, and he said, 'those tires just kept on going and going and going!'

He added, 'I just kept praying to God that I'd stay in front and fortunately, that's how it worked out.'

Overall, Franchitti is still second in the points but with today's third place finish he closes in on Juan Montoya who only mustered an eleventh place finish.

Montoya was the victim of some poor pit strategy as he ran out of fuel and wasted time coasting into the pits.

'Everybody has bad luck sometimes and today it was me,' he said.

Results from Motorola 300