Chicago: Da Matta claims hat-trick

Thanks to brilliant pit work from his Chicago-based team, da Matta took a hard-fought victory over his countryman Bruno Junqueira and pole man Dario Franchitti before a crowd of 25,268 at Chicago Motor Speedway. It was da Matta's third consecutive Champ Car race win and sixth in the last nine races, dating to last season.

Cristiano started third and moved into second place during the first round of pit stops on lap 68. He gained another position during the second round of stops, taking the lead for the first time on Lap 134 of 250. In total, the 28-year old Brazilian led a race-best 82 laps and extended his CART championship lead to 25 points over Junqueira.

The reason that pit stops were so important was because as usual, passing was almost impossible on the oddly-shaped 1.029-mile Chicago oval. Aside from a few passes on restarts, there were no major changes of position throughout the two-hour seven-minute contest staged under blazing conditions.

Two top oval track competitors were eliminated on the first lap when Jimmy Vasser and Kenny Brack crashed in Turn 1. The Swede came in hot and tried to make it five-wide on the outside before his left-rear wheel clipped Vasser's right front, sending both cars into the wall.

Once racing began, Franchitti moved out to a four-second lead before he encountered the tail of the field and his advantage diminished. That shouldn't have cost the Scot the lead during the first round of pit stops, but he somehow emerged in third place.

After running second to Franchitti for the first 68 laps, front row started Alex Tagliani took over at the front from Lap 76 until he triggered the second round of stops on Lap 134. But the French-Canadian was also delayed in the pits, allowing Junqueira to pass him on the track during his out lap.

Tagliani encountered more trouble on a Lap 156 restart when he collided with Paul Tracy. They both continued (Tagliani finished seventh and Tracy ninth) but neither wanted to accept the blame.

Meanwhile, da Matta emerged from the second stop ahead of both Junqueira and Tagliani. After leading Laps 142-204, da Matta had to wait for out-of-sequence pitters Shinji Nakano and Tagliani to stop before he resumed the lead on lap 235. From there, it was just a matter of holding off Junqueira and Franchitti.

Behind the Scot, Tora Takagi matched a career best by finishing fourth, while Shinji Nakano made it a memorable day for Japanese drivers by taking fifth ahead of Scott Dixon.

Cristiano da Matta Lola-Toyota 250
Bruno Junqueira Lola-Toyota 250 +0.660s
Dario Franchitti Lola-Honda 250 +3.456s
Tora Takagi Lola-Toyota 250 +11.997s
Shinji Nakano Lola-Honda 250 +12.684s
Scott Dixon Lola-Toyota 250 +13.219s
Alex Tagliani Reynard-Honda 249
Tony Kanaan Lola-Honda 249
Paul Tracy Lola-Honda 249
Michel Jourdain Jr Lola-Ford 249
Mario Dominguez Lola-Ford 249
Townsend Bell Reynard-Toyota 248
Adrian Fernandez Lola-Honda 241
Christian Fittipaldi Lola-Toyota 181 lost wheel
Michael Andretti Lola-Honda 171 overheating
Patrick Carpentier Reynard-Ford 48 exhaust
Jimmy Vasser Lola-Ford 0 accident
Kenny Brack Lola-Toyota 0 accident