Cleveland: Carpentier wins

It looked like it would be a two-man race to the finish, but Franchitti's Honda engine let go on the 69th lap. That left Carpentier with a large lead over Michael Andretti, but the American whittled it down to 7.5 seconds prior to making his final pit stop on Lap 97. But Carpentier used a seven-second final stop on Lap 102 to extend his advantage, which grew to 17.059 seconds at the finish as Andretti battled problems in the last few laps.

"The Reynard chassis worked great all weekend," remarked Carpentier after his second career CART race win, but first on a road course. "I have to lift my hat to my guys. We had a tough weekend in Toronto, but we bounced back. Ford-Cosworth did a fantastic job to improve the traction control - the car just ran so well.

"We've been fast in a few races, but this weekend we put it all together."

Franchitti ran a short second stint, while Carpentier ran the 27-lap maximum and then used a short-fill to turn a one-second deficit into a 3.7-second lead. Dario was slowly reducing the gap until he pulled into the pits trailing a pool of oil.

"We were looking good," Franchitti reported. "I think Pat short-filled to gain the advantage, but we were staying close despite the fact that my car wasn't as good on that stint. We planned to short-fill on the next stop, but we never got there."

Andretti had his best race of the season since he took a somewhat fortuitous win at Long Beach. His Lola-Honda was losing its left-rear winglet even before his engine started to tighten up in the dying laps.

"My engine was going south in the last few laps," he said. "That Honda just hung in there long enough and so did I. The last 15 laps were tough."

Paul Tracy and Kenny Brack posted strong drives to finish third and fourth after qualifying in the midfield.

"We didn't have a very good first stop and lost about three positions," Tracy related. "I had to fight back, and I lost some ground to Michael, but I made it up over the rest of the race. It was certainly a great day for Team Green, with Michael second and me third."

Carpentier's Forsythe Racing team-mate Alex Tagliani finished fifth, while Jimmy Vasser made a strong comeback drive to sixth after being punted off at the first turn by Tora Takagi. Those two resumed, but Townsend Bell and Mario Dominguez were eliminated when the back of the field stacked up.

Other notable retirements included Bruno Junqueira and Christian Fittipaldi., meaning that da Matta left Cleveland with the same 50-point lead he started the race with. Junqueira and Franchitti remain second and third in the standings, while Carpentier jumped into a tie for fourth with Michel Jourdain.

Patrick Carpentier Reynard-Ford 115 laps 120.988mph
Michael Andretti Lola-Honda 115 +17.059s
Paul Tracy Lola-Honda 115 +28.295s
Kenny Brack Lola-Toyota 115 +32.536s
Alex Tagliani Reynard-Honda 115 +37.152s
Jimmy Vasser Lola-Ford 115 +50.604s
Tora Takagi Lola-Toyota 115 +51.896s
Tony Kanaan Lola-Honda 115 +57.236
Michel Jourdain Jr. Lola-Ford 114
Shinji Nakano Lola-Honda 114
Adrian Fernandez Lola-Honda 111
Christian Fittipaldi Lola-Toyota 96 mechanical
Bruno Junqueira Lola-Toyota 87 mechanical
Dario Franchitti Lola-Honda 69 engine
Scott Dixon Lola-Toyota 27 driveshaft
Cristiano da Matta Lola-Toyota 21 engine
Mario Dominguez Lola-Ford 1 accident
Townsend Bell Reynard-Toyota 1 accident