Franchitti sets warm-up pace
Dario Franchitti was fastest in the warm-up for the Marlboro 500, but CART title favourite Gil de Ferran was only a fraction shy of the Scot's pace in second position
Franchitti's Team Kool Green Reynard-Honda will start seventh for tonight's race at Fontana, but series leading Penske driver de Ferran has pole position for the 500-mile race which will decide the outcome of the 2000 championship battle.
This time last year Franchitti went into this race leading the championship, only losing to Juan Montoya on a tie-break. However, he has yet to win a race in 2000.
Long-shot title contender Paul Tracy was third fastest for Team Green, ahead of Team Rahal's Max Papis and Formula One-bound Ganassi driver Juan Montoya.
Adrian Fernandez, de Ferran's nearest rival for the championship, was only 21st fastest, one place ahead of Kenny Brack, who also has a mathematical chance of securing the crown.
The Marlboro 500 begins at 7.30pm UK time and Autosport.com will be bringing you full lap-by-lap live coverage, a full race report and all the news from the final round of this season's thrilling Fedex Championship Series.
1 Dario Franchitti Green Reynard-Honda 31.065s
2 Gil de Ferran Penske Reynard-Honda 31.133s
3 Paul Tracy Green Reynard-Honda 31.178s
4 Max Papis Rahal Reynard-Ford 31.205s
5 Juan Montoya Ganassi Lola-Toyota 31.325s
6 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 31.335s
7 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 31.336s
8 Helio Castroneves Penske Reynard-Honda 31.531s
9 Cristiano da Matta PPI Reynard-Toyota 31.535s
10 Jimmy Vasser Ganassi Lola-Toyota 31.608s
11 Mauricio Gugelmin PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 31.787s
12 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Reynard-Ford 31.820s
13 Roberto Moreno Patrick Reynard-Ford 31.858s
14 Alex Barron Coyne Lola-Ford 31.874s
15 Casey Mears Rahal Reynard-Ford 31.939s
16 Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Reynard-Mercedes 31.962s
17 Oriol Servia PPI Reynard-Toyota 31.998s
18 Memo Gidley Della Penna Reynard-Toyota 32.084s
19 Michel Jourdain Jr Bettenhausen Lola-Mercedes 32.088s
20 Alex Tagliani Forsythe Reynard-Ford 32.107s
21 Adrian Fernandez Patrick Reynard-Ford 32.142s
22 Kenny Brack Rahal Reynard-Ford 32.192s
23 Mark Blundell PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 32.687s
24 Shinji Nakano Walker Reynard-Honda 32.849s
25 Tarso Marques Coyne Swift-Ford 32.921s
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