Kanaan wins heart-stopping race

The US 500 was a thriller from start to finish. For the first half of the race it was all about Michael Andretti and Juan Montoya, the pair running side by side for many laps and exchanging positions frantically. Only full course yellows allowed the others to catch up.

After around 70 laps, two other cars came into play. Max Papis had run solidly in the top six and took advantage of the battle between Montoya and Andretti to sweep past both of them and into the lead. The Italian had never even led a CART race before, but had been a star in the underpowered Arciero-Wells car in 1998. His first season with Team Rahal had been unspectacular up to now, but he pulled away easily as his pursuers held each other up.

Kanaan was also in the frame and was into 3rd place for a while, but had to make an extra pit stop after the Gurney flap on his rear wing worked loose and had to be removed. Now out of sequence on pit stops, he decided to make an adjustment to his race strategy.

'I thought, okay, now I just go absolutely flat-out,' he explained.

Making smart use of the full course yellows to get back onto the lead lap, Kanaan was able to run a lighter car for much of the race and make shorter stops, effectively having switched from a six stop plan to a seven stopper.

Some incredibly fast laps in the closing stages saw him emerge from his final service between Papis and Montoya in 2nd place.

The battle for the podium spots in the second half of the race was unbelievable, as Montoya and Andretti were joined by the Team KOOL Green cars of Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti, plus Andretti's team mate Christian Fittipaldi. Montoya was the fastest of the group but lost his rear brakes, causing him to twice overshoot his pit ad lose a lot of time. On both occasions he was able to make up the ground on the track.

The Columbian rookie drove a sensational race to increase his championship lead. This was his first ever 500 mile superspeedway race but he made intelligent use of the lapped traffic to scythe back through the field after his slow stops. With 20 laps to go, he was ahead of the frantic Newman-Haas/Team Green quartet and closing on Kanaan.

Papis looked secure in the lead. He had moved ahead on lap 84 and stayed there apart from pit stops, and a brief moment when Andretti nosed ahead but was soon put back in his place. But just one corner away from his first CART win, almost three years since he joined the series, Papis' car slowed dramatically, out of fuel. The team had relied on guesswork after their fuel meter failed, and their calculations were just off the mark. The gutted Italian finished 7th, but it was hardly compensation.

Kanaan had been catching the leader but looked set to stay in 2nd until Papis slowed. With Montoya on his tail, Kanaan perhaps eased off too much on the home straight, nearly allowing the Columbian to steal the glory, but he held on by mere fractions of a second.

'Hey Mum, I didn't crash this time!' he said as he got out of the car in Victory Circle, a reference to Long Beach in April where he shunted out of the lead under heavy pressure from Montoya. One of the most popular people in CART and an undoubted champion of the future, this was a richly deserved victory. Montoya also drove brilliantly, although this is taken for granted nowadays, while Papis will surely have other chances to win.

The battle for 3rd was finally resolved in favour of Paul Tracy, ironically the man who looked least likely to take the place for much of the race. Andretti and Franchitti had run parallel for almost all of the last 100 laps, but Tracy drove an intelligent race to pip them both on the final lap.

Adrian Fernandez was 6th after occasionally looking threatening, while Jimmy Vasser was a disappointed 9th. The polesitter had run in the top ten throughout, and put on an incredible charge in the last 30 laps, moving up from 8th to 3rd with remarkable ease. Unfortunately a problem in his final pit stop meant he didn't have enough fuel to go the distance and had to pit for a 'splash & go.'

Almost everyone else retired. Richie Hearn had his best run of the year, in the lower half of the top ten until electrical problems ended his afternoon. His fellow Toyota users Arciero-Wells could easily have taken a pair of top five finishes. Both Scott Pruett and Christiano da Matta ran with the leaders and looked capable of winning, only for Pruett to crash out of 5th in the late stages and his rookie team mate to have mechanical problems.

It was also an encouraging race for Penske. Ditching the Lola's in favour of a pair of PC27's again, the team looked like its old self for the first time in 1999. Al Unser Jr moved rapidly up into the top six but struggled to get the car handling well in traffic as the track temperature rose. He was still on course for a top ten placing until a late engine problem. His temporary partner Alex Barron looked just as fast in his first event for the Marlboro team, but dropped back after getting a penalty for a pit lane violation, and then had his own engine trouble.

Very few drivers crashed, but PJ Jones did his career prospects no good at all by attacking the wall in turn three. Gil de Ferran had already done likewise, trying too hard to hold off the leaders and avoid being lapped. He also accounted for Mauricio Gugelmin, who ran over his debris. The second PacWest car was never in the hunt, Roberto Moreno suffering from bizarre handling problems in his last race for the team.

A mixed day for Gerry Forsythe, owner of both the McDonald's and Player's teams. While his Canadian duo Greg Moore and Patrick Carpentier never looked like challenging for the top ten, his newly acquired Brazilian superstar took an excellent and mature victory. It was the first win for the team since Forsythe took over and brought in McDonald's backing. Formerly known as Tasman, they hadn't won anything since Andre Ribeiro triumphed in this very race back in 1996. If they can recapture this kind of form on the road courses, expect plenty more success over the rest of the season.

Result from Michigan: