Montoya pips Franchitti in traffic jam

At the new 1.1-mile oval built by his team boss Chip Ganassi, Montoya had to work hard to fend off Dario Franchitti in the closing stages.

Polesitter Max Papis led at the start and pulled away quite easily.

Dario Franchitti and Jimmy Vasser ran second and third while front row starter Mark Blundell went backwards with handling problems.

Meanwhile, Montoya and Michael Andretti were working up through the field from lowly starting positions.

By lap 70, they had caught Papis, and the Italian soon found himself pushed down to third place by the hard-charging duo.

When Roberto Moreno tapped Jan Magnussen into the wall, the resulting full course yellow provided a perfect opportunity for the leaders to pit.

The Ganassi crew produced their usual excellent stop and Montoya held the lead, but Papis lost a lot of time and would rejoin sixth.

Franchitti had always been in contention, and rejoined between Montoya and Andretti after the first stops.

His team-mate Paul Tracy benefited from a forceful drive and a spectacularly quick pit stop to leap into fourth, having start 18th.

Both the KOOL Green cars were on the move at the restart, Franchitti taking the lead from Montoya and Tracy overtaking Andretti for third.

However, while the leaders gave each other room, Tracy and Andretti tangled as the latter tried to fight back, sending them both into the wall and out of the race.

After a long yellow, the race was finally on again. Montoya was soon back in front, and even pulled out a 7s lead at one stage.

But as the race neared its conclusion, the Columbian found himself being badly blocked by PJ Jones, allowing Franchitti to close in.

The Scot got alongside on two occasions, but Montoya clung to the inside line and stayed ahead.

When Roberto Moreno decided to unlap himself from Franchitti and get between the leaders, the issue was settled and Montoya won by 0.7s.

Jimmy Vasser held off Papis and Helio Castro-Neves in a tight battle for third, the latter running with the leaders all day but never able to make much of an impression.

Patrick Carpentier ran consistently to take sixth, but his Forsythe team-mate Greg Moore was an early retirement with an engine problem.

PJ Jones did well to take seventh but made himself massively unpopular by blocking the leaders.

Jan Magnussen was one of the stars of the race. This was his first ever competitive outing on an oval, but he sliced through the midfield in the early stages.

Soon up to 10th, he was challenging Jones for ninth when a tap from Moreno sent him into the turn one wall.

Moreno spun, but was able to rejoin unscathed, a clever pit strategy allowing him to finish in the top ten.

Further back, Blundell never featured in the race, dropping out of the top ten as he struggled to tame his oversteering car.

Like his team-mate Mauricio Gugelmin, he would retire with a mechanical problem.

Tony Kanaan never got his car hooked up properly, while Christiano da Matta suffered a puncture early on.

Though he rejoined, his suspension was obviously damaged in some way. He pitted seven times, but nothing could be done and he failed to score any points.

Hard luck too for Gil de Ferran, who somehow contrived to pick up three pit lane speeding penalties, and for Al Unser Jr, making good progress up the order until his engine failed.

Results from Chicago: