Motegi: Junqueira dominates

It was a dream result for Toyota, which won its private battle with Honda to become the first Japanese manufacturer to win a Champ Car race on Japanese soil.

"I'm really happy to get the win for Toyota in their home country," Junqueira stated. "The engine was great all three days and reliable today. But I'm happy for the team and for myself as well because we started the season with two terrible races. We've been fast but we haven't finished."

Junqueira started from pole position but relinquished the early lead to Tony Kanaan and Paul Tracy, who staged an entertaining battle through the first two stints. But Tracy was eliminated while leading after 84 laps when a right front wheel bearing failed on his Lola-Honda.

Once Tracy retired, Kanaan led from Junqueira and Patrick Carpentier, but the Canadian was assessed a drive-through penalty for making a late move into the pits, while Kanaan's Honda engine let go on Lap 121.

"I don't know how they can call it dangerous when you're doing 40mph," fumed Carpentier. "It cost us two laps and that's really hard to make up."

"Three DNFs in a row is definitely a bad trend that we have to get over before we get into the meat of our schedule in June," countered Kanaan, who picked up a bonus point after leading for 72 laps. "I did my part. The team did its part. It just wasn't meant to be."

Only four cars remained on the lead lap at this stage, and that became three when rookie Townsend Bell crashed hard in Turn 4 on Lap 139 after brushing the wall a few laps earlier. The American was uninjured.

Junqueira was able to stroke it home for a hugely important home win for Toyota, while third place for Franchitti was the best result on the day for Honda. Thirteen of the 20 cars were running at the finish, with the woefully uncompetitive Newman/Haas duo of Christian Fittipaldi and Cristiano da Matta bringing up the rear eight and 15 laps off the pace respectively.

"I knew Tony and Paul would be fast, but that was okay," Junqueira said. "I just let them fight for the lead and I caught up when they hit traffic. I knew it was a long race and I just wanted to be ready to go for the win after the last pit stop. The only thing better than this would be to win the championship, but there is a long way to go."

Franchitti took over the CART championship lead by two points over Michel Jourdain Jr., who finished fifth at Motegi.

"That's great, but this is a race I really wanted to win for Honda," Dario said. "They've done such a great job and it's just disappointing that we made a mistake with strategy that cost us a lap to the leaders. We didn't realize that the race was going green until it was too late."

The Champ Car series now takes a six-week break with the next round set for Milwaukee in early June. In the meantime, seven CART drivers will attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

For full race results, click here.