Preview: Big money up for grabs

The 2-mile Fontana oval is the second superspeedway race of the season and has a reputation for providing thrilling races, with lots of overtaking and breath-taking speeds. Last year, Gil de Ferran set a new closed-course world speed record of 241.428mph on his way to pole position. He drove a tactical race to third, which was enough to clinch his first CART title.

But this year the Team Penske star has already wrapped up the title and is going all out to win the $1 million prize. "Last year at the Marlboro 500, our strategy was biased to win the championship versus the race," said the Brazilian. "The big difference this year is that we can play our cards to win the race, since we clinched the championship in Australia.

"It's an unpredictable race and it's not going to easy by any means. We had a good set-up last year, and even though the aerodynamic rules are different this year which may affect our set-up, I'm confident that we can be competitive."

Team Rahal's Kenny Brack will be looking to end his season on a high after the disappointment of losing out in the championship battle. The Swede, who has already done enough to be confirmed as the series runner-up, has the best record on the ovals of any other driver this year with four wins.

Helio Castroneves and Michael Andretti will decide third place in the championship and are tied on points going into the event.

Newman-Haas racer Christian Fittipaldi won at Fontana last year, but has yet to take a victory this season. If he or any other driver was to break their season duck in California, it would set a new CART record for the number of winners in a season. A total of 11 drivers have won races so far in 2001.