Race: Andretti's shock victory

That gave him enough of a margin to edge Jimmy Vasser, while Max Papis took third after running a similar strategy to Andretti's.

Cristiano da Matta led the first 32 laps and looked to be in command of the race until he was involved in a pit lane collision with Adrian Fernandez. Da Matta battled back to finish eighth, one spot ahead of Dario Franchitti. Only 10 of the 20 starters were running at the finish.

Most of the field pitted under yellow on Lap 18 and again on Lap 32. But Andretti inherited the lead by staying on track, and he ran there until he had to pit on Lap 49 under CART's pit stop window rule. That dropped him to 13th place.

The 29-lap fuel window dictated that the drivers who pitted on Lap 32 were forced to pit on Lap 61 under green. But the yellow immediately flew when Mario Dominguez buried his Lola-Ford in the Turn 1 tyres. Vasser seemed to dawdle a bit on his out lap while he waited to be picked up by the pace car, and that let Andretti and Papis get in and out of the pits before Vasser and the rest of the field came around.

Andretti led 42 of 90 laps in earning his record 42nd CART race win. The first of those wins came at Long Beach in 1986.

"When you're in the back, you have nothing to lose by gambling on strategy," said Andretti. "Our strategy helped us take the lead and it all worked out. We were quick at the end of the race when we needed to be."

Vasser was disappointed with himself after the race, though team boss Bobby Rahal accepted his share of the blame. "It was our fault," Rahal said. "We let him down. We slowed down under the yellow and it was too late when we told him to go."

"Our radio communication wasn't crystal clear and all I heard was a call to save fuel," Vasser commented. "But I know better than that - I should always hustle around to the pace car. For some reason, Michael and Max weren't really a factor in my mind - I was focused on Kenny [Brack] and the guys behind us.

"Michael used a funky strategy," he continued. "That shows that the fastest car doesn't always win."

Brack finished fourth ahead of Michel Jourdain Jr, who had another impressive run in Team Rahal's Michel Jourdain Jr.

Da Matta retains the lead of the CART Championship with 27 points, while Andretti now has 22 to place joint second with Jourdain. Franchitti has 20 points.

For full race results click here.