Rio CART report

GP Telemar Rio 200. He passed pole sitter Christian Fittiapaldi in thefirst few minutes of the race, and with the exception of momentary losses
of position in the pits, he stayed in front of everyone else to pick up the
third win of his rookie year. Dario Franchitti finished in second place
followed by Fittipaldi, Max Papis and Tony Kanaan.

Said Montoya, " Chip [Ganassi] said to take it easy at the start, but I saw
a chance and I just went for it. After that, it was pretty close. We were
all running at the same pace and after the second pit stop, it got a bit
exciting. " It wasn't terrible exciting for the guys left in Montoya's
wake.
The race was weather delayed for nearly one hour this afternoon. The rains
that had plagued the track all weekend made one last appearance after the
morning warm up session. And when the race got underway, it wasn't smooth
sailing for the opening lap as the field failed to line up properly. But
race they did and Montoya shot past Franchitti and Fittipaldi for the lead
on the second lap.

The front of the field essentially remained the same for the first 30 laps,
with the exception of Jimmy Vasser who was forced to retire very early with
electrical problems. On Lap 29 Michael Andretti blew an engine causing the
first caution period of the day. The top ten drivers made their first round
of pit stops at that time and the race went green again seven laps later.

An engine on the #24 car of Scott Pruett brought our the next yellow flag
at Lap 49. Franchitti and Fittipaldi swapped places several times during
the course of the afternoon, and Franchitti even led a lap before Montoya
claimed his spot back. During the second round of pit stops, an out of pit
sequence Al Unser Jr. led ten laps before he was forced to make his last
stop of the day. At the end of the day, Montoya led 93 of the 108 laps of
the race. Eighteen of the original twenty seven drivers finished the race,
fifteen of them on the lead lap.

Montoya is on his way to breaking just about every record in the CART
record book this season. He was the first rookie since 1996 to win an event
his rookie year, the last man to do it was his predecssor Alex Zanardi.
Montoya is now the first rookie to ever win three consecutive races in a
rookie year, and the season is only one quarter of the way finished. He has
commanded events on both oval tracks and street courses and both appeared
to come to him with ease. Target team owner Chip Ganassi has three
back-to-back championships to his name currently and the addition of
Montoya to the team will make that fourth title a very real possiblilty.

Franchitti is currently second in points behind Montoya. He did not have a
good day even though he finished on the podium for the third time this
season. The race was lost ot him on Lap 3 when the gearshifter broke, it
was particularly troublesome for him on the restarts. He summed up the day,
"It's nice to have the points, but second is not why we're here. "

Pole sitter Fittipaldi admitted the team set the car up wrong for this
track. While it was a disappointment not pick up his first win in his home
country, he is now third in the points and looking forward to his best
season ever. Greg Moore resides in fourth place in the championship battle
followed by Adrian Fernandez.

The FedEx CART Championship series takes a one week break before moving on
to two more oval events at St. Louis and one week later at the Milwaukee
Mile.