Las Vegan third in Miller 200

Monday, June 2, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- Too bad Jimmy Vasser isn't a gambling man.

The Las Vegas resident drove his Target Reynard-Honda from the 12th starting position to a third-place finish in Sunday's CART Miller 200 at the Milwaukee Mile on only two fuel stops.

Young Greg Moore of Can ada also gambled that two fuel stops would be enough and parlayed that risky strategy into his first CART victory, an 0.348-second margin over hard-charging Michael Andretti.

"I live in Las Vegas and I wouldn't have taken the odds that I could have finished (without a third fuel stop)," said Vasser, the defending CART Series champion. "All the credit goes to (team manager) Tom Anderson and (engineer) Julian Robertson for working out the fuel calculations."

Moore's team also did its fuel mileage math to perfection.

"I really did have to conserve a lot of fuel there (the final 10 laps)," said Moore, who became the youngest driver to win a CART race at 22 years, 1 month and 10 days. "Michael started catching us at the end and my (crew) said, 'I think you've got enough (fuel) so you'd better go, because otherwise Michael is going to pass you.

"I cranked down to fifth gear and started to go. I think we might be out of fuel now because I felt it chuck a little bit coming down the pits (toward victory circle). That was cutting it real close, but it was a good gamble for us."

Moore and series points leader Paul Tracy waged a day-long battle for supremacy of the quaint mile oval, with the drivers trading the lead four times. Moore, in his Player's Racing Team Reynard-Mercedes, regained the lead on lap 135 when Tracy pitted and held off Andretti for the checkered flag.

The fuel situation notwithstanding, Moore's biggest concern during the final 30 laps was holding off defending race champion Andretti, who moved from fifth place to second with 18 laps remaining and continued to close on Moore until the checkered flag.

"I had (lapped traffic) in front of me and when I was in traffic, I had a bit of an understeer. I knew that Michael was catching up quite quickly," said Moore, who last took on fuel on lap 108.

"It was a great race. I was racing with Michael and Jimmy there at the end, who are two of the most experienced guys out there. At the beginning, I was racing with Paul -- another super tough guy to race with -- so I think for me, it was one of my best drives because I didn't let anybody intimidate me."

Andretti, who had the strongest car over the final 30 laps but couldn't get under Moore on a last-ditch pass attempt with 10 laps to go, was the only driver among the top three who made three fuel stops.

"I was pushing as hard as I could because I knew Greg was going to be close on fuel. But unfortunately we just ran out of time," Andretti said.

"It was a little frustrating because we started so far back (14th) and it took us a while to get to where we were able to fight with the leaders."

The average speed for the race was 119.597 mph and Moore's winning margin was a record for a CART-sanctioned event at Milwaukee. There were five lead changes between two drivers (Moore and Tracy), with Moore leading 104 laps. There were four caution periods, all for wrecks, for 52 laps. But there were no injuries.

Vasser, who has scored PPG Cup points in all seven races this season and stands in sixth place, said he hoped Sunday's podium finish will kick-start his series title defense.

"We had a car that was just so-so," said Vasser, who extended his running-at-the-finish streak to 24 races. "It had a little too much understeer but it also felt like it could go loose. Target/Chip Ganassi Racing has just been terrible on one-mile ovals since its inception and ... for us to stay on the lead lap and not go a lap down was a goal of ours today.

"I'm happy with today's run. We've left a lot of points on the table this season up until now ... so maybe this is the beginning of something new and we can start moving on the championship."

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