Monday, April 6, 1998 | 8:47 a.m.
It seems when dramatic finishes are being played out in the FedEx Championship Series, those two are usually in the center of things, with Herta always getting the short end of the stick.
The situation first surfaced in the season-ending race at Monterey, Calif., in 1996 when Zanardi made one of the greatest passes in Indy-car history, depriving Herta of his first CART victory with the last lap move on the inside of the famed Corkscrew turn at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Last September, as the often spectacular and sometimes headstrong Italian drove to the PPG Cup championship, the two locked horns at Vancouver, where Zanardi bumped Herta into a tire wall coming back from 23rd to finish fourth. Herta was furious and Zanardi was fined $25,000 for rough driving and put on probation for the rest of the season.
So nobody was very surprised Sunday when Zanardi came back from 18th and a lap down to catch and pass Herta for the lead two laps from the end of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
At Monterey, the pass was totally unexpected by Herta. That wasn't true on Sunday when Zanardi, on new tires, chased him down.
"I fought him off as long as I possibly could," said Herta, who also saw Scottish driver Dario Franchitti follow Zanardi past in the third turn of lap 104 to take second place in the 105-lap event on the temporary street circuit in downtown Long Beach.
Zanardi made his final stop on lap 72 and got fuel and four fresh tires. The rest of the top runners had to make quick stops in the final 15 laps for fuel. Herta made his last stop on lap 94, took no new tires and wound up back on top, ahead of Franchitti and Zanardi, on lap 99. Zanardi took second place two laps later.
"We just took a splash of fuel and hoped that would be enough," Herta said. "If we had taken the time to get tires, we might have lost it in the pits anyway."
Zanardi, who started the season with a third-place finish at Homestead, Fla., and then crashed and finished 23rd in Japan, was jubilant after taking the checkered flag Sunday, crossing the finish line 2.917-seconds ahead of Franchitti.
The winner drove slowly around the 1.574-mile street course, nearly standing up in the cockpit of his Honda-powered Reynard, punching the air repeatedly with his right fist as about 100,000 spectators stood and cheered.
The victory moved him to third in the season standings, trailing leader Adrian Ferandez by seven points and runner-up Greg Moore by three.
Instead of bitterness from Herta, Zanardi got praise.
"Alex raced fair and we didn't have the tires to go at him," he said. "I wasn't upset about Alex passing me. He drove a great race and I congratulate him."
Zanardi was apparently touched by those words.
"A lot of controversy has taken the two of us in the past," he said. "I'm a warrior. Sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes I do the right thing. Destiny has brought us together. We always seem to be battling."
The race was a wild one, with seven full-course caution flags for 29 laps.
Bobby Rahal, who started on the outside of the front row, ran hard into the rear of Michael Andretti and stalled in the hairpin on lap 25. Several drivers got caught behind him, including Zanardi.
While he was waiting, Scott Pruett drove over the front of Zanardi's car, bending the left front steering bracket. His Target-Chip Ganassi Racing crew bent the bracket back into place.
"More or less it was almost right," he said. "The car just kept on going."
On lap 31, Hiro Matsushita tangled with Gaulter Salles in the hairpin. They blocked the track and the area became a virtual parking lot, with 10 cars, including Zanardi's, sitting and losing time while safety officials worked to clear the jam.
This time, Zanardi stalled his engine while he waited, losing a lap.
archive
