Tracy wins at Houston

Monday, Sept. 27, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

Las Vegan Paul Tracy was the Team Kool Green goat last year at Houston because of a collision that almost cost teammate Dario Franchitti a victory.

As Tracy looked at the gold cowboy boot Sunday that was his trophy for winning the second Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston, he remembered that frustrating mistake.

"It's nice to be holding this boot in my hand instead of having it up my butt," Tracy said.

Tracy didn't make any mistakes this year, finishing more than 13 seconds ahead of Franchitti to win the downtown street race and make Team Kool Green undefeated in two trips to Texas.

It also was a good day for the Newman/Haas team of Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi, who finished third and seventh, respectively, in the race that bears the name of their team sponsor.

But it was Tracy's day of redemption, and the only thing that was going to keep the 30-year-old Canadian from winning Sunday was a possible team order to let Franchitti move ahead of him to take the checkered flag.

Franchitti is battling Juan Montoya for the 1999 CART FedEx championship, and he could have gained an additional four points by finishing first Sunday. Team owner Barry Green considered giving the order to have Tracy let Franchitti go by, but Green decided against it with three laps to go in the 100-lap event.

"Now I just hope we don't lose (the championship) by four points," Green said. "But Paul worked so hard. He deserved it."