Penske secures eighth crown

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2000 | 10:08 a.m.

Final standings in 2001 CART FedEx Series:

1. Gil de Ferran 168

2. A. Fernandez 158

3. Roberto Moreno 147

4. Juan Montoya 126

5. Kenny Brack135

6. Paul Tracy 134

FONTANA, Calif. -- Much like the fabled pinstripes of the New York Yankees, the Marlboro driver's suit carries with it a mystique throughout open-wheel racing.

Gil de Ferran has been wearing the Marlboro Team Penske uniform for only a year, but the 32-year-old Brazilian knows full well the history behind the tobacco company's rich racing history.

And now he wears the familiar red and white colors as the 2000 CART FedEx Series champion.

De Ferran drove his Marlboro Team Penske Reynard/Honda to a third-place finish Monday in the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway and secured his first CART championship -- and eighth for team owner Roger Penske.

"When I stepped inside this uniform, I was very, very aware of the people that wore it before and became great champions with it," de Ferran said. "I guess that's part of the reason that I said that this is a whole dream come true for me.

"Some very, very special people wore this (uniform): Emerson (Fittipaldi), Rick (Mears), Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost ... some great champions. For me to be sitting here today wearing this thing is just amazing."

And fortunate, in many respects. De Ferran narrowly avoided a pair of accidents in an enigmatic race that featured a staggering 59 lead changes among 12 drivers but saw only six cars running at the conclusion of the 250 laps.

The race, which was resumed Monday morning after being suspended Sunday due to rain, was slowed by 11 caution flags -- virtually every one brought about by blown engines that resulted in spins and/or crashes. No fewer than 15 of the 19 cars that failed to finish left the race because of engine failure.

Despite the fact the race was resumed on Monday morning, more than 40,000 fans turned out for the season finale.

Christian Fittipaldi's Ford-powered Lola came across the finish line .194 seconds ahead of Roberto Moreno and won the season finale and the $1 million first-place check. De Ferran also earned $1 million for the season-long championship.

De Ferran finished 10 points ahead of Adrian Fernandez in the championship, although the title was not decided until the closing laps when it became clear that de Ferran would not finish lower than sixth.

Fernandez battled an ill-handling car from the moment the race was resumed on lap 34 and wound up finishing fifth.

"Unfortunately, we didn't have the car today to give Gil a run for his money," Fernandez said. "I was trying, but I didn't have the speed or the balance on the (car); the car was pushing a lot. We tried to make some adjustments, but we just couldn't get it right.

"At the end, it was a matter of being patient and finishing the race in the best position we could."

De Ferran, who started on the pole after setting a world closed-course speed record with his Saturday qualifying lap of 241.428 mph, likewise had to be patient Monday.

"I just had to bide my time and stay out of trouble," de Ferran said of his conservative drive. "At one point, I said on the radio that if Fernandez was out of the race, I could drive and go racing rather than just hanging around with a car that you know is faster than anybody else's car out there."

Although de Ferran had watched the other four Honda-powered cars leave the race with blown engines, he said he never questioned his car's reliability in the 500-mile race.

"I wasn't having palpitations about the fact that my engine might blow up," de Ferran said. "I was quite relaxed and I didn't feel that the whole thing was about to end."

Fittipaldi, driving one of the five Ford-powered cars to finish the race, said he got everything out of his car.

"I was going as fast as I could, and I couldn't have gone another tenth of a mile an hour quicker," Fittipaldi said. "The car was very good. We played with it a little bit, but I just wanted to make sure that, at the end, we had a very neutral car.

"Since the car got here on Thursday and we started running Friday, we made very few changes. Everything was perfect for 500 miles, believe it or not."

The day was not so kind to two drivers who were involved in separate crashes. De Ferran's Penske Racing teammate, Helio Castroneves, and Las Vegas resident Alex Tagliani were transported to a local hospital for evaluation of injuries suffered in crashes after their engines let go.

According to Dr. Steve Olvey, CART's director of medical affairs, Castroneves was transported for precautionary x-rays and a possible CT scan of his spinal area after reporting neck pain and pain in his left ankle.

Tagliani, who finished sixth, also underwent x-rays, which revealed no fracture to the vertebrae. He was expected to undergo a CT scan Monday evening after reporting mid-back and abdominal pain.

Las Vegas' other representatives in the race didn't fare much better. Patrick Carpentier dropped out after 154 laps and finished 14th, Jimmy Vasser lasted only 71 laps and was 22nd and Paul Tracy made it only 23 laps (on Sunday, before the race was postponed) and finished 24th.

Tracy, who was one of four drivers who started Sunday's race with a chance to win the championship, finished fifth in points.