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'Crazy Driving' Fernandez wins incident-packed race
SURFERS PARADISE, Australia (Ticker) -- Adrian Fernandez took advantage of the misfortune of others to win his second race of the season at the Honda Indy 300, CART's penultimate race of the season. In a day of drama and yellow flags, Fernandez recorded his seventh career victory and picked up 21 points in the 2000 CART standings. He completed 59 laps in his Ford/Reynard before the race was timed out, winning by 0.324 seconds over Swedish rookie Kenny Brack while averaging 81.607 miles per hour. Fernandez, who started 17th, vaulted from fifth place to second in the championship. With 148 points, he trails series leader Gil de Ferran of Brazil by five heading into the season-ending Toyota 500 at California Speedway on October 29. "I tell you, you have to finish to be able to win (the championship)," Fernandez said. "Patrick Racing has struggled the second half of the season, both (teammate) Roberto (Moreno) and myself, to be able to qualify up front. We know we we can win races if we can qualify at the front, but we continue to fight even when we don't, and we get great fuel consumption." De Ferran could have wrapped up the championship but left the race in a multicar accident that eliminated the top three qualifiers on the first turn of the initial lap. Juan Montoya of Colombia started on the pole, alongside de Ferran and third-place qualifier and defending race champion Dario Franchitti of Scotland. Montoya was ahead in the first turn but was hit on the right rear wheel by the left front wheel of de Ferran. "I had a good start and had about a half car length lead going into the braking area for the first chicane," de Ferran said. "I knew it wasn't good enough to challenge Juan, so I backed off to give him room to make the corner. I don't know if he misjudged it a little bit or got hit from behind, but I got squeezed into the wall and his right rear collected my left front and I made contact with the wall. I pitted, but there was too much damage so we called it a day." Montoya's car spun into the wall before sliding back on the track. Meanwhile, Franchitti was hit in the rear by Jimmy Vasser and joined Montoya and de Ferran on the sidelines. "We made a good start," Franchitti said. "Then Gil and Juan came together and from that point on, I can't say what happened. I was checking up to avoid the incident when Jimmy had nowhere to go and hit me. I was worried about something like this." Vasser remained in the race -- leading in laps 24 and 25 – and finished third. "There was a lot of crazy driving out there," he said. "I don't know what happened at the start, but it was a huge mess. I've got to apologize to Dario, I hit him in the back. From my standpoint, it was a controlled race to the halfway point. I had a little too much understeer, but we fixed it on the first stop and the car was very good." Fernandez grabbed the lead for good when Vasser made his final pit stop on lap 43, and stayed at the front for a race-high 17 laps. He has scored points in 16 of his last 17 starts, dating to a victory at Rio de Janerio. In addition to Fernandez and de Ferran, four other drivers are still in contention for the championship title. Canadian Paul Tracy is tied with Brack with 134 points while Moreno and Vasser have 131. Brack already has clinched Rookie of the Year honors but has yet to win a race. "It was a tough race," he said. "The start was kind of a mess, but I had a trouble-free race. I tried everything I could, but if you're running within half a second or a second of the car in front of you, you're not going to get past. Unfortunately, Adrian didn't make any mistakes."
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