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Padding the lead Brack takes third victory of season with Chicago triumph
Updated: Monday July 30, 2001 12:06 AM
CICERO, Ill. (AP) -- It all came down to one gutsy pass for Kenny Brack. Brack, working hard to end a two-race slump that cut into his CART points lead, was behind leader Helio Castroneves as the field approached a restart midway through the Target Grand Prix on Sunday at Chicago Motor Speedway. As the green flag waved, the car of Max Papis, Brack's Team Rahal teammate, slowed Castroneves as Papis tried to regain a lost lap. Brack slipped his Ford-powered Lola below the leader's Reynard-Honda and got two tires under the white line at the inside edge of the track and onto the green apron. CART officials had told the drivers prior to the race that only two wheels would be allowed in the painted area. "It was Max who opened the door for that one," Brack said. "He got by Helio and Helio moved down, but not all the way to the white line. "CART told us what we could do and I practiced that move this morning. That was big for us." Castroneves, who wound up seventh, bristled after the race.
"On the restart, Max made a ridiculous move and cut in front of me and I had to lift to avoid contact. I couldn't risk not finishing the race and losing points." Papis finished 13th, the last driver on the lead lap. Although Brack watched as several other drivers moved in front of him for a while with different fuel strategies, he wound up driving away from the field at the end and set a race record with a speed of 132.031 mph. After a pair of no-points finishes, the convincing win by Brack moved him from a three-point lead on Dario Franchitti coming into the race to a 22-point edge on Helio Castroneves, now second in the CART series. Brack, who was CART's top rookie last year after moving over from the rival Indy Racing League, was the strongest entry on the 1.039-mile track most of the day and has yet to finish worse than fourth in a CART race on a one-mile oval. "The Team Rahal car is like a dream," Brack said, grinning. "It's like stealing candy from children with this car on one-mile ovals." It was a strategic race for Brack, who made the 225-lap distance with two well-placed pit stops and drove away with his third CART victory -- all this season. Patrick Carpentier, last week's winner in Michigan, wound up second, 4.48 seconds -- a full straightaway -- behind Brack. There was little passing on the one-groove track, but Brack made the winning move on the restart on lap 122. He slipped back into the pack for a while after his second pit stop as several drivers, including Franchitti, made early pit stops on lap 118 during the caution period, hoping to stay out front late in the race with quick splash-and-go stops. The strategy didn't work for any of them. Franchitti, who might have had a chance of making it work, made a very quick stop on lap 181 but saw his hopes dashed when CART penalized him a stop-and-go on the next lap for speeding as he left the pit lane. He wound up 15th and fell to third in the standings, 23 points behind Brack. Gil de Ferran, last year's champion, finished third, followed by rookie Scott Dixon, Memo Gidley, Alex Tagliani and Castroneves. Pole-winner Tony Kanaan and his teammate, Alex Zanardi, were eighth and ninth, respectively after running among the leaders earlier in the day.
It was a brutally humid day that made racing harder for the drivers and helped keep the crowd to a three-year low of about 40,000. There were only two caution flags in the race, one brought out by a harmless spin by Michel Jourdain Jr. on lap 113, and the other another non-contact spin by Mauricio Gugelmin on lap 201. Brack made his final pit stop on lap 151 and fell all the way to 12th. As the drivers who had pitted earlier made their stops, though, Brack moved steadily toward the front. He finally retook the lead for good when Dixon and Tagliani made their last pit stops on lap 207, during the caution following Gugelmin's accident The green flag waved again on lap 212 and Brack's Ford-powered Lola shot out to a big lead as the drivers in the next four positions battled side-by-side. Gidley got caught behind teammate Bruno Junqueira's lapped car and wound up slipping from second to fifth as Brack simply drove away. After just one lap under green, Brack held a 4.331-second edge on Carpentier, who was never able to mount a challenge.
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