Race No. 6
Motorola 300
Gateway International Raceway — Madison, Illinois
May 27-29, 1999
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When It's Your Day, It's Your Day
Andretti wins action-packed Motorola 300
© 1999 SpeedCenter
Just weeks ago, we complained about dull races and predictable outcomes. The race at Gateway actually seemed to be shaping up to be one more of these, with Juan Montoya taking pole on Friday and leading the race from the green flag.
Several early yellow flags prompted some of the cars in the back of the field to pit early and out of sequence with the leaders. This strategy put Roberto Moreno, and then Al Unser Jr. in front of the pack for dozens of laps. But Juan Montoya didn't just automatically come back the lead when those drivers finally pitted again. Montoya was in trouble. He had a strong push and was even passed by Tracy. For the first time in many races, he didn't have thefastest car. His best lap was half a second behind Helio Castro-Neves, who was tearing up the track in the second half of the race. Montoya's bid for a top finish ended when he missed his pit entry and ran out of fuel before coasting into his pit stall. This put him a lap down and out of contention for a fourth win in a row.
The action was dominated by Helio Castro-Neves. In the final stage of the race, he pitted for fuel and tires and dropped out of the lead. In the subsequent chase to regain the lead, he demonstrated quite clearly that one can pass on this oval, even with speedway wings. The St. Louis crowd cheered for Castro-Neves - Hogan being the local team, and Helio the underdog was chasing the driver with the most wins in CART history, Michael Andretti.
Castro-Neves drove to the front in a style the spectators won't forget for some time. He put drivers like Dario Franchitti behind him as if they were lapped cars. However, once he ran up to Andretti, he just couldn't movepast him. Traffic may have been an issue, as well as experience on Andretti's end of things. Andretti does know how to lead a race - he now has led a total of 5,975 career laps in CART competition - that's well over 2000 more than the next best lap leader.
The race was just short enough for Andretti to get across the finish line first, after he took on fuel only during the last stop to gain track position. His tires lasted long enough to keep Castro-Neves at bay and to win the event - Andretti's first win on Firestone tires. It was definitely Michael Andretti's day for a change: plagued by bad luck in recent years, this win based on a pit gamble is a noticable change of fortunes for Andretti.
Dario Franchitti managed to finish third, in spite of having contact with Paul Tracy. Finishing fourth was Roberto Moreno, the big surprise of the race. Moreno led the race for 42 laps in the early laps, extending his lead every lap while he was out in front. He lost that lead when he had to stop for fuel, being out of pit sequence with the early leaders of the race. But a 300 mile race is long enough to let drivers come to the front who are simply faster than others, and Moreno did make his way to the top late in the race. The charging Castro-Neves and Dario Franchitti moved past him withonly a few laps to go, putting him in fourth and just off the podium. Moreno, whose job description should read "CART substitute driver of choice," was filling in for the injured Mark Blundell, and left the track minutes after the finish in order to attend another race in the midwest the following day. Robby Gordon crashed out early in the race and was already on his way to that race track.
The championship points chase got tighter again: Andretti, Franchitti and Moore all reduced the gap to Montoya, who still leads the championship as the teams get ready for another oval race with speedway wings at Milwaukee. Gateway is a track where the higher speed of the cars (wide curve radius and steeper banking than Nazareth and Milwaukee) apparently produced enough downforce to let drivers run side-by-side and make passing moves. The braking zone into turn one provided a solid passing opportunity. Gateway is definitely a track suited for the use of speedway wings.