The 1999 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on May 2, 1999, on the Nazareth Speedway in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
Report Race Juan Pablo Montoya followed up on his win in Long Beach by taking his first CART pole in Nazareth, beating Hélio Castro-Neves by the minute margin of one-thousandth of a second. Montoya led the early stages of the race until Castro-Neves passed him in traffic on lap 39, however, a quicker pitstop by Montoya's Ganassi team got Montoya back out in front again. Montoya led for the next 95 laps, but Castro-Neves stayed on his tail all the time, the duo being much quicker than anyone else. Castro-Neves again passed Montoya on lap 145, only for the pit stops to reverse the order. On the resulting restart, Castro-Neves was caught out and passed by P. J. Jones, and later while trying to get the place back, he spun and lost two laps, before eventually crashing out. Montoya cruised to victory ahead of Jones and Paul Tracy, which also gave him the championship lead.
Classification Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 225 1:46:13.527 1 20+1+1 2 20 P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 225 +5.103 8 16 3 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 225 +5.880 4 14 4 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 225 +6.305 17 12 5 40 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 225 +16.401 9 10 6 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 225 +16.719 14 8 7 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 225 +20.624 12 6 8 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 225 +21.836 3 5 9 36 Alex Barron All American Racing 224 +1 Lap 18 4 10 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 224 +1 Lap 21 3 11 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 224 +1 Lap 11 2 12 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 224 +1 Lap 10 1 13 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 224 +1 Lap 7 14 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 224 +1 Lap 6 15 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 224 +1 Lap 13 16 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 224 +1 Lap 22 17 18 Mark Blundell PacWest Racing 223 +2 Laps 5 18 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 222 +3 Laps 15 19 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 220 +5 Laps 24 20 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 212 Oil Pressure 19 21 9 Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 175 Contact 2 22 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 77 Handling 16 23 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 51 Engine 20 24 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 44 Contact 23 WD 34 Dennis Vitolo Payton/Coyne Racing Withdrew WD 16 Shigeaki Hattori Bettenhausen Racing Withdrew
Caution flags Laps Cause12-17 Tracy (26) spin46-59 Unser Jr. (2) contact146-154 Jones (20) spin 171-176 Castro-Neves (9) spin179-199 Castro-Neves (9) contact
Lap Leaders
Laps Leader1-38 Juan Pablo Montoya39-49 Hélio Castro-Neves50-144 Juan Pablo Montoya145-148 Hélio Castro-Neves149-225 Juan Pablo Montoya Driver Laps ledJuan Pablo Montoya 210Hélio Castro-Neves 15
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Juan Pablo Montoya 45 2 Adrián Fernández 43 3 Greg Moore 40 4 Michael Andretti 40 5 Dario Franchitti 35
References