The 1999 Motorola 300 was the sixth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on May 29, 1999, on the Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
Michael Andretti was the winner.
Report Race Juan Pablo Montoya, looking for a record-equalling fourth consecutive series win, led from pole in the early stages of the race from Paul Tracy. After a caution caused due to a crash by Tarso Marques, the leaders came in for stops, and Roberto Moreno led on an alternate pit strategy. Moreno led for a period of time and then pitted, handing Tracy the lead ahead of Michael Andretti, although the second period of stops reversed the order, whereas Montoya lost a lap and dropped out of contention after a fuel miscalculation. Andretti led until another caution came after Tracy and teammate Dario Franchitti collided while battling for second. This led to another round of stops from certain drivers, including Andretti, whereas Hélio Castro-Neves stayed out and took the lead. Castro-Neves led comfortably till lap 189 when the final round of pit stops took place. Castro-Neves, being on older tires and having his last pit stop well back had to put on new tires and more fuel, as did all behind him. Andretti and others who pitted on lap 152, did not have to put on new tires, and also required less fuel, resulting in a much faster stop. This meant that Andretti led after the stops, with Moreno up to second, and P. J. Jones in third. Both Castro-Neves and Franchitti took advantage of the newer tires to pass everyone in front of them and move up to second and third behind Andretti. Andretti, however, was able to hold them off and take his first win in over a year, with Castro-Neves settling for second and Franchitti third.
Classification Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 236 2:25:35.829 11 20+1 2 9 Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 236 +0.329 3 16 3 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 236 +1.047 5 14 4 18 Roberto Moreno PacWest Racing 236 +5.735 19 12 5 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 236 +10.977 13 10 6 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 236 +11.203 6 8 7 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 236 +16.851 7 6 8 20 P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 236 +25.769 16 5 9 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 236 +25.981 8 4 10 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 236 +26.531 10 3 11 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 236 +27.305 1 2+1 12 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 235 +1 Lap 24 1 13 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 234 +2 Laps 25 14 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 234 +2 Laps 20 15 16 Shigeaki Hattori Bettenhausen Racing 229 +7 Laps 26 16 36 Alex Barron All American Racing 212 Electrical 23 17 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 185 Engine 12 18 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 161 Fuel Pressure 21 19 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 147 Contact 2 20 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 141 Electrical 22 21 40 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 132 Clutch 7 22 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 114 Contact 4 23 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 113 Contact 17 24 34 Dennis Vitolo Payton/Coyne Racing 62 Handling 27 25 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 36 Pit incident 15 26 3 Tarso Marques Team Penske 31 Contact 18 27 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 10 Contact 9
Caution flags Laps Cause1 Field not aligned12-26 Gordon (22) contact33-44 Marques (3) contact107-115 Gugelmin (17) stopped on track116-130 Carpentier (33), Herta (8) contact149-159 Tracy (26), Franchitti (27) contact186-193 da Matta (25) engine blow-up
Lap Leaders Laps Leader1-36 Juan Pablo Montoya37-74 Roberto Moreno75-85 Al Unser Jr.86-89 Roberto Moreno90-102 Paul Tracy103-104 Michael Andretti105 Patrick Carpentier106-109 Greg Moore110-151 Michael Andretti152-189 Hélio Castro-Neves190-236 Michael Andretti Driver Laps ledMichael Andretti 91Roberto Moreno 42Hélio Castro-Neves 38Juan Pablo Montoya 36Paul Tracy 13Al Unser Jr. 11Greg Moore 4Patrick Carpentier 1
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Juan Pablo Montoya 69 2 Dario Franchitti 65 3 Michael Andretti 61 4 Greg Moore 53 5 Christian Fittipaldi 53
References