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CART: Montoya wins Gateway, Toyota takes fourth straight oval win

18 September 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

- Sunday's win is the fourth consecutive victory for Toyota on an oval (Juan Montoya at Milwaukee and Michigan, Cristiano da Matta at Chicago) and the fourth overall this season.

- Sunday's win is the third this year for Juan Montoya and the 10th of his Champ Car career. It's his sixth career oval victory and his fourth in eight career short oval events.

- Juan Montoya led 84 laps in extending his series-high laps led total to 788. Montoya has led 716 oval laps this season. His season total is the fourth-highest total for any driver in CART history. Montoya himself ranks third with the 954 he registered last year.

- Toyota has now led 795 of the 1620 oval laps run this season for 49%.

- Cristiano da Matta and Oriol Servia finished fourth and fifth, respectively, marking the first time in Toyota history that the manufacturer has placed three cars in the top five. In addition, Jimmy Vasser placed seventh to make it four Toyotas in the top seven.

- Sunday's fifth-place marks the best-ever oval finish for Oriol Servia.

- Cristiano da Matta's fourth-place finish is his seventh top-five showing of the season - the most ever for a Toyota-powered driver.

- Jimmy Vasser earned his fourth consecutive top-10 finish with his seventh Sunday.

- With his victory, Juan Montoya (106 points) moves into eighth place in the FedEx Championship Series points race just 31 behind leader Gil de Ferran. Cristiano da Matta moves into ninth with 100 points, three ahead of 10th-place Jimmy Vasser.

- On Saturday, Ganassi teammates Montoya and Vasser made Toyota history by sweeping the front row in qualifying.

Quotes

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "Juan ran a great race today and it's good to be back in the winner's circle. It's made even nicer because we had three in the top five and four in the top seven today. It's been a tough couple of weeks, but this gets us pointed back in the right direction."

Manufacturer's Championship: Ford 285; Honda 274; Toyota 237; Mercedes-Benz 63

Text Provided By John Prodica

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