CART: Crashes knock Toyotas from Milwaukee battle; Dixon gets second podium

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

June 4, 2001

- Scott Dixon earned his second podium finish in five career CART starts and his third top-10 finish of the season. The rookie moves up to sixth in the Champ Car points with 38 points overall.

- Three different Toyota-powered entries were knocked out of the Miller Lite 225 due to accidents - all while running in the top five. For the second consecutive race, Cristiano da Matta was taken out on the first lap by a spinning car. In today's case, Helio Castroneves pinched Kenny Brack going into the first turn, made contact and spun - with da Matta just getting clipped by the spinning Castroneves and knocked out of the race. Da Matta remains third in the championship.

Jimmy Vasser was knocked out of the race as he tried to lap rookie Tora Takagi and the first-year driver made contact with him. Takagi was excluded from the race by the chief steward after the incident. Vasser was running a close third at the time. Vasser remains in a tie for third.

Christian Fittipaldi also fell victim in trying to lap a rookie late in the race as he made contact with Nicolas Minassian with less than 25 laps remaining while running fourth.

- The 20-year-old Dixon continues to lead the CART Rookie of the Year standings with 38 points - 15 points ahead of Target rookie Bruno Junqueira. Minassian is third.

- Despite Scott Dixon's third-place finish, Toyota drops to second in the Manufacturer's Championship, just two points behind Honda - and 11 ahead of third-place Ford.

- After finishing fifth at the Indianapolis 500 a week ago, Bruno Junqueira earned his first CART top-five finish with a fourth at Milwaukee today. It's his third top-10 finish in five races this season.

- Mauricio Gugelmin's 10th-place finish is his best of the 2001 campaign and gives the Brazilian his second points-paying finish of the season.

- Four Toyota-powered drivers now rank in the top 10 in the CART drivers points (da Matta and Vasser are tied for third, Dixon is in sixth and Junqueira 10th) - with Fittipaldi in 11th, just one point out of 10th.

Quotes:

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "It was a bittersweet day with Scott (Dixon) and the PacWest team doing a great job to earn a podium finish (third). Yet, we had a number of cars that ran really well only to be crashed out. We really thought we had a chance to win this one, but when you lose three cars that were all running in the top-four when they went out, it makes the task much tougher."

Text provided by John Prodica

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