CART: Fernandez Wins in Japan
28 March 1998
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Fernandez (Tecate/Quaker State/Labatt Reynard Ford) held off a hard-charging Al Unser Jr. - bidding for his first victory in 35 events - to earn a 1.086 second victory in Round 2 of the FedEx Championship Seris before an announced crowd of 55,000. He led 102 of the 201 laps to earn $100,000 for his first victory since 1996 at Toronto, site of his only previous CART triumph.
The victory moved Fernandez in the PPG Cup championship points lead for the first time in his six-year CART career. He and Greg Moore (Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes), who finished fourth Sunday, are tied with 29 points, but Fernandez ranks first in the championship based on his higher finish thus far this season.
Before battling Unser Jr., Fernandes has been tackling a flu bug the past few days.
"It was very strange. Two days ago, I started to feel weird in my stomach," said Fernandez, who joined Patrick Racing this season after spending the past two with the Tasman Motorsports Group. "Yesterday, after we got rained out, a group of us d rivers were back at the hotel playing cards. I went back to my room at about 3 p.m. and began losing fluids. This morning, I was feeling dizzy, so I went to see Dr. Olvey (CART Director of Medical Affairs) and he told me to make sure I keep taking fluids.
"After the warmup, the car felt good, and that gave me the adrenaline to keep going. Now, I'm going to make sure I get sick the next few races!"
Fernandez' upset stomach could not have improved much while Unser Jr. was in his mirrors.
"Al was very strong from about mid-race, and I knew he was going to be strong all the way," Fernandez said. "The best car I had was the one before the last pit stop. I told my guys Don't change anything.' We were saving fuel a little bit, and I knew he was catching me at that stage, just before Bobby Rahal's accident (lap 186). I was hoping the race would end under yellow, to be honest, But after I was able to open a good lead on Al on the last restart (lap 196) I felt like the race was ours. But not until then."
Unser Jr. (Marlboro Penske Mercedes) earned his best showing since finishing second at Milwaukee in 1996, was preparing for what he termed "a good old Saturday night sprint car race."
Al Unser Jr.
Gil de Ferran (Valvoline/Cummins Special Reynard Honda) drove a steady race while claiming his eight podium finish in his past 14 starts.
"I was trying really hard to bring Honda a win at its home track, but it was not to be," de Ferran said. "There was a lot of overtaking going on throughout the race, I was hoping to challenge Al and Adrian late in the race, but unfortunately, there were a few too many cars between me and Al. It was a great race though, and I hope the fans enjoyed it."
The race opened with Fernandez driving under polesitter Jimmy Vasser (Target Reynard Honda) to take the lead heading into Turn 1 of the opening lap, and the competition maintained a blistering pace for the first 100 laps on the 1.549 mile oval, which were completed at an average speed of 199.066 mph.
The Fed Ex Championship Series executes a quick turnaround with Round 3 as the teams prepare for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Sunday, April 5 on the streets of downtown Long Beach, CA.
The top ten finishers in the Budweiser 500k:
1. Adrian Fernandez
2. Al Unser Jr.
3. Gil de Ferran
4. Greg Moore
5. Paul Tracy
6. Tony Kanaan
7. Jimmy Vasser
8. Dario Franchitti
9. Andre Ribeiro
10. Mark Blundell
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