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CART: Tightened FedEx Championship Series Race Heads to Milwaukee Mile for Miller Lite 225

4 June 1999

DETROIT - It took only one event for a FedEx Championship Series championship race which was shaping up as a runaway to become closely contested.

As the series heads to West Allis, Wis. for Round 7, Sunday's Miller Lite 225 (4 p.m. ET, one-hour tape delay, ABC-TV), four drivers are bunched within 16 points of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Juan Montoya, who leads with 69 points in the race for the PPG Cup, symbol of the FedEx Championship Series driving title.

It was Montoya (Target Honda Reynard) who took early command of the season by claiming consecutive victories at Long Beach, Nazareth and Rio de Janeiro, jumping out to a 15-point cushion following the latter triumph. Suddenly, following Michael Andretti's victory at Gateway International Raceway on Saturday, the points race has become as closely packed as the Champ Car field figures to be at Sunday's 225-mile challenge on the venerable Milwaukee Mile.

Andretti's (Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Ford Swift) victory vaulted him to third in the championship with 61 points. He trails Montoya and Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard), whose third-place effort at Gateway closed him to just four points (69-65) of Montoya after trailing by 15 (66-51) heading into the event.

Andretti could make another upward move this weekend. He is CART's all-time victory leader at Milwaukee, with five (1986, '87, '91, '92 and '96), and has six additional top-five finishes in his 14 career starts at The Mile.

Also prominent in the championship picture are Greg Moore (Player's Forsythe Racing Ltd. Mercedes Reynard) and Christian Fittipaldi (Big Kmart Ford Swift). Moore is a former winner at Milwaukee, having become the youngest race winner in CART history with his 1997 victory at age 22 years, 1 month and 10 days. He stands fourth in the championship with 53 points and has scored FedEx Championship Series points in 12 of his last 13 appearances on ovals, dating to the start of the 1998 season.

Fittipaldi is riding a streak of top-nine finishes which stands at eight, dating to last year at Australia. He remains the only driver to complete every lap (1,004) and every mile (1,405.571) of competition this season.

In addition to Andretti and Moore, former Milwaukee Mile winners in this weekend's field include Al Unser Jr. (Marlboro Mercedes Penske) in 1990 and '94; Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard) in 1995 and Jimmy Vasser (Target Honda Reynard) last year. Unser Jr. has scored six podium finishes in 16 career starts at Milwaukee while Tracy owns five top-seven efforts, including three podiums, in six career starts. Meanwhile, Vasser has scored PPG Cup points in all six of his career starts.

Following the Miller Lite 225, the FedEx Championship Series travels to Portland International Raceway for the Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 Presented by Texaco/Havoline, June 18-20.

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