The 1999 Miller Lite 200 was the fourteenth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on August 15, 1999, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Report
Race Dario Franchitti, the championship leader took his first pole of the season after the Saturday qualifying was washed out due to rain, which meant that the grid was decided by Friday qualifying times. Franchitti led away at the start followed by Bryan Herta, although Paul Tracy soon passed Herta and took second. The Team Green duo of Franchitti and Tracy then pulled away from the field, building a lead of 12 seconds. After the first round of pit stops, Franchitti and Tracy stayed 1-2, but Juan Pablo Montoya was up to third after a quick stop. He was 15 seconds behind the Team Green cars, but he was unfazed by that and set about closing it down, and did so rapidly such that the top three cars were nose to tail before the second round of pit stops. Franchitti pitted, handing Tracy the lead, but that did not last for long as he was immediately passed by Montoya. Montoya and Tracy both made their second pit stops and both joined ahead of Franchitti before a caution due to Luiz Garcia Jr.'s spin bunched the field up. Tracy and Franchitti were quicker than anyone else on the track, but both were absolutely no match for Montoya, who set a stunning pace in the final stint once the track went green, and won by over 10 seconds. Tracy finished second and Franchitti third, which was enough for him to keep his championship lead, although it was down to 1 point.
Classification Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 83 1:42:03.808 8 20 2 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 83 +10.927 3 16 3 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 83 +12.313 1 14+1+1 4 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 83 +14.728 5 12 5 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 83 +19.899 9 10 6 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 83 +23.682 6 8 7 9 Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 83 +25.097 7 6 8 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 83 +31.299 11 5 9 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 83 +31.877 14 4 10 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 83 +32.822 10 3 11 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 83 +33.262 25 2 12 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 83 +35.317 12 1 13 18 Mark Blundell PacWest Racing 83 +35.775 26 14 20 Jan Magnussen Patrick Racing 83 +43.215 15 15 40 P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 83 +43.694 21 16 11 Roberto Moreno Newman-Haas Racing 83 +44.565 19 17 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 82 +1 Lap 20 18 36 Gualter Salles All American Racing 82 +1 Lap 16 19 15 Naoki Hattori Walker Racing 82 +1 Lap 23 20 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 76 Engine 17 21 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 72 Engine 2 22 71 Memo Gidley Payton/Coyne Racing 69 Fire 13 23 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 58 Fuel system 4 24 21 Luiz Garcia Jr. Hogan Racing 56 Clutch 24 25 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 54 Contact 22 26 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 54 Transmission 18
Caution flags Laps Cause60-65 Garcia Jr. (21) spin
Lap Leaders Laps Leader1-54 Dario Franchitti 55 Paul Tracy 56-83 Juan Pablo Montoya Driver Laps ledDario Franchitti 54Juan Pablo Montoya 28Paul Tracy 1
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Dario Franchitti 152 2 Juan Pablo Montoya 151 3 Michael Andretti 124 4 Paul Tracy 122 5 Christian Fittipaldi 101
References