Fittipaldi Claims $1 Million By Winning Marlboro 500 Presented By Toyota; De Ferran Brings Marlboro Team Penske Its Record Eighth Fedex Championship Series Title

Market Wire, 20050229

Christian Fittipaldi of Newman/Haas Racing won the battle, Gil de Ferran of Marlboro Team Penske won the war and each of them was rewarded with $1 million for his effort Monday as the Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota concluded at California Speedway.

On a blustery day which featured 59 lead changes and saw only six of 26 competitors complete the 500-mile event, Fittipaldi (Big Kmart/Route 66 Ford Lola) grabbed the lead for the final 29 of 200 laps - the longest stint on the lead for any driver all day - and drove to a 0.194 second victory over Roberto Moreno of Patrick Racing in the event that was completed Monday morning after rain washed out Sunday's action following the completion of 33 laps.

His second career FedEx Championship Series victory brought Fittipaldi a $1 million payday, courtesy of Marlboro, Toyota, CART and California Speedway, and he was joined in the "Millionaire Boys Club" by de Ferran, whose third-place result clinched Marlboro Team Penske's first series championship since 1994.

De Ferran (Marlboro Honda Reynard), the polesitter, ran at or near the lead all morning, brought home his seventh podium finish of the season and became the second Brazilian driver in CART's 22-year history to claim the series championship, joining Emerson Fittipaldi, Christian's uncle, who claimed the 1989 title for Patrick Racing.

De Ferran joins a glittering list of previous CART champions for Penske Racing including three-time titlist Rick Mears (1979, '80 and '82), two-time champion Al Unser (1983, '85), Danny Sullivan (1988) and Al Unser Jr. (1990). Penske's eight CART championships double the total of second-place Target Chip Ganassi Racing, which had won the previous four titles with Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997 and '98) and Juan Montoya (1999).

By finishing third, De Ferran added four to the six-point advantage he held over Adrian Fernandez of Patrick Racing entering the event. Fernandez, who entered the day trailing de Ferran by a 154-148 margin, managed a fifth-place finish and wound up second to de Ferran in the championship, 168-158.

Fittipaldi's victory was his first since earning his inaugural career triumph at Road America last year. He averaged 139.563 miles per hour en route to the checkered flag, which made him the record 11th different winner of the FedEx Championship Series season, breaking the series record of 10 established last year.

Moreno (Visteon Ford Reynard) parlayed his runner-up effort into a career-best third-place finish in the championship, with 147 points. The podium finish was his sixth of the season and marked a career-best performance in a 500-mile event, exceeding third in The Inaugural U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway in 1996.

Fourth-place went to rookie Casey Mears (WorldCom Ford Reynard) of Team Rahal in an outstanding Champ Car debut. A three-year veteran of Dayton Indy Lights competition who finished third in this year's championship, Mears became the first driver ever to compete in Indy Lights and Champ Car events during the same weekend. He actually led 10 laps (Laps 186-195) before being required to make a routine pit stop late in the event.

Fernandez (Tecate/Quaker State/Patrick Racing Ford Reynard) rounded out the top five by recording his 17th points-paying result in the past 18 events, dating to a victory at Rio de Janeiro.

There were 59 official lead changes among 12 drivers, three fewer than the official Champ Car record of 62 lead changes established at Michigan Speedway during the 1998 U.S. 500. The previous California Speedway record was 24 lead changes in 1998.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI, Big Kmart/Route 66 Ford Lola: "Above all, I am very happy for the day today. The team worked very well. These 500-mile races are all about finishing. A lot of people are learning to run these 500-mile races, and it's starting to get tough. I knew it was going to come down to the last ten to 15 laps. Right at the very end when we went green, Bob [Roberto Moreno] was right behind me. I was going as fast as I could, and I couldn't have gone another tenth of a mile an hour quicker. The car was very good. We played with it a little bit, but I just wanted to make sure that, at the end, we had a very neutral car. Since the car got here on Thursday and we started running Friday, we made very few changes. Everything was perfect for 500 miles, believe it or not. It's obviously very good. It's great to start on a high note for next year. This season was very difficult for me all year. We were always qualifying in the top eight apart from a few races, but for whatever reasons I wasn't able to get it to happen in the races. Gil [de Ferran] proved today that it's really important to score points every race. The championship is ten times harder to win than a race. He played it very well. As everyone knows, it's been two weeks that I've been a very happy person; I'm getting married. That's the most important thing in my life. It's far more important than a race win or a championship. You need to put things in perspective. But I still love to race, and I'm going to do my best next season to kick Gil's butt and Bob's butt and Casey's butt, and maybe you'll all be talking to me about a championship instead of a race win."