Tracy stays hot with second-place finish

Paul Tracy may not have won Sunday's Grand Prix of Detroit, but the Las Vegas resident nonetheless accomplished what he set out to do going into the race.

Tracy finished second to Team Kool Green teammate Dario Franchitti in the 71-lap race on the temporary road course and climbed into fourth place in the CART FedEx Championship series points standings.

The 30-year-old Tracy has finished fifth or better in six of his past seven starts. His streak of seven consecutive points-paying finishes is the longest active streak in the series.

"Our goal this weekend was to try and overcome Christian (Fittipaldi) and Adrian (Fernandez) in the points, and we accomplished that," Tracy said. "Now, we have to concentrate on catching Michael (Andretti)."

Tracy is 30 points behind series leader Franchitti, but only 13 points behind third-place Andretti for the championship with seven races remaining.

Fittipaldi and Fernandez entered Sunday's race fourth and fifth, respectively, in points, but both drivers were sidelined indefinitely this past week with injuries.

Fittipaldi suffered a subdural hematoma (a collection of blood between the covering and the surface of the brain) during a testing accident last Monday near St. Louis. Fittipaldi is expected to miss at least five CART races.

Fernandez suffered a broken right arm during a practice-session crash Friday morning in preparation for Sunday's Grand Prix of Detroit. Fernandez will be evaluated by doctors today or Tuesday to determine how long he will be sidelined.

Tracy started from the outside of the front row for Sunday's race and held onto second place for the first 12 laps before being passed by Franchitti. Tracy remained in third until race leader Juan Montoya was forced to pit under green for fuel on lap 58.

The final five laps were run under caution and Tracy never had a chance to challenge Franchitti for the win.

"Today was pretty uneventful," Tracy said of his run. "I don't think we were as quick as Montoya; I think he had the measure of us today, but their (fuel) strategy was wrong. I had to let Dario go by early in the race because I was struggling with my tires. I was really hanging on trying to stay in front of Dario, but I had to let him go. I'm a little disappointed we couldn't race to the end because I was staying with him."

Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser finished fifth after starting 12th and Henderson resident Richie Hearn was 13th after starting 21st.

The CART FedEx Championship Series moves to Lexington, Ohio, this weekend for the Miller Lite 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Five of the remaining seven races will be run on road or temporary street courses, which gives Tracy confidence as he battles for his first series championship.

"We're coming into the part of the season where I typically go very well," Tracy said.

archive