Crash puts damper on Paul Tracy's title hopes

Paul Tracy's bid for his first Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) championship took a severe hit when the Las Vegas resident dropped out of Sunday's Target Grand Prix at the Chicago Motor Speedway after a mid-race accident.

On lap 99 of the 225-lap race, Tracy passed Michael Andretti for third place. Moments later, Andretti tried to regain the position from Tracy and the two cars touched, sending both into the third-turn wall at the 1-mile oval.

Tracy finished 23rd and saw his streaks of four consecutive podium appearances and eight points-paying finishes come to an end. The 30-year-old Canadian remained in fourth place in the points standings, but now trails series leader Juan Montoya by 50 points (172-122) with five races remaining.

Tracy and Andretti, who had several on-track incidents last year that, in part, led to Tracy's one-race suspension to start this season, had differing opinions of what happened in Sunday's race.

"Normal Paul Tracy driving," Andretti said. "He could have killed somebody out there.

"I don't understand what Tracy was thinking. He put me in an impossible position. He was swerving toward me beginning down the straightaway. He could have hurt me."

Tracy countered, "Yeah, it's always somebody else's fault. I wanted the line, he wanted the line, we made contact and we both went around. I just think he was a little bit in too much of a hurry to get back around me.

"It looked to me that we were going for the same piece of real estate. I was about a half a car length in front of Michael. I knew he was there, but I didn't think he was far enough up alongside to out-brake me. I thought I was clear of him and I also thought he was down on the apron a little bit."

Tracy remained two points behind Andretti, who is third in the championship.

"I'm very disappointed because I thought we could have been on the podium," Tracy said. "I went from ninth to fourth. We'll try to get on the podium in (the next race in) Vancouver."

The two other Southern Nevada residents competing in the CART FedEx Championship Series met with mixed results. Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas scored his first podium finish of the season with a third-place effort while Henderson resident Richie Hearn finished 16th.

"It was a pretty good race," Vasser said of his fifth consecutive points-paying finish. "I'm very happy for the Target Grand Prix. With (race winner and teammate Montoya) and myself on the podium, finishing one-three, the only way it could have been better was to finish one-two, so I'm very pleased."

Vasser remained in 10th place in the championship.

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