1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston

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Team KOOL Green)
SecondAlex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing)
ThirdTony Kanaan (Tasman Motorsports Group)

The

Houston, Texas. The race was a rain-interrupted race, with the start being delayed 30 minutes due to heavy rain.[1] Another heavy rainshower after 70 laps out of the scheduled 100 forced the race to be stopped, with the win handed to Dario Franchitti
, who was leading at the time.

The race was the scene of an infamous Lap 48 collision between winner Franchitti and his

Team KOOL Green teammate, Paul Tracy. While running second, Tracy attempted to pass Franchitti on the inside going into the left-handed Turn 6; however, Franchitti was already making the turn, leading to the teammates touching, and Tracy spinning, brushing the inside wall enough to bend his left front suspension, ending his race.[2] This led to a terse conversation over the radio between Tracy and team owner Barry Green.[3] When Tracy returned to pit road, he and Green nearly came to blows in plain view of television cameras and the crowd on the start-finish straight.[3] Ironically, within days of their near fistfight, Tracy and Green agreed to a four-year contract extension.[4]

Classification

Race

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti
Team Green
 		70 1:36:30.979 2 20+1
2 1 Italy Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 70 +0.646 8 16
3 21 Brazil Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group 70 +5.792 11 14
4 12 United States Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 70 +8.342 3 12
5 25 Italy Max Papis
Arciero-Wells Racing
 		70 +11.170 14 10
6 40 Mexico Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 70 +13.425 12 8
7 2 United States Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 70 +17.725 16 6
8 8 United States Bryan Herta
Team Rahal
 		70 +26.906 6 5
9 10 United States Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 70 +27.812 18 4
10 9 Finland JJ Lehto Hogan Racing 70 +35.089 21 3
11 20 United States Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 69 +1 Lap 19 2
12 36
Alex Barron
 All American Racing 69 +1 Lap 20 1
13 24 United States Robby Gordon
Arciero-Wells Racing
 69 +1 Lap 24
14 18 United Kingdom Mark Blundell PacWest Racing Group 68 +2 Laps 22
15 98 Italy Vincenzo Sospiri All American Racing 68 +2 Laps 28
16 77 West Germany Arnd Meier Davis Racing 68 +2 Laps 26
17 3 Brazil André Ribeiro Team Penske 66 +4 Laps 10
18 17 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing Group 52 Electrical 16
19 34 United States Dennis Vitolo Payton/Coyne Racing 49 Electrical 27
20 26 Canada Paul Tracy
Team Green
 48 Contact 4
21 5 Brazil Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 38 Spun off 7
22 33 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 36 Contact 25
23 7 United States Bobby Rahal
Team Rahal
 35 Suspension 9
24 16 Brazil Hélio Castro-Neves
Bettenhausen Racing
 35 Suspension 17
25 19 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 13 Contact 23
26 99 Canada Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 3 Contact 1 1
27 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi
Newman-Haas Racing
 3 Contact 5
28 6 United States Michael Andretti
Newman-Haas Racing
 2 Steering 13

Caution flags

Laps Cause
1-3 Multiple cars spinning due to rain
5-9 Moore (99), Fittipaldi (11) contact
14-16 Jourdain Jr. (19), Gordon (24) contact, road block. Later red-flagged.
39-43 Carpentier (33) contact
46 Vitolo (34) contact
68-70 Heavy rain

Lap Leaders

Laps Leader
1-70 Dario Franchitti
 
Driver Laps led
Dario Franchitti 70

Point standings after race

Pos Driver Points
1 Italy Alex Zanardi 250
2 United States Jimmy Vasser 148
3 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti 143
4 Mexico Adrián Fernández 134
5 Canada Greg Moore 120

References

  1. ^ "CHAMPCAR/CART: Max Papis Claim Toyota's First Top Five". Archived from the original on 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  2. ^ 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Part 8 (Collision occurs at 4:02 mark)
  3. ^ a b 1998 Thrills And Spills (Part 2 - Featuring CART and USAC) (Audio of conversation at 2:49 mark)
  4. ^ "Tracy, Green shake hands, come out smiling". Houston Chronicle. 7 October 1998. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
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