round 1 homestead

The 1998 FedEx Championship Series

ROUND 1 - homestead

MOORE MISSES BY A NOSE
Everyone in this business of reporting on CART Champ Car racing has been saying the same thing the last couple of months - this season is going to be the most competitive and unpredictable one yet. So much will depend on car set-up and luck in each race, that any one of a dozen drivers can win on a given day.

At the first race at Homestead, Florida, on Sunday, March 15, a few of our questions were answered, as Michael Andretti did the same thing as last year, winning the first race of the season.

In our FedEx Championship Series preview, we said that his Newman-Haas team would need solid improvements in all areas of equipment to race with the fleet of Reynards, and that appears to have come to pass.

The Ford engine, despite being an evolution and not all-new, powered him and three others in the top six. His tires were Goodyear, and so were those of another race leader, Gil de Ferran. And his Swift car was really hooked up to the fast, 1.5-mile oval.

GREG MOORE

However, it was a close thing for Andretti, as Greg Moore missed by less than a car length passing him at the finish line.

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ANDRETTI

Moore had started the race out the right way, from pole position, the first time he has qualified fastest in a CART race. And he led until the first pit stops, when it looked like his race was going to come crashing down around him.

The on-board pneumatic jacking system in his car failed, and his crew had to jack the car with a hand-jack. Luckily, this was under caution, but he still had to come in again to cut away the jack which had finally decided to deploy.

The result left him way down the field, luckily on the lead lap. "The car was running great in traffic when I got back out," he said afterward, "and I also took advantage of some timely yellow flags to close the gap."

There was an 11-lap sprint for the finish, and Moore was in 3rd to start it. It took him only a few laps to pass Alex Zanardi for second, and with a few hundred feet more of start-finish straight, he might have taken Andretti, too.

But under the circumstances - another small mechanical glitch, like the kind that plagued him last season - Moore showed that he will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

"We are extremely pleased to open the season with a second-place finish." And well he should be

ROUND 1 - homestead

GREG MOORE

. ANDRETTI

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ANDRETTI