CICERO, Ill. -- Cristiano da Matta on Sunday almost single-handedly turned Chicago Motor Speedway back into what it was originally built for -- horse racing.

For it was the diminutive da Matta, who at a generous 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds could easily go from driving a Champ car to jockeying a horse, that turned Sunday's Grand Prix of Chicago from just another open-wheel race into a horse race of a different color.

	Cristiano da Matta's Chicago Grand Prix victory was his third-consecutive CART victory.

Da Matta is, without question, the hottest gas pedal jockey on the CART circuit today. He's won the last three events, four of the season's first seven events, and six of the series' last nine races, dating back to the last two events of last season.

Sunday's win was his second triumph at Chicago in three years. What's more, he continues to lead the FedEx Series point standings and can tie CART's record for consecutive wins -- four, set by Al Unser Jr. in 1990 and Alex Zanardi in 1998 -- next Sunday in Toronto.

That a little guy has become such a big player in just over three years on the CART circuit speaks volumes of the talent and genes he has. Son of Toninho da Matta, a 14-time Brazilian touring car champion, da Matta is the latest in the line of foreign-born drivers who have taken the CART circuit by storm, starting with Nigel Mansell and continuing with Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi, Juan Montoya and Gil de Ferran.

He began Sunday cheering on Brazil to a World Cup championship, then admittedly went a "little crazy" by joining several of his fellow Brazilian drivers and countrymen crew members in shaving their heads prior to the race in celebration of their national soccer team's triumphant victory.

"Tomorrow will be a national holiday in Brazil," da Matta said enthusiastically, but then, as a result, adding with a smile that the story of his win at Chicago will likely be "on the last page of the newspaper."

But what da Matta achieved Sunday could very well go a long way toward keeping him atop the standings and make him the likely man to beat for the championship the rest of the season.

The most significant aspect of his most recent triumph was he accomplished it on a oval track, the third time he's done so in his career, including twice now in the Windy City. But while he had a much harder time en route to his first two oval triumphs, and has had struggles in other races on ovals. Sunday was the first time he felt he finally put together a complete package.

That included phenomenal pit stops, including an uncanny eight-second final stop on lap 204 that set the tone for his dash to the finish in the 250-lap event.

"I'm glad to win a race in an area that was not really our strength before," da Matta said of his oval track resume. "To come from 15 laps down at Motegi and run in the top six at Milwaukee and qualify third here and win the race ... it shows how much this team has improved and gotten better on ovals.

"Today, we just had a great race and everything fell the way we wanted it to. Plus, the crew just did a great job on all the (pit) stops."

As outstanding overall as he has been recently, da Matta and his team have admittedly felt somewhat gun-shy of late, with the oval track struggles they had at Motegi and then at Milwaukee.

But by leading nearly one-third (82) of Sunday's laps and finessing what was not necessarily the most dominant car on the track -- an honor that likely could have been claimed by third-place finisher Dario Franchitti -- da Matta's mastery on the one-mile Chicago Motor Speedway oval did wonders for his confidence and that of his team members.

	“	Like people say, climbing the first part of a mountain is the easy part. It's getting to the top that's the harder part. ”
		— Da Matta

"The one thing that changes on ovals is, before qualifying yesterday, we weren't sure if we were going in the right direction on ovals," da Matta said. "Now, we know we're going in the right direction.

"Now, it's just a matter of keep going. Like people say, climbing the first part of a mountain is the easy part. It's getting to the top that's the harder part."

But with the way he keeps going, there won't be much more mountain for da Matta to ascend before he can claim this season's championship. Even though there are still 12 events left, he's jumped out to a heck of a start in this year's horse race ... and he's just the kind of jockey that can keep the gallop going all the way to the final finish line.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR and other forms of motorsports for ESPN.com.