| | HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Max Papis always believed he was a winner.
Once he took the checkered flag Sunday in the season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami -- his 60th start in the CART FedEx Series -- the Italian couldn't contain his excitement.
Papis unstrapped his belts and was halfway out of his Team Rahal Reynard-Ford, punching the air and raising his thumbs in triumph as he drove down pit road toward his first visit to Victory Lane.
|  | | Max Papis waves the Italian flag in Victory Lane after winning his first CART race. |
Once he scrambled from the cockpit, the overjoyed Papis punched the air repeatedly with both fists.
"You need to believe you are a winner in your heart," the former sports car star said. "Today was proof.
"I knew we had a fantastic car. I just had to wait for the opportunity, then I went for it. I was very concentrated."
Papis dedicated the victory to the memory of his good friend Greg Moore, who won this race last year and was killed in a crash during the season-ending race at Fontana, Calif.
The final pit stops of the race came during the second and last caution period in the 150-lap race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Paul Tracy, who was not allowed to run this race last year as a
penalty for rough driving the previous season, found his
Reynard-Honda out front, just ahead of Papis and the Reynard-Ford
of Roberto Moreno. They were running close together when the green
flag waved for the final time on lap 112.
Although he never led by as much as a full second on the 1.5-mile
oval, it looked like Tracy, a 15-time winner, had enough to hold
off Papis. Then he caught some slower traffic 10 laps from the end.
"I just wanted to stay clean," Tracy said. "I knew I didn't
have a great car, but I felt like we could stay out front if I
didn't catch a lot of traffic.
"When I did get behind a slower car, my car got loose and I had
to lift (off the accelerator). If you have Fords behind you and you
lift, they're going to go right by you."
Tracy did catch a pair of slower cars at the start of lap 141
and Papis and Moreno darted past and pulled away.
Papis had been close to victory before, finishing second last
year on the road course in Australia and on the superspeedway oval
in Fontana. But the closest "Mad Max" came was on the big oval at
Michigan Speedway, where he ran out of fuel while leading just a
half lap from the end.
"I had a little glitch in my brain with about three laps to go
today," Papis, 30, said. "I said to myself, `Don't think about
what happened in Michigan,' I backed off just a little and Roberto
was right there. I had to keep my concentration."
Moreno, happily giving up his role of the past two seasons as CART's supersub, replacing injured drivers, came up short of his first win in his first start for Patrick Racing by .620-seconds -- about four car lengths.
"I was following Max all the way through," Moreno said. "I
could see if I was by myself, I could go a little faster. But I was
behind Max."
The winner averaged 164.788 mph in the race slowed by caution
for 17 laps.
Former series champion Jimmy Vasser finished fourth, followed by
Patrick Carpentier, Gil de Ferran, Christian Fittipaldi and rookies
Shinji Nakano and Alex Tagliani, the last two drivers on the lead
lap.
Juan Montoya, the defending series champion, started next to
pole-winner de Ferran on the front row of the 25-car field and
charged into the lead at the start.
Montoya, whose team had to change his engine after the morning
warmup because of an oil leak, held the lead until his new Toyota
engine blew on lap 21. Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, which has won
the last four series titles, switched from Honda engines to Toyota
over the winter.
Montoya's problem gave the lead to Adrian Fernandez, who also
went out with an engine problem while leading on lap 48. Meanwhile,
two-time Homestead winner Michael Andretti, who was running second,
also went out with an engine problem.
The first round of pit stops followed and de Ferran found his
Reynard-Honda in the lead on lap 58. The Brazilian began to pull
away, building his lead over the surprising Tagliani to more than
12 seconds.
De Ferran, making his first start for Team Penske, was the first
of the lead drivers to make his final scheduled pit stop, driving
onto pit road on lap 99 for routine service. But disaster struck
for de Ferran when Mauricio Gugelmin's car stopped on the
backstretch three laps later, bringing out the caution flag and
allowing all the other lead drivers to pit under yellow.
"We made some changes during the first pit stop and the car was
a rocket after that," de Ferran said. "We ran away, made the
second stop just fine and then the yellow. It was a very unlucky
break."
Tagliano might have inherited the lead from de Ferran, but he
was penalized to the rear of the lead lap for passing the pace car
as he exited the pits on lap 104.
| |
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Max Papis slips past Paul Tracy to take the lead for good with nine laps remaining.
avi: 1211 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Max Papis talks about winning his first career CART race.
avi: 699 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Max Papis discusses his win in Miami.
wav: 68 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Paul Tracy thanks his team for making a ill-handling car finish third.
wav: 168 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Roberto Moreno talks about stealing second place from Paul Tracy.
wav: 125 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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