1999 Miller Lite 200

The 1999 Miller Lite 200 was the fourteenth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on August 15, 1999 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Report

Race

Dario Franchitti, the championship leader took his first pole of the season after the Saturday qualifying was washed out due to rain, which meant that the grid was decided by Friday qualifying times. Franchitti led away at the start followed by Bryan Herta, although Paul Tracy soon passed Herta and took second. The Team Green duo of Franchitti and Tracy then pulled away from the field, building a lead of 12 seconds. After the first round of pitstops, Franchitti and Tracy stayed 1-2, but Juan Pablo Montoya was up to third after a quick stop. He was 15 seconds behind the Team Green cars, but he was unfazed by that and set about closing it down, and did so rapidly such that the top three cars were nose to tail before the second round of pitstops. Franchitti pitted, handing Tracy the lead, but that did not last for long as he was immediately passed by Montoya. Montoya and Tracy both made their second pitstops and both rejoined ahead of Franchitti, before a caution due to Luiz Garcia, Jr.'s spin bunched the field up. Tracy and Franchitti were quicker than anyone else on the track, but both were absolutely no match for Montoya, who set a stunning pace in the final stint once the track went green, and won by over 10 seconds. Tracy finished second and Franchitti third, which was enough for him to keep his championship lead, although it was down to 1 point.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	83	1:42:03.808	8	20
2	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	83	+10.927	3	16
3	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	83	+12.313	1	14+1+1
4	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	83	+14.728	5	12
5	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	83	+19.899	9	10
6	5	Gil de Ferran	Walker Racing	83	+23.682	6	8
7	9	Hélio Castro-Neves	Hogan Racing	83	+25.097	7	6
8	6	Michael Andretti	Newman-Haas Racing	83	+31.299	11	5
9	25	Cristiano da Matta	Arciero-Wells Racing	83	+31.877	14	4
10	22	Robby Gordon	Team Gordon	83	+32.822	10	3
11	99	Greg Moore	Forsythe Racing	83	+33.262	25	2
12	10	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	83	+35.317	12	1
13	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	83	+35.775	26
14	20	Jan Magnussen	Patrick Racing	83	+43.215	15
15	40	P. J. Jones	Patrick Racing	83	+43.694	21
16	11	Roberto Moreno	Newman-Haas Racing	83	+44.565	19
17	24	Scott Pruett	Arciero-Wells Racing	82	+1 Lap	20
18	36	Gualter Salles	All American Racing	82	+1 Lap	16
19	15	Naoki Hattori	Walker Racing	82	+1 Lap	23
20	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	76	Engine	17
21	8	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	72	Engine	2
22	71	Memo Gidley	Payton/Coyne Racing	69	Fire	13
23	44	Tony Kanaan	Forsythe Racing	58	Fuel system	4
24	21	Luiz Garcia, Jr.	Hogan Racing	56	Clutch	24
25	2	Al Unser, Jr.	Team Penske	54	Contact	22
26	19	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Payton/Coyne Racing	54	Transmission	18

Caution flags

Lap Leaders

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Dario Franchitti	152
2	Juan Pablo Montoya	151
3	Michael Andretti	124
4	Paul Tracy	122
5	Christian Fittipaldi	101