1999 U.S. 500 Presented by Toyota

The 1999 U.S. 500 Presented by Toyota was the twelfth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on July 25, 1999 at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Report

Race

Qualifying saw Jimmy Vasser take pole with Adrián Fernández alongside, but at the second attempt to start (first was called off due to field alignment issues), it was the second row starters Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Andretti who raced away into the first two spots. In the early stages, the duo exchanged the lead many times (most unoffcial though) before Andretti was able to build a lead. He led until the second round of pitstops when a caution due to Gil de Ferran's crash bunched the field up, allowing second-placed Montoya to close and pass him on the restart. The duo again batted for the lead, but then Max Papis surged bast both of them and began to pull away. Papis led comfortably until a crash for P. J. Jones erased a nine-second lead and allowed Andretti to jump him in the pitstops. The restart saw Papis battle with Andretti and Dario Franchitti for a few laps before breaking away again, only for another caution caused by Scott Pruett's crash to again bring the field closer to him. Once again Papis was able to pull away from his purseurs when the race went green, as an epic battle for second commenced between the Team Green duo of Franchitti and Paul Tracy, and the Newman-Haas duo of Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi, which was later joined by Montoya and Tony Kanaan as well. After the final round of pitstops, Papis continued to lead, though Kanaan, on an alternate strategy was able to run 5-7 laps longer than other frontrunners and thus had a shorter stop and was up to second, only three seconds behind Papis, and well ahead of a battle between Andretti, Franchitti and Tracy for third. Kanaan initially closed up on Papis, but Papis was able to pull away again, and, behind them, the Ganassi drivers, Montoya and Jimmy Vasser started to set a searing pace. Both passed Andretti, Franchitti and Tracy and set off after Kanaan, lapping much quicker than anyone else. However, Vasser had to pit for more fuel after a problem with the fuel rig, and this also made Montoya's task harder as he now had to chase Kanaan on his own without his teammate's help. Papis continued to lead and was well set to take his first career win only for his car to run out of fuel midway through the last lap. Kanaan went by but Montoya was right with him and attempted to pass him at the line. Kanaan however, held on to beat Montoya by 0.032 seconds, with Tracy taking the final step of the podium after pipping Andretti at the line.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Tony Kanaan	Forsythe Racing	250	2:41:12.632	11	20
2	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	250	+0.032	3	16
3	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	250	+8.453	8	14
4	6	Michael Andretti	Newman-Haas Racing	250	+8.506	4	12
5	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	250	+9.137	9	10
6	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	250	+9.521	2	8
7	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	250	+10.343	6	6+1
8	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	250	+15.410	16	5
9	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	249	+1 Lap	1	4+1
10	33	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	248	+2 Laps	12	3
11	34	Dennis Vitolo	Payton/Coyne Racing	232	+18 Laps	23	2
12	10	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	207	Electrical	20	1
13	2	Al Unser, Jr.	Team Penske	206	Engine	13
14	24	Scott Pruett	Arciero-Wells Racing	183	Contact	5
15	36	Gualter Salles	All American Racing	146	Engine	24
16	20	P. J. Jones	Patrick Racing	132	Contact	22
17	25	Cristiano da Matta	Arciero-Wells Racing	126	Electrical	10
18	3	Alex Barron	Team Penske	120	Engine	18
19	18	Roberto Moreno	PacWest Racing	113	Handling	13
20	8	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	92	Suspension	7
21	19	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Payton/Coyne Racing	80	Driveshaft	26
22	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	64	Radiator	14
23	99	Greg Moore	Forsythe Racing	63	Transmission	21
24	5	Gil de Ferran	Walker Racing	59	Contact	15
25	9	Hélio Castro-Neves	Hogan Racing	47	Electrical	19
26	22	Robby Gordon	Team Gordon	33	Handling	25

Caution flags

Lap Leaders

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	129
2	Dario Franchitti	116
3	Michael Andretti	107
4	Christian Fittipaldi	101
5	Adrián Fernández	95