1998 Rio 400

March 2026 February 2025 Brazil Rio 400 Jacarepaguá-oval.svg May 10 1998 Rio 400 5 19 CART Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Permanent racing facility 1.864 3.000 133 247.912 398.976 Dario Franchitti Team KOOL Green 39.005 http://www.theautochannel.com/news/date/19990506/news022985.html Team KOOL Green at the Rio 200 in Brazil theautochannel.com The Auto Channel 1999-05-07 2009-12-21 Fast facts on Franchitti: Won the pole at Rio in 1998, setting a track record with a lap of 172.039 mph / 39.005 seconds. GBR Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 39.328 131 Italy Greg Moore Forsythe Racing CAN Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing ITA Adrian Fernández Patrick Racing MEX The 1998 Rio 400 was the fifth round of the 1998 CART World Series Season, held on May 10, 1998, on the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Qualifying The Scottish driver Dario Franchitti, from Team Green set the pole. Race At the start, the Italian driver Alex Zanardi, from Chip Ganassi Racing took the lead. At lap 19, fellow Italian driver Max Papis, from Arciero-Wells Racing retired due to a broken engine. After 21 laps, the top six was: Alex Zanardi, Gil de Ferran, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Christian Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti. At lap 30, Kanaan, from Tasman Motorsports, retired due to an engine fire, bringing out the first caution of the race. The lead lap cars went to pit stop at the same lap. Newman-Haas Racing driver Michael Andretti hit a tire in the pits, then he suffered a penalty. The restart came out at lap 37. A few laps later, Team Green driver Paul Tracy was hit by Gil de Ferran, from Walker Racing. 2nd caution. The restart was out at lap 47. Lap 54, the Mexican driver Michel Jourdain Jr., from Payton/Coyne Racing hit the wall, bringing out the third caution. The restart came out at lap 60. Michael Andretti did an overtaking show. He was one lap down in 24th. After some laps, he was in sixth. With 65 laps to go, Zanardi, Bryan Herta, Adrian Fernández and Greg Moore did their pit stops during green flag. At that time, Fittipaldi, André Ribeiro and Hélio Castroneves were out of the race. Only two Brazilian drivers were in the race at that moment: Maurício Gugelmin and Gualter Salles. At lap 91, Salles retired due to a crash at turn one, bringing out the fourth caution. At the same lap, polesitter Dario Franchitti retired due an engine issue. The restart happened at lap 98. After this lap, Scott Pruett, from Patrick Racing, retired. Player's Forsythe Racing driver Patrick Carpentier, suffered a tire problem at lap 102, and retired. At lap 108, the top 10 was: Zanardi, Moore, Fernandez, Richie Hearn, Herta, Jimmy Vasser, Al Unser Jr., Andretti, Bobby Rahal and Mark Blundell. From lap 116-onwards, the battle for the win was between the Italian Alex Zanardi and the Canadian Greg Moore. At lap 120, Moore almost lost the control of his car, after he went sideways at turn four. With five laps to go, Moore did an amazing overtake manoeuvre on Zanardi, and took the lead. The German driver Arnd Meier, was in front of both. Moore won the race, his first win of the season, the third win of his Champ Car career. Classification Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 99 Canada Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 133 1:52:14.135 7 20 2 1 Italy Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +0.427 2 16+1 3 40 Mexico Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 133 +4.839 12 14 4 8 US Bryan Herta Team Rahal 133 +12.951 6 12 5 6 US Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 133 +14.324 8 10 6 12 US Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 133 +15.251 13 8 7 10 US Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 133 +15.799 28 6 8 7 US Bobby Rahal Team Rahal 133 +28.649 10 5 9 17 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 21 4 10 9 Finland JJ Lehto Hogan Racing 132 +1 Lap 22 3 11 18 UK Mark Blundell PacWest Racing Group 132 +1 Lap 18 2 12 36 US Alex Barron All American Racing 131 +2 Laps 24 1 13 98 US P. J. Jones All American Racing 130 +3 Laps 23 14 77 West Germany Arnd Meier Davis Racing 130 +3 Laps 19 15 24 Japan Hiro Matsushita Arciero-Wells Racing 129 +4 Laps 26 16 2 US Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 118 Engine 27 17 33 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 106 Handling 17 18 20 US Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 98 Transmission 15 19 27 UK Dario Franchitti Team Green 90 Electrical 1 1 20 34 Brazil Gualter Salles Payton/Coyne Racing 89 Contact 14 21 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 78 Fuel system 5 22 3 Brazil André Ribeiro Team Penske 76 Transmission 16 23 16 Brazil Hélio Castro-Neves Bettenhausen Racing 54 Engine 11 24 19 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 53 Contact 25 25 26 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green 39 Contact 9 26 5 Brazil Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 39 Contact 4 27 21 Brazil Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group 28 Engine 3 28 25 Italy Max Papis Arciero-Wells Racing 17 Engine 20 Caution flags Laps Cause29-35 Kanaan (21) engine blow-up39-45 Tracy (26), de Ferran (5) contact54-58 Jourdain Jr. (19) contact 90-96 Salles (34) contact Lap Leaders Laps Leader1-77 Alex Zanardi78-81 Richie Hearn82-88 Dario Franchitti89-128 Alex Zanardi129-133 Greg Moore Driver Laps ledAlex Zanardi 117Dario Franchitti 7Greg Moore 5Richie Hearn 4 Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 CAN Greg Moore 71 2 ITA Alex Zanardi 67 3 MEX Adrián Fernández 55 4 USA Jimmy Vasser 39 5 USA Bryan Herta 37 References CART CART FedEx Championship Series Rio 400 1998 1998 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix 1998 Motorola 300 1997 Hollywood Rio 400k 1999 Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200 Rio 400 Rio 400 Category:Rio 200