1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston

December 2012 February 2025 United States Houston File:Houston CART circuit transparent.png Original track layout of the Houston Grand Prix. October 4 1998 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston 17 19 CART George R. Brown Convention CenterHouston, Texas, United States Temporary street course 1.527 2.457 70 106.89 171.99 Heavy rain Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 59.508 Canada Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 1:02.797 59 Italy Dario Franchitti Team KOOL Green UK Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing Italy Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group Brazil The 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston was the seventeenth round of the 1998 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on October 4, 1998, at a street adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The race was a rain-interrupted race, with the start being delayed 30 minutes due to heavy rain.https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/champcar-cart-max-papis-claim-toyota-s-first-top-five/21669/?nrt=86 CHAMPCAR/CART: Max Papis Claim Toyota's First Top Five 2018-08-09 en 2018-08-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20180810041936/https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/champcar-cart-max-papis-claim-toyota-s-first-top-five/21669/?nrt=86 dead Another heavy rainshower after 70 laps out of the scheduled 100 forced the race to be stopped, with the win handed to Dario Franchitti, who was leading at the time. The race was the scene of an infamous Lap 48 collision between winner Franchitti and his Team KOOL Green teammate, Paul Tracy. While running second, Tracy attempted to pass Franchitti on the inside going into the left-handed Turn 6; however, Franchitti was already making the turn, leading to the teammates touching, and Tracy spinning, brushing the inside wall enough to bend his left front suspension, ending his race.1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Part 8 (Collision occurs at 4:02 mark) This led to a terse conversation over the radio between Tracy and team owner Barry Green.1998 Thrills And Spills (Part 2 - Featuring CART and USAC) (Audio of conversation at 2:49 mark) When Tracy returned to pit road, he and Green nearly came to blows in plain view of television cameras and the crowd on the start-finish straight. Ironically, within days of their near fistfight, Tracy and Green agreed to a four-year contract extension.Tracy, Green shake hands, come out smiling http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1998_3088454/tracy-green-shake-hands-come-out-smiling.html Houston Chronicle 7 October 1998 25 October 2012 Classification Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 27 UK Dario Franchitti Team Green 70 1:36:30.979 2 20+1 2 1 Italy Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing 70 +0.646 8 16 3 21 Brazil Tony Kanaan Tasman Motorsports Group 70 +5.792 11 14 4 12 US Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 70 +8.342 3 12 5 25 Italy Max Papis Arciero-Wells Racing 70 +11.170 14 10 6 40 Mexico Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 70 +13.425 12 8 7 2 US Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 70 +17.725 16 6 8 8 US Bryan Herta Team Rahal 70 +26.906 6 5 9 10 US Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 70 +27.812 18 4 10 9 Finland JJ Lehto Hogan Racing 70 +35.089 21 3 11 20 US Scott Pruett Patrick Racing 69 +1 Lap 19 2 12 36 US Alex Barron All American Racing 69 +1 Lap 20 1 13 24 USA Robby Gordon Arciero-Wells Racing 69 +1 Lap 24 14 18 UK Mark Blundell PacWest Racing Group 68 +2 Laps 22 15 98 Italy Vincenzo Sospiri All American Racing 68 +2 Laps 28 16 77 West Germany Arnd Meier Davis Racing 68 +2 Laps 26 17 3 Brazil André Ribeiro Team Penske 66 +4 Laps 10 18 17 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing Group 52 Electrical 16 19 34 US Dennis Vitolo Payton/Coyne Racing 49 Electrical 27 20 26 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green 48 Contact 4 21 5 Brazil Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 38 Spun off 7 22 33 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 36 Contact 25 23 7 US Bobby Rahal Team Rahal 35 Suspension 9 24 16 Brazil Hélio Castro-Neves Bettenhausen Racing 35 Suspension 17 25 19 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 13 Contact 23 26 99 Canada Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 3 Contact 1 1 27 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 3 Contact 5 28 6 US Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 2 Steering 13 Caution flags Laps Cause1-3 Multiple cars spinning due to rain5-9 Moore (99), Fittipaldi (11) contact14-16 Jourdain Jr. (19), Gordon (24) contact, road block. Later red-flagged.39-43 Carpentier (33) contact46 Vitolo (34) contact68-70 Heavy rain Lap Leaders Laps Leader1-70 Dario Franchitti Driver Laps ledDario Franchitti 70 Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 ITA Alex Zanardi 250 2 USA Jimmy Vasser 148 3 UK Dario Franchitti 143 4 MEX Adrián Fernández 134 5 CAN Greg Moore 120 References Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Category:Grand Prix of Houston