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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.[1] 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.
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Race 17 of 19 in the 1998 CART season | |
 Original track layout of the Houston Grand Prix. | |
| Date | October 4, 1998 |
| Official name | 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston |
| Location | George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas, United States |
| Course | Temporary street course 1.527 mi / 2.457 km |
| Distance | 70 laps 106.89 mi / 171.99 km |
| Weather | Heavy rain |
| Pole position | |
| Driver | Greg Moore (Forsythe Racing) |
| Time | 59.508 |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing) |
| Time | 1:02.797 (on lap 59 of 70) |
| Podium | |
| First | Dario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green) |
| Second | Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing) |
| Third | Tony Kanaan (Tasman Motorsports Group) |
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.[2] This led to a terse conversation over the radio between Tracy and team owner Barry Green.[3] 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.[3] Ironically, within days of their near fistfight, Tracy and Green agreed to a four-year contract extension.[4]
Classification edit
Race edit
Caution flags edit
| Laps | Cause |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Multiple cars spinning due to rain |
| 5-9 | Moore (99), Fittipaldi (11) contact |
| 14-16 | Jourdain Jr. (19), Gordon (24) contact, road block. Later red-flagged. |
| 39-43 | Carpentier (33) contact |
| 46 | Vitolo (34) contact |
| 68-70 | Heavy rain |
Lap Leaders edit
|
|
Point standings after race edit
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Alex Zanardi
|
250 |
| 2 |  Jimmy Vasser
|
148 |
| 3 |  Dario Franchitti
|
143 |
| 4 |  Adrián Fernández
|
134 |
| 5 |  Greg Moore
|
120 |
References edit
- ^ "CHAMPCAR/CART: Max Papis Claim Toyota's First Top Five". Archived from the original on 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
- ^ 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston Part 8 (Collision occurs at 4:02 mark)
- ^ a b 1998 Thrills And Spills (Part 2 - Featuring CART and USAC) (Audio of conversation at 2:49 mark)
- ^ "Tracy, Green shake hands, come out smiling". Houston Chronicle. 7 October 1998. Retrieved 25 October 2012.