Seeking a Win Going Away

FONTANA —  For a race that will produce a pair of $1-million payouts at California Speedway, today’s Marlboro 500 has taken on more the tone of a farewell party.

Scott Pruett, surprise pole winner Saturday in Cal Wells’ Toyota-powered Reynard at a windy 235.398 mph, is saying farewell after 10 years with CART to join the Winston Cup stock car circuit next year.

“This is awesome to come in my last race in CART, it’s just huge,” Pruett said. “But come Tuesday, I’ll just be a 39-year-old rookie taking his first practice laps at Darlington.”

Al Unser Jr., one of the storied names of open-wheel racing, is making his final start for Roger Penske before switching to the Indy Racing League next year, where he will be hoping for a third Indianapolis 500 win.

Goodyear, whose tires have been a part of CART racing since the organization was started in 1979, will have its Eagle trademark on five cars for the final time after announcing that it is dropping out of open-wheel racing. Curiously, Unser was the fastest of the Goodyear qualifiers, 10th at 232.899 mph.

Carl Hogan, who only seven years ago shared a CART championship with Bobby Rahal, is fielding his last driver, Helio Castro-Neves, after finding it too difficult to operate an independent team against corporate-backed entries.

And, in a farewell of sorts, three-time champion car owner Chip Ganassi is bidding goodbye to the Honda engine that brought FedEx championships to Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and Alex Zanardi in 1997 and 1998. He will use Toyotas next year.

Toyota had not won a race or a pole when Ganassi made his dramatic switch, a move that looked much better after Pruett’s pole-winning lap.

“I’m just incredibly thrilled that after 20 years of partnership and hard work with Toyota, we finally achieved this,” said Wells, whose Precision Preparation Inc. in Rancho Santa Margarita developed the Toyota power plant in Pruett’s car.

Wells also owns the Tide-sponsored Winston Cup team, for which Pruett will drive next season. In one respect, Pruett is merely moving across the aisle at PPI, from the CART team to NASCAR, although Wells is in the process of building a second team headquarters in Hickory, N.C.

Now, about those two $1-million payouts.

One will go to either Dario Franchitti, the dashing Scotsman who is romancing actress Ashley Judd between races, or Juan Montoya, a precocious 24-year-old rookie from Colombia, as the CART champion. Franchitti has a nine-point lead with 21 points available today--20 for winning and one for leading the most laps.

Pruett prevented either from picking up a valuable point when he took the only other one available, for winning the pole.

“If I couldn’t be on the pole, I didn’t want Juan to get it and collect that extra point,” said Franchitti, who will start eighth in Barry Green’s Honda-Reynard. “We’ll be all right. Five hundred miles is a long way and if we’re still around and in good shape after the last pit stop we’ll be in good shape for the win.”

Montoya will start third, just back of Pruett, in Ganassi’s Target-Reynard after a lap of 234.251.

“I’m a little disappointed about missing the pole and the championship point, but it’s OK, my car is perfect,” said Montoya, winner of nine races this year. “There wasn’t another tenth of a mile left in it.”

The other million will go to the race winner.

Max Papis, who replaced Rahal when the team owner retired as a driver last year, will start alongside Pruett in the front row. Driving a Ford Cosworth-powered Reynard, he fell shy of Pruett’s pole time by 0.113 seconds, recording a 234.544 mph lap.

“I’m happy for Scott and Cal and the PPI team,” Papis said. “I feel like I am part of their pole position, having developed the Toyota engine for over two years. That is nice for them. But I want to kick their . . . on Sunday.

“Everyone wants to win this race. We are going to let Dario and Montoya battle for the championship back in the pack and go for the win.”

Winds gusting 20 mph to 30 mph hampered drivers in their two-lap qualifying runs.

“We got a few gusts that caused me to go sideways and I think that is what cost us the pole,” said Papis, who had a 238.231 lap in morning practice before the winds arrived.

Vasser, the defending Marlboro 500 winner who has been overshadowed by teammate Montoya this year, will start beside him in an effort to win his first race of the season.

“We’ll just have to take care of our equipment for 400 miles, get the car right, then fight for the win at the end.”

TODAY’S RACE

* What: Marlboro 500.

* When: Noon today, ESPN

* Where: California Speedway.