1999 Marlboro 500

Race highlights

Pruett led the way in his final CART appearance, but he would not hold the lead for long as he dropped back and fell out of the race later on, while Michael Andretti took control at the start. Two laps later, Richie Hearn in his final CART race, spun in turn and struck the inside wall; he would walk away. Alex Barron crashed out of the event on the 27th lap; that was the final accident of the event. After leading all but nine of the first seventy-one laps, Andretti's car suffered a fire during his second pit stop, which dropped him out of contention. Dario Franchitti, who was in a championship battle with Juan Pablo Montoya, also had difficulties on pit road; he fell off the pace when his first pit stop led to an improperly fitted right rear wheel, and the replacement tires had incorrect pressure.[4] Raul Boesel, who was running his 3rd race of the season, fell out with an engine blown as he completed 164 laps, this race turned out to be his last of his 173 starts, leaving him with the most starts to never win a CART race. Max Papis led the Marlboro 500 for 111 laps but was forced to make a pit stop near the end for fuel. Adrián Fernández would take the lead and held him off to get the win after successfully stretching his fuel supply to avoid a late pit stop. Fernandez finished the race approximately seven seconds in front of Papis.[4]

Montoya won the CART World Series championship after winning the tiebreaker from Franchitti, due in largely of the number of wins (Picture shown from 2002).

Adrián Fernández won the final race of the year, but for the second time a fatal accident marred an event which he won.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Franchitti ended up in a tie with 212 points. Franchitti had scored more podiums but Montoya won the title by having the most wins with seven to Franchitti's three. The championship was also Chip Ganassi Racing its fourth straight title with three drivers (also including Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and Alex Zanardi in 1997–1998). The finale, however, would be marred by tragedy as Greg Moore was killed on the 9th lap of the race. For Fernandez, it was his second win that was marred by tragedy. He won his first CART win at Toronto three years prior to Moore's death, a race in which Jeff Krosnoff was killed. Fernandez responded, "It's so hard. Greg was such a good friend of ours.[5] We've been racing for a while and shared so many good moments on and off the track."

Greg Moore fatal accident on lap 9

On lap 9, Moore lost control of his car and crashed in the same area,[6] in turn, two where Hearn had already crashed six laps earlier and where Jimmy Vasser had crashed in practice. The two earlier incidents were significantly different than Moore's, however. Vasser and Hearn had both been exiting pit road when they crashed, and thus were not traveling at high rates of speed when they spun out onto the grass.

Moore was not as fortunate. Since his car was traveling at over 200 miles per hour, once his car spun and clipped the grass it was launched into a nearby fence with a concrete retaining wall beneath, with the cockpit side of the #99 making the hardest impact. The car then tumbled multiple times and broke apart, finally coming to rest upside down.

Moore's condition was immediately a concern due to the damage caused to his car;[5] he ultimately had to be extricated from the remains of his vehicle by the track safety crew. Series medical director Steve Olvey examined the Canadian driver and immediately called for a Medevac helicopter to take Moore to Loma Linda Medical Center, with local trauma surgeon Jeff Grange sent to accompany Moore and report back. Thirty-three laps after the crash, Olvey spoke to Gary Gerould of ESPN and revealed to the television audience that Moore suffered massive trauma to his head and his internal organs and that the injuries he suffered were significant enough that he might not survive them; indeed, Moore died in the hospital at 1:20 PM Pacific Standard Time that afternoon.

Hélio Castroneves, seen here in 2009, finished 20th in the race. Penske chose him to replace the deceased Moore and he has driven for the team ever since.

Moore was just 24 years old when he died and was the second driver to die in the season; Penske Racing driver Gonzalo Rodríguez had been killed in a practice crash at Laguna Seca Raceway just three races earlier.[7] Moore was also the last driver to die in a CART FedEx Championship Series event before the reunion with the IndyCar Series and it was not until 2003 that another open-wheel driver lost his life in an accident (Tony Renna).

Shortly after Moore was pronounced dead, Olvey announced his passing to the television audience watching around the world. The information was not relayed to the drivers, however, until the checkered flag had dropped. As such, the postrace victory celebration for Fernandez and the championship ceremony for Montoya were canceled. Instead, a prayer service for Moore was conducted by the track's chaplain and the flags in victory lane were flown at half staff.

An investigation of the fatal crash said the fatal head injury was caused because the car had flown into the wall with Moore's head smashing into the barrier first at a specific angle. The investigation confirmed that had the car hit the wall differently than Greg's head hitting the wall first, Moore would have survived.

This event was to be Moore's last with Forsythe Racing, as he was signed to fill an open seat at Penske for 2000 and was to team with Gil de Ferran of Walker Racing, who signed on to replace Al Unser, Jr. in the Penske stable.[6] Moore was replaced by Hélio Castroneves, who was losing his ride at the end of the year when Hogan Racing ceased operations. Castroneves is still active with Team Penske today, running full time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series and continuing to participate part-time in the IndyCar Series.

For safety reasons, International Speedway Corporation paved over the runoff area that Moore had his accident in and later paved over the entire backstretch.

Legacy

Moore would end up finishing in 10th in the final points standings but soon after his death, the number 99 would be retired by CART in honor of him. Fellow drivers paid tribute to this day, including Dario Franchitti who was one of Moore's best friends when he won at Vancouver in 2002. Franchitti did so again he won the 2009 IndyCar Series title and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Moore won his final CART victory in the same year of his death. Max Papis to this day still wears red gloves in honor of Moore who wore red gloves during his career.

Race results

Pos St Car Driver Team Laps Led Margin/Retired Status Points 1 13 40 Adrian Fernandez Patrick Racing 250 10 2hr 57min 17sec 171.666 mph Running 20 2 2 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 250 112 +7.634 sec Running 17 3 9 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman/Haas Racing 250 37 +8.843 sec Running 14 4 3 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 250 13 +14.316 sec Running 12 5 4 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 250 0 +20.706 sec Running 10 6 17 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest 250 2 +44.196 sec Running 8 7 10 2 Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 249 0 +1 lap Flagged 6 8 11 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 249 0 +1 lap Flagged 5 9 12 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 249 0 +1 lap Flagged 4 10 8 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 248 0 +2 laps Flagged 3 11 15 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 247 0 +3 laps Flagged 2 12 23 20 P.J. Jones Patrick Racing 246 0 +4 laps Flagged 1 13 26 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Dale Coyne Racing 236 5 Engine OUT 14 5 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 235 0 +15 laps Flagged 15 24 34 Dennis Vitolo Dale Coyne Racing 235 0 +15 laps Flagged 16 18 18 Mark Blundell PacWest 193 0 Electrical OUT 17 25 36 Raul Boesel All American Racing 164 0 Engine OUT 18 19 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 141 9 Electrical OUT 19 2 15 Naoki Hattori Walker Racing 124 0 Electrical OUT 20 19 9 Hélio Castroneves Hogan Racing 111 0 Engine OUT 21 6 6 Michael Andretti Newman/Haas Racing 71 62 Oil Fire OUT 22 1 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 48 0 Engine OUT 1‡ 23 16 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 32 0 Engine OUT 24 14 3 Alex Barron Team Penske 27 0 Crash OUT 25 7 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 21 0 Electrical OUT 26 27 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 9 0 Fatal Accident OUT 27 21 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 3 0 Crash OUT ‡ - Denotes Pole Sitter and earns one point Final standings Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti ended up tied with 212 points each, Montoya winning the tiebreaker due to his higher number of wins that season with seven.[8] This rare occurrence would happen again in IndyCar in 2006 as another Ganassi Racing driver, Dan Wheldon, and Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr. had 475 points each and Hornish Jr. won the tiebreaker with the most wins at the end.[9] In 2015, Montoya (driving for Penske) would lose the IndyCar championship in a tiebreaker to his former team with Scott Dixon clinching his fourth title after winning at Sonoma Raceway to earn a series-leading third win of the season. This also happened previously in the 1996 Indy Racing League season, when Buzz Calkins and Scott Sharp were tied with 246 points. But on that occasion, they were co-champions and only held three events. The NASCAR Cup Series has only had this scenario play out once, in 2011 when Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards were tied in points (2403) but Stewart won that championship due to 5 races compared to Edwards 1 victory. Pos Driver Points 1 Juan Pablo Montoya 212 2 Dario Franchitti 212 3 Paul Tracy 161 4 Michael Andretti 151 5 Max Papis 150 6 Adrian Fernandez 140 7 Christian Fittipaldi 121 8 Gil de Ferran 108 9 Jimmy Vasser 104 10 Greg Moore 97 References "Weather of the 1999 Marlboro 500". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Archived from the original on 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2013-06-24. "Papis hoping to win". Boca Raton News. Associated Press. October 30, 1999. Retrieved November 12, 2009. "Pruitt gives Toyota first pole". Boca Raton News. Associated Press. October 31, 1999. Retrieved November 22, 2009. Sproule, Marc (October 31, 1999). "Fernandez and Montoya the Victors on a Very Difficult Day". Championship Auto Racing Teams. Archived from the original on August 22, 2000. Retrieved November 13, 2009. "ESPN.com — Auto Racing; Moore, 24, killed in horrifying CART crash". ESPN.com. November 3, 1999. Retrieved December 9, 2009. "CART driver Greg Moore killed in crash". CNN Sports Illustrated. October 31, 1999. Retrieved November 12, 2009. "Plus: Auto Racing — Marlboro 500; Driver Killed In Early Crash". The New York Times. November 1, 1999. Retrieved November 12, 2009. Hinton, Ed (November 8, 1999). "Wheels Of Fortune". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved November 23, 2009. "Hornish Jr. wins tiebreak to take IRL title". NBC Sports. Associated Press. September 10, 2006. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2009. External links 1999 Marlboro 500 Results CART Fontana 1999 Race results on Motorsport.com 10 Years Later: Remembering Greg Moore Greg Moore's Fatal Crash *Live* Greg Moore: What Might Have Been Previous race: 1999 Honda Indy 300 CART Indycar World Series 1999 season Next race: 2000 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami presented by Toyota Previous race: 1998 Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota Marlboro 500 Next race: 2000 Marlboro 500