.04 Seconds in Michigan

ABC Network had to indulge in a half hour of Woods worship before race fans could get a taped glimpse of the banzai charge to the green flag for the Michigan 500.

It was racing's young gun who came around to lead the first lap. Juan Montoya left pole-sitter Paul Tracy in his rear-view mirror and put his Toyota powered Lola in the lead for the first couple of dozen laps.

Montoya got shuffled back after initial pit stops, complicated by a yellow flag resulting from Adrian Fernandez spinning at pit exit. Fernandez ground off the tip of his nose cone against the concrete wall, but his crew merely changed the tires and sent him back out since the front wings were undamaged.

As announcer Paul Page commented, "Hours and hours in the wind tunnel, and now they say it doesn't matter."

CART reported later in its race-rundown, "Amazingly enough, the modification to Fernandez's nose didn't slow him down that much -- on the final lap of the race he turned a lap of 228.151 mph."

As the race approached the 100 lap mark, Fittipaldi pinched Kenny Brack against the 2nd wall exit, with Brack coming away much the worse. Carbon fiber flew in every direction, and the Swede didn't make it to the pits. Fittipaldi had to pit for tires - his right rear was flat - and significant right side pod damage was visible. Brack was unhurt, in spite of the spectacular nature of the crash, but Gil de Ferran was struck on the hand by flying debris and suffered a broken index finger.

So much for two of the bunch contending for the lead ...

Especially after Fittipaldi, running relatively nicely in spite of the dings, apparently touched wheels while motoring down the back stretch in a flying furball -- description courtesy of former driver and current broadcaster Parker Johnstone -- and then took one of the wildest rides seen recently.

His Ford/Lola made a sharp left turn, hit the grass, and skated at least a couple of thousand feet across access roads and turf. Luckily, it stayed bottom-side down until it came to a stop. Unluckily, the ride was rough enough that Fittipaldi limped away hanging onto a safety worker.

As the race bore down on the 500-mile mark after Fittipaldi's accident, the action became more hectic. There were 52 official changes for the lead during the afternoon, but probably three times that many if you had a calculator and wanted to count changes within a lap.

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