1999 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix

1999 Nazareth

Race details
Race 4 of 20 in the 1999 CART season
Nazareth Speedway
Date	May 2, 1999
Official name	1999 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix
Location	Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania, United States
Course	Permanent oval course 0.946 mi / 1.522 km
Distance	225 laps 212.85 mi / 342.45 km
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya  (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	19.600
Fastest lap
Driver	Hélio Castro-Neves  (Hogan Racing)
Time	21.106 (on lap 19 of 225)
Podium
First	Juan Pablo Montoya  (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	P. J. Jones  (Patrick Racing)
Third	Paul Tracy  (Team KOOL Green)

The 1999 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on May 2, 1999, on the Nazareth Speedway in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Report

Race

Juan Pablo Montoya followed up on his win in Long Beach by taking his first CART pole in Nazareth, beating Hélio Castro-Neves by the minute margin of one-thousandth of a second. Montoya led the early stages of the race until Castro-Neves passed him in traffic on lap 39, however, a quicker pitstop by Montoya's Ganassi team got Montoya back out in front again. Montoya led for the next 95 laps, but Castro-Neves stayed on his tail all the time, the duo being much quicker than anyone else. Castro-Neves again passed Montoya on lap 145, only for the pit stops to reverse the order. On the resulting restart, Castro-Neves was caught out and passed by P. J. Jones, and later while trying to get the place back, he spun and lost two laps, before eventually crashing out. Montoya cruised to victory ahead of Jones and Paul Tracy, which also gave him the championship lead.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	225	1:46:13.527	1	20+1+1
2	20	P. J. Jones	Patrick Racing	225	+5.103	8	16
3	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	225	+5.880	4	14
4	25	Cristiano da Matta	Arciero-Wells Racing	225	+6.305	17	12
5	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	225	+16.401	9	10
6	6	Michael Andretti	Newman-Haas Racing	225	+16.719	14	8
7	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	225	+20.624	12	6
8	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	225	+21.836	3	5
9	36	Alex Barron	All American Racing	224	+1 Lap	18	4
10	24	Scott Pruett	Arciero-Wells Racing	224	+1 Lap	21	3
11	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	224	+1 Lap	11	2
12	99	Greg Moore	Forsythe Racing	224	+1 Lap	10	1
13	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	224	+1 Lap	7
14	33	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	224	+1 Lap	6
15	5	Gil de Ferran	Walker Racing	224	+1 Lap	13
16	19	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Payton/Coyne Racing	224	+1 Lap	22
17	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	223	+2 Laps	5
18	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	222	+3 Laps	15
19	22	Robby Gordon	Team Gordon	220	+5 Laps	24
20	10	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	212	Oil Pressure	19
21	9	Hélio Castro-Neves	Hogan Racing	175	Contact	2
22	8	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	77	Handling	16
23	44	Tony Kanaan	Forsythe Racing	51	Engine	20
24	2	Al Unser Jr.	Team Penske	44	Contact	23
WD	34	Dennis Vitolo	Payton/Coyne Racing		Withdrew
WD	16	Shigeaki Hattori	Bettenhausen Racing		Withdrew

Caution flags

Laps	Cause
12-17	Tracy (26) spin
46-59	Unser Jr. (2) contact
146-154	Jones (20) spin
171-176	Castro-Neves (9) spin
179-199	Castro-Neves (9) contact

Lap Leaders

Laps Leader 1-38 Juan Pablo Montoya 39-49 Hélio Castro-Neves 50-144 Juan Pablo Montoya 145-148 Hélio Castro-Neves 149-225 Juan Pablo Montoya

Driver Laps led Juan Pablo Montoya 210 Hélio Castro-Neves 15

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	45
2	Adrián Fernández	43
3	Greg Moore	40
4	Michael Andretti	40
5	Dario Franchitti	35