The title doesn't refer to the Radiohead song of the same name, but to the underlying themeof the 2000 CART/FedEx Championship Series season. While 1999 saw more success from somepeople than was expected from them, 2000 brings high expectations from a wide range of people.

1. Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
Let's just say it - Toyota engines!?! What was Chip thinking? Granted, this is the same man who was able to foresee the success of the Honda engine, Reynard chassis, Firestone tires, an unknown racer named Alex Zanardi and an even further unknown racer by the name of Juan Montoya. But can even the hallowed dynasty of TCGR put the Toyota engine on the podium? Chip has got a lot to prove to a lot of critics.

Then there's the issue of losing Mo Nunn. Like Jeff Gordon losing Ray Evernham, will it matter or will it MATTER? Maybe that's why Chip is thinking of changing chassis as well as the engine. If he fails this year, which of course means not winning a fifth championship, maybe he'd rather take the heat for the package change than hear about letting the magic engineer go.

And before we leave TCGR, we have to remember Jimmy Vasser. Unfortunately, few people do remember him anymore. Was the 1996 season an aberration? Sure, he won a couple of 500 mile races and a couple of million dollars, but the other TCGR team has done a lot more in the past three seasons. If Jimmy doesn't win this year, as well as factor into the championship, I'm afraid the number 12 car may have a different driver in 2001.

2. Newman/Haas Racing
"We love the Lola chassis - and we distribute their parts. No, we love the Swift chassis, and we distribute their parts. Oops, no, I meant that we re-love the Lola chassis..." Newman-Haas Racing, indisputably a top-notch team, has done it again for 2000 - switched chassis. Only Robby Gordon seems to jump back and forth between chassis more than Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi are forced to do. Will they have to go through another year of rewriting the set-up books, or are they setting the trend - rumors have it that even TCGR is looking at the Lola.

As for the drivers, Michael has got to get on the top step of the podium this year, more than just once like in 1999. While Michael is always a threat during the race, he doesn't often seem to be a threat at the finish line. Like Dan Marino, he's dangerous on any given Sunday, but at the end of the season, he's not taking home the trophy.

And Christian's first goal for 2000 must be to be healthy for every race. When you look at his results in 1999, he was ferocious before his testing accident, earning his first win in Elkhart Lake. And he was immediately in contention when he returned in Houston. If he could race in all 20 races this year, he may be able to establish the Fittipaldi name in the 21st century.

3. Team KOOL Green
This seems to be the only team who is reappearing in 2000 the same as they were in 1999. Same drivers, same equipment, same owners, same sponsor, even same driver's wife and girlfriend! But 2000 is a proving season for both of Barry Green's team.

When Dario Franchitti looks back at 1999, he sees a season where he was no where as dominating as champion Juan Montoya, yet he ended up with the same number of points. If only he had done a little bit more, he'd have the title. So what does that mean for 2000? He, and his team, must remember that every single point is important. Every pass on the track and every pit stop could possibly bring one more point. Perhaps Barry should have thought of that at Mid-Ohio last year.

This season is also a pivotal season for Paul Tracy - again. Last season, he had to prove that he could start the year immediately a race down because of his suspension at Homestead, while maintaining his patience throughout the remaining 19 races. And he almost did - except in St. Louis with his teammate, and in Chicago with Andretti. Maybe 2000 will be the year in which Paul completely matures. He's got his first child on the way, and after the loss of his friend Greg Moore at Fontana, perhaps Paul will reach further down in himself and think about the ramifications of his actions. It could happen!

4. Team Rahal
Bobby Rahal finally did it. He got rid of Bryan "I can only win at Laguna Seca" Herta, a very friendly, likable guy, and replaced him with Kenny "Pronounce my last name like the shampoo" Brack, another friendly, likable guy. While Bryan suffered from being a one-hit wonder, Kenny suffers from being the first driver being ultra-successful in IRL, and hoping to match his success in CART. Yes, he won a season championship. Yes, he won the IRL 500. But that was of course after a CART driver blew into town and almost won the race himself, until his IRL owner miscalculated his fuel. So, does Kenny remember how to turn right?

Max Papis is looking to have quite a year himself. After shedding his Toyota engine, he had his breakthrough season in 1999, almost winning the US 500 until he ran out of fuel on the last lap. With Team Rahal keeping the same package combination again this year (possibly a record for them), Max is ready to get his first win. Will he rightfully be the Number One driver for the team, or will everyone be helping Kenny and lose Max in the shuffle?

5. Marlboro Team Penske
Only a team owner who has as much money as Roger Penske could afford to do what he's done for 2000. Two new drivers, new chassis, new engines, new tires, and new team management. All of this to get his 100th CART victory. But do you remember how long its been since his 99th win? Last year, when ESPN Classic was replaying Greg Moore's victories to honor his memory, they first showed the 1997 Miller 200 in Milwaukee. Paul Page was saying that Paul Tracy had won the previous race at Gateway, his third win in a row in 1997. Page said that if Tracy could win the Milwaukee race, it would be Penske's 100th victory. That means that Penske's last victory was with Paul Tracy, at Gateway on May 24, 1997. Wow!

It's fair to say that everyone at Marlboro Team Penske has something to prove in 2000. Gil de Ferran has to prove that he's better than the measly three victories he's had in four years. Maybe shedding those Goodyear tires may be the best thing for Gil. If seemed to do wonders for Christian Fittipaldi.

Having some career stability may prove to help nurture Helio Castro-Neves. Bettenhausen lost their Alumax sponsorship at the end of 1998, forcing them to cut him loose. Then, at the Fontana race in 1999, Carl Hogan announced that he couldn't get sponsorship for this season and was folding his team. Two dismissals in two years. Now, with a hungry and focused Team Penske, Helio has to prove that his pole in Milwaukee and podium at Gateway last year wasn't the extent of his success. Put in him a car that doesn't blow up every 20 laps and he just may surprise people.

6. Patrick Racing
Adrian Fernandez and Roberto Moreno are both primed for breakout seasons in 2000. Adrian has come a long way in just a few short years. At Galles Racing, he was a ride-buyer to whom no one listened nor coached. When he got to Tasman Motorsports, Steve Horne listened to him and taught him how to help set up his car, and it resulted in Adrian's first victory. His tenure at Patrick Racing has continued that development, and increased his success - two victories in each of the past seasons has placed him on the list of "possible threats" each weekend. He finished last season with his first 500 mile victory, and won one million dollars doing it, but unfortunately couldn't celebrate the victory due to the weekend's circumstances. Hopefully, he'll properly celebrate he success by repeating it in Homestead in March.

For the first time in his career, Roberto Moreno is a fulltime driver in CART. After responding to all of those emergency phone calls to replace injured drivers for the past few years, Roberto finally gets to call his car his own. Think about it - when he pulls in for a pit stop, the crew's helmets will be painted just like his - what a concept! Also consider this - if he can jump into someone else's car and consistently score points with it, what can he do with his own car for 20 races? I say that Roberto is the dark horse for the 2000 season.

7. Forsythe/Arciero Championship Racing
I'm still not exactly sure what this team is. Its owned by a guy who has another full time team running different engines and chassis; its run by a guy who used to have his team but now seems to just be quiet and do what he's told; and its using a chassis from another guy who used to be partners in another team, but is now partners in this team. So here goes...

Forsythe/Arciero Championship Racing has given up the Reynard and gone to the Swift. Hmmm. I guess they didn't pay attention when Della Penna Motorsports and Team Gordon did this last year. All I can say is that I feel sorry for the McDonalds crew - nobody likes working on a Swift. They didn't put access holes where holes should be, and let's not even talk about "ease of setup". Good luck.

As for Bryan Herta, we all know what he has to prove in 2000. The CART/FedEx Championship Series has 20 races this year, and only one of them will be run at Laguna Seca. You probably can't win the championship if you only win one race a year, and you certainly can't win the championship if you are a back marker at the rest of the tracks. Bryan's 1999 season was summed up when he was introduced at the Miller 225 at Milwaukee - after Dennis Vitolo but before Shigeaki Hattori. When Shig out-qualifies you, it's back to the drawing board.

8. PacWest Racing Group
1997 looked so promising for the PacWest Racing Group. Three victories which should have been four except both cars ran out of fuel on the last lap. And then silence. Is PacWest waiting to officially replace Team Penske as the "Team Most Likely to Never Get Another Victory"?

9. PPI Motorsports
They still have the most promising sophomore driver this side of JuanMontoya, but they also still have Toyota engines (probably not thesame engines that TCGR is going to get this year), and they have anowner who is racing in five different race series this year - CART,Toyota-Atlantic, NASCAR, BGN, and SCORE. They got the call from Toyota to get the pole at Fontana last year. The next call probably won't come again for quite a while.

This year, Cristiano da Matta will be racing the same package as Juan, assuming TCGR doesn't switch to Lola. If they stay with Reynard, we will be able to compare last year's top two rookies on a more even playing field. Can Juan still beat Cristiano with no previous experience with the Toyota and a team that is also new to the engine, and without Mo Nunn? We'll find out...

10. Mo Nunn Racing
Can an entire team hinge on the engineer? Can Mo really take a different engine, put it in a Reynard/Firestone car, slap in a driver and win this year? He's got the money, he's got the expectations ("Top-5 in the championship, with about three or four wins"), but will he have the results? Is Mo really that good?

It's good to see that Tony Kannan got away from the Swift at his McDonalds team - that would have been a waste of driver talent. But he of course needs to win a race in 2000 without having to depend upon someone else running out of fuel within a mile of the finish line. I do believe that Tony is a talented driver, but he's the same driver that was dominating Long Beach last year until he had a brain fade directly into the wall. The rest of his year wasn't particularly special.

11. Player's Forsythe Racing Team
If this team has anything to prove, it will be that they can work through the tragedy of losing Greg Moore, and still compete in this sometimes violent, dangerous sport. Good luck to Alexandre Tagliani. I hope that everyone remembers that Greg was leaving the Player's team after Fontana to go to Team Penske, and that Alexandre didn't get his job because of Greg's accident. But he still has big shoes to fill.

With Greg leaving, Patrick Carpentier was already going to step up to Number One driver for 2000. Patrick has never really had much success in CART, perhaps partly because his team mate was so good and was always challenging for the win, something that Patrick rarely did. But if he is to write the rest of his CART career story, the 2000 season is certainly the time to do so. We're used to seeing a light-blue "players-racing.com" car up front. It's Patrick's job to keep it there.

12. Bettenhausen Motorsports
Everyone at Bettenhausen Motorsports is out to prove that they deserve to be racing at the CART level. Funny, you never really think that if a team or driver is racing in CART, they might not be good enough to deserve to compete. But that of course is exactly what happened to this team and their driver Shigeaki Hattori last year. CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach announced before the race at Laguna Seca that he had revoked Shig's license for the remainder of the season because his performance did not meet the standards of a Champ Car competitor. Ouch! That didn't even happen to Hiro!

The 2000 season finds Tony Bettenhausen with his best driver since he had to let Helio Castro-Neves go. Michel Jourdain Jr. is bringing his Herdez sponsorship to Tony and they are both serious about racing. During his try-out for the team last year, Michel laid down some blistering laps at Sebring with the team's Lola Mercedes, and that was with Goodyear tires! If the team can shake the "Shig stigma" from the past year and help Michel get to know his new car, there may be another red and green car near the front in 2000.

13. Della Penna Motorsports
Still has the Toyota, so maybe the proving will be between Richie proving that his results are John Della Penna's fault, and John blaming Richie.

14. Dale Coyne Racing and Walker Racing
I group them together because they both have Japanese drivers paying their bills for them this year, with Takuya Kurosawa and Shinji Nakano respectively. Maybe what they are proving this year is that Dan Gurney was right not to race if you can't get your own sponsor and the driver who you really want.

15. Johansson Team CAN
I'll believe it when I see it. Therefore, I won't believe it...