INDIANAPOLIS - The battle for the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series runner-up, and the $500,000 prize that goes with it, has boiled down to a trio of drivers who will lead the chase as the Champ Car series winds up the 2002 season with a trip to the newly-refurbished Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico.

The year's racing will end Sunday with the Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante Presented by Banamex/Visa as CART makes its return to the Mexican capital 21 years after Rick Mears won back-to-back races in 1980-81. The Mears-led events were contested on the same Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track as this year's edition of the race will be, although substantial renovation has lengthened the track to 2.75 miles from the old distance of 2.48.

Bruno Junqueira (#4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone), Patrick Carpentier (#32 Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) and Dario Franchitti (#27 KOOL Honda/Lola/Bridgestone) are the combatants in the fight for the second-place spot in the final season standings, with Junqueira holding the lead by a scant three points over Carpentier with Franchitti sitting 10 markers behind Junqueira.

Junqueira has seen his lead in the fight for the runner-up spot shrink over the last two races despite the fact that he has qualified second for both events. He placed 14th in the rain-soaked Australia event and came back to finish ninth in Fontana after his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team put him down a lap by failing to tighten a wheel on an early pit stop. Franchitti's chances were also dealt a blow at Fontana when his engine erupted in flames with five laps to run, dropping him to 10th on the scoring pylon. The Scotsman has strung together four top-10 finishes to end the year however, a run that started with a win at Rockingham.

Carpentier has taken full advantage of the missteps by finishing on the podium in each of the last two races, including a third-place run at Fontana. Carpentier is currently enjoying his best season in the CART series, scoring a career-best 145 points and guaranteeing himself his highest-ever finish in the points no matter what happens in Mexico City.

But in order to snare the runner-up prize, the trio and everyone else in the 19-car field will have to deal with 2002 series champion Cristiano da Matta (#1 Havoline Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone), who has won the last two Mexican events - both of which took place at Monterrey's Fundidora Park circuit. Da Matta, who announced last week that he will race for Toyota's Formula 1 team next year, comes into the race with a chance to tie the series record for wins in a season with eight and could become just the sixth driver in series history to win eight poles if he leads final qualifying on Saturday.

Fontana winner Jimmy Vasser (#8 Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) will look to keep his roll going as the California native has charged up the standings with a late-season run of eight consecutive points-paying finishes, a streak that is his longest since 1998. Vasser was 12th in the point standings at the start of his run, but has vaulted into the sixth spot after his Fontana win and is just 10 points behind Christian Fittipaldi (#11 Lilly Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone) for the fifth spot.

Fittipaldi will be making a severe transition in his 132nd Champ Car start as he will be strapping into his Newman/Haas mount just one week after wrestling a 3,400-pound NASCAR stock car as he drove for Petty Enterprises to a 41st-place finish in the Winston Cup race in Phoenix. Fittipaldi has also earned a career-high point total this year and could eclipse his previous best championship finish of fifth if he can gain 16 points on Franchitti in Mexico City.

Holding onto his fifth-place spot in the points could even be a problem for Fittipaldi as five drivers come into the year's final event with a mathematical chance to climb into the top-five. Vasser leads a quintet of drivers that could end the year in the top-five, a group that includes all-time CART victory leader Michael Andretti (#39 Motorola Honda/Lola/Bridgestone) and Milwaukee winner Paul Tracy (#26 KOOL Honda/Lola/Bridgestone).

Popular hometown hero Adrian Fernandez (#51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda/Lola/Bridgestone) will be the focus of attention during Friday's first Champ Car practice as the veteran driver tries to overcome the injuries suffered in a first-lap crash in Surfers Paradise. Fernandez missed the Fontana race after fracturing two thoracic vertebrae in the crash, but will drive in the first practice session to see if he can run the entire weekend. If he can not continue, CART Toyota Atlantic driver Luis Diaz will take over. Diaz won a pair of races in this season's Atlantic championship and would make his first Champ Car start if Fernandez needs a relief driver.

The race will also mark the Champ Car debut of Andre Lotterer (#19 Dale Coyne Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), who will pilot a Dale Coyne Racing machine in his first CART outing. Coyne's squad will make its return to the series after putting together a successful effort for Darren Manning at Rockingham where the rookie led 18 laps and finished ninth. The 20-year-old Lotterer has most recently been a test driver for Jaguar's Formula 1 team and won three races in the German F3 Championship in the 2000 season.

Mexican drivers Mario Dominguez (#55 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Michel Jourdain Jr. (#9 Gigante Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) will also be the focus of a home-country crowd that is expected to top 300,000 over the three days. Dominguez, who claimed the first win of his career in Australia has clinched the Jim Trueman Rookie-of-the-Year Award while Jourdain will look to bounce back after having a 17-race points-paying streak ended by engine trouble in Fontana. Jourdain is another driver that is in the midst of his best CART season, setting a new personal standard for points, top-five finishes and championship finish.

The Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante Presented by Banamex/Visa will take place Sunday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel. Championship points will be awarded to the leaders of both Friday and Saturday's qualifying runs, sessions that can be seen on a one-hour tape delay on SPEED Channel. Friday's qualifying can be seen at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, while Saturday's final qualifying will be shown starting at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

WHO'S HOT

• Jimmy Vasser (#8 Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) of Team Rahal capped off an amazing race at California Speedway that saw 43 lead changes among seven drivers with a pass of Michael Andretti (#39 Motorola Honda/Lola/Bridgestone) of Team Motorola on a lap 248 restart to win The 500 Presented by Toyota. With an average speed of 197.995 mph, Vasser won the fastest 500-mile open wheel event in history - and quite possibly the fastest 500-mile race in motorsports history - breaking the record of 189.727 mph Al Unser Jr. set at the CART FedEx Championship Series Michigan 500 in 1990. In addition to leading a race-record 148 laps en route to his 10th career Champ Car win, his Shell Team Rahal crew captured $50,000 for winning the Craftsman Pit Crew Challenge for the second-straight year.
• Michael Andretti posted his fourth top-five finish of the season, leading 37 laps before his very competitive machine gave way to Vasser. The effort resulted in Andretti moving to seventh in the series point standings with 110 on the season.
• Patrick Carpentier (Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) of Player's/Forsythe Racing notched a podium at California, wrapping up two of the top-three positions for Ford-Cosworth, which scored its third victory in the past four years at Fontana. The podium was the fifth for Carpentier who now stands third in the point race with 145, just three markers back of Bruno Junqueira (#4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone) of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, who finished ninth after starting on the outside of row one.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

• The CART FedEx Championship Series returns to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico for the first time since CART's inaugural venture south of the border in 1980 - which also marked CART's first international event. The event ran from 1980-81 on the permanent 2.48-mile road course, which after undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation and modernization process, has been extended to 2.75 miles for this year's CART finale.
• Three-time CART champion Rick Mears (1979, '81-82) took the checkered flag in the first two CART events in Mexico City, with Bobby Unser having won both poles.
• The Round 19 finale in Mexico City marks the first time in Champ Car history that two events on the calendar will be contested in Mexico. The opening round of the 2002 season was hosted in Monterrey, Mexico for the second consecutive season with both events won by recently-crowned champion Cristiano da Matta (#1 Havoline Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone) of Newman/Haas Racing.

MANUFACTURING SUCCESS

• Ford-Cosworth proved to be the engine of choice at California Speedway in Round 18, supplying the winning powerplant to Jimmy Vasser and third-place finisher Patrick Carpentier to make it two of three on the victory podium. Overall, Toyota-powered drivers have won nine of 18 CART FedEx Championship Series events contested this season behind the winning performances of Cristiano da Matta (7) and Bruno Junqueira (2). Honda has five wins between Dario Franchitti (#27 KOOL Honda/Lola Bridgestone) (3), teammate Paul Tracy (#26 KOOL Honda/Lola/Bridgestone) and technical partner Michael Andretti followed by Ford-Cosworth (4) thanks to Patrick Carpentier's two Ohio triumphs, rookie Mario Dominguez' win in Surfers Paradise and Jimmy Vasser's victory at California Speedway. Toyota clinched their first championship this year in Australia since the award's inception in 1995. The Manufacturer's Championship currently has Toyota with 312 points over Honda (271) and Ford-Cosworth (247).
• 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series Constructor's Champion Lola has won 15 of 18 CART events this season, including wins by Cristiano da Matta (7), Dario Franchitti (3), Bruno Junqueira (2), Paul Tracy, rookie Mario Dominguez and Jimmy Vasser. Reynard took trips to victory circle in the remaining three races this season in the hands of Patrick Carpentier (2) and Michael Andretti. Lola clinched the championship in the Round 14 Shell Grand Prix of Denver in September.

NOTEWORTHY

• On October 6th voting for the WorldCom Most Popular Driver Award concluded at the Grand Prix of the Americas. The votes were tallied from the internet, hand written ballots and fan stopping by the voting booth. The top 5 finalists for the award include: Cristiano da Matta, Patrick Carpentier, Paul Tracy, Michael Andretti and Dario Franchitti. The winner's designated charity will receive a check for $25,000 courtesy of WorldCom. The award will be given to the winner by one lucky fan who picked that driver at the year end banquet in Miami at the hotel Intercontinental on November 22nd. Stay tuned to see who will win the WorldCom Most Popular Driver for the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series.
• Ten drivers have already scored 100 championship points this year, with three more having scored 91 or more. The previous CART record for 100-point drivers is 11, achieved in 2000.
• Scott Dixon has scored 91 points this year without leading a single race lap and is closing in on the CART record for most points scored without having led. Roger Mears holds the existing mark of 103 points without leading, set in 1982. Most recently, Tony Kanaan scored 92 points in 1998 while John Andretti tallied 94 in '92 without having paced the field a single time.

GRAN PREMIO TELMEX/GIGANTE PRE-RACE QUOTEBOARD

CRISTIANO DA MATTA (#1 Havoline Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): "I am looking forward to the race in Mexico City. The place is going to be packed which isn't a surprise considering what we are used to in Monterrey (Mexico). The layout is very nice from what I have seen. I actually have an old computer game that is pretty similar except for the last turn, which has been changed. Even though I haven't been to the track, I can already be familiar with it because of the computer game. I have heard that the changes that the promoter made to the surface and other areas are so nice. We have had a good car for the road courses and we hope that Mexico City will be more of the same. It's going to be a pretty special race for me because it will be my last with Newman/Haas Racing, at least for a while. I don't want to think about that until after the race is over though. Instead we are concentrating on ending the season the way we started it - with a win in Mexico! I want to go out with a win and at least try to match the record. Other than that, it's an important race like any other."

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA (#4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): "There's a lot on the line for us this weekend in Mexico. It's really important to clinch second place in the championship for Team Target. We need to have a good finish down there. It's been a really good season for the team. We wanted to win the championship, but with the year Cristiano had it was going to be difficult. But second place is a very good finish with all of the competition in this series. I can't say enough about how well my team has done this year. I'm very proud of them. I want to reward them this weekend with a victory."

PATRICK CARPENTIER (#32 Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone): "I really wanted to be in a position to control my own destiny in the battle for second place. Fortunately, getting the third-place podium at the last race in Fontana put me within three points of second, so a race win in Mexico City would overcome that gap. The half-million dollar bonus for finishing second would be fantastic, mainly because it would be such a tribute the entire crew at Team Player's. They've all worked so hard to give me such a competitive car for every race. That's an extra incentive to do everything I can to help the team get this second-place finish. It's nice to have some momentum going into this last race of the season, with the two podiums in a row. We've had the second-place finish and the third, so what we need now is a win in Mexico City to complete the trifecta. Running at a new venue, it's going to be interesting to see how quickly we'll be able to adjust to the new track at the Mexico City Autodrome. From everything that I have heard about the track, it's a fabulous racing venue. The ride is smooth and apparently it's not that slick because it doesn't have much dust and dirt gathered on it. It should be a great setting for the season finale."

DARIO FRANCHITTI (#27 KOOL Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "I'm still hoping that things work out in such a way that I can finish second in the standings. It won't be easy, and luck will have to play a factor if I'm going to be able to do it. But strange things can happen in racing and I've got to believe that everything is still possible. Team KOOL Green has done all they can to help me. It all comes down to this race for me. I have a good feeling about it going in. Mexican fans are extremely enthusiastic, the atmosphere is going to be awesome and I'm hoping that we can get onto the track with a fast car right off the truck and stay at the top of the charts all weekend long."

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI (#11 Lilly Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): "I think we will run well in Mexico City. The car was very competitive on road courses and especially at Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio which are traditional road courses like the one in Mexico City. Apart from the elevation changes, which you don't have in Mexico City, the track is a little like Mid-Ohio. It doesn't have a lot of chicanes like in Montreal or Australia. (On his last race with Newman/Haas Racing:) I don't want to think about it until after the race. I'm just going to Mexico City as if it is just another race. It would be great to end on a high note with a win or podium finish but we'll take it one session at a time. Will I miss open wheel racing? Yes, of course because I have done it my whole life. I'm starting a new phase in my life. When I came here from Europe, are there things I missed about where I came from? Yes, but you adapt and find a new group of things that are even better. I have made a lot of friends at Newman/Haas Racing and have had a lot of good times in CART and there is still one more race that we can win together."

JIMMY VASSER (#8 Shell Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "Mexico City I think is going to be a fantastic event with what we're hearing about the enthusiasm and the crowd numbers for the race. For my teammate, (Michel) Jourdain, I really hope he can win that race. Probably more than myself to win it, I think it would be a fantastic thing for him, Mexico and CART. Before you get in the car, you look up in the (grand) stands, you see a half empty crowd, nothing worse than that. We play to the energy, too. When there's a lot of people there, the energy's high, that's a great feeling for the drivers. I think I can speak for everybody, we look forward to that situation at Mexico City."

MICHAEL ANDRETTI (#39 Motorola Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "This weekend is going to be one of mixed emotions. I will be driving with a heavy heart knowing that this is my last race in CART, but I'm also excited about the future especially becoming a team owner. This is a very important race for Team Motorola. It's an event where we'll have a lot of guests and we're hoping to do especially well and put on a good show for them. I've seen the track layout in Mexico City and it looks great. With the big crowds expected, it should be an exciting weekend. One of the challenges will be the elevation. Although we didn't have many problems in Denver, Mexico City is even higher and we'll face some of the same challenges. Hopefully we'll be able to apply what we learned there to here."

ALEX TAGLIANI (#33 Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone): "When we opened the season with the race in Monterrey, we saw just how enthusiastic the Mexican fans are, and I have no doubt there will be a similar festive atmosphere during race weekend in Mexico City. From what I can see, the layout of the track is absolutely great, with plenty of wide space for passing and lots of room for crews to work in the pits. It's an ultra-modern facility and it should bring out the best in every driver in the series. There's no better way to end the season than with a win, and I expect the competition out on the track will be intense. A win in Mexico City would certainly be a big help toward possibly making it into the top 5 in the drivers' standings. From a Team Player's standpoint, that would mean having both of its drivers finish in the top 5 this season. And from a personal standpoint, it would mean considerable progress from the 11th-place that I had last year. There's still a lot on the line in this final race and it's going to be fun to put on a show for the fans in a brand-new venue."

MICHEL JOURDAIN JR. (#9 Gigante Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "To race in the city I was born, that I've lived all my life, it's great. All my family lives here, all my friends, everything. To race in this track, which pretty much I was born here watching my dad race, all my uncles, then I started racing here myself. I raced in Mexico for seven years. Some years probably I raced 10, 15 times on this track. It's a very special feeling. Especially now to come and see the unbelievable job they have done on the track, it's unbelievable. It's the best track we're going to race in the whole year by far. The people, the whole city, moves around this event. To have a city of 20 million people moving around an event, it's amazing. I'm just so proud to be a Mexican because of the track and the event. It's just great. In all these years, if I'm going to win this one, I would change all the races and many championships to win this race. The way the track is going to be, the way all the people are going to be here, it's going to be unbelievable. This is going to be probably the biggest sporting event in the history of Mexico, the amount of people we're going to have here. The biggest soccer stadium holds like 120,000 people. There's going to be a lot more people here on Sunday. To be able to be part of that event and to have all these people coming to see mostly Adrian, Mario and myself, if I win this race, it's something that would change my life forever. It would be like an American winning the Indianapolis 500. It would be exactly the same thing or maybe even bigger because in the States you have other racing, you have basketball, baseball, all these sports that are so, so big. If a player wins the Super Bowl, it's a team of 50 or 60, I don't know how many people. The same with basketball and all that. But here, even though it's a whole team, at the end I'm the one in the car. To win this would be the biggest thing that could ever happen to me in my life."

PAUL TRACY (#26 KOOL Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "Mexico has so many race fans that it's going to be great to go back there and put on a good show for them. I'm looking forward to trying out this new track; it should be very interesting. This is KOOL's last race and I'd like to win this race for everyone. I've been with Team Green for the past five years and although we've had some hard times, we've also overcome a lot of challenges and had some great wins and good times along the way. All in all it's been a very good experience for me and I wish everyone well in the future."

KENNY BRACK (#12 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): "We've qualified 7th or better in the last 6 races, we just haven't had the finishing results that we were looking for. I hope that we can finish this season with a strong run in Mexico. I'm looking forward to taking my first few laps on that track. It sounds like a really nice layout from all of the reports I've heard. We've had fast cars on the road courses this year, and I know that my team is as thirsty as I am for tasting some champagne in victory circle."

TONY KANAAN (#10 Pioneer/WorldCom Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "This is going to be a very interesting weekend, there's no doubt about it. We're going to yet another new racetrack for us. We've had many of those already this season, and this one is very special because there is a lot of racing history there and the fans, I hear, are going to be some of the best we've ever seen. It's also our last race of the season, which is always special. But there will be a little more emotion than usual because it will be the last CART race for a lot of us. I'm moving on starting this season and I'm really going to miss being with some of my best friends in the world week after week. Some of my friends are coming with me. But some are staying behind. The good thing is, racing changes from year to year, but good friendships last forever, so we have that going for us. I'm excited about driving on the Mexico City track in a big way. Some of the best drivers in history used to race here. I hope it will be a good show."

SCOTT DIXON (#44 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): "This race is going to be fun. Seeing all of the fans gets your adrenaline pumping. It's always good to experience a new track in a city that we haven't been to before. And we've qualified really well at the three new tracks that we've gone to this year. We started 7th in Montreal, 4th in Denver and 2nd in Miami. The Target team does a great job of preparing the cars for the new tracks, and hopefully we can finish the season on a positive note with a win this weekend."

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ (#51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "Obviously I am very excited about this race, and I am optimistic that I will be able to drive. This is the track where I took my first laps in a race car, and where I competed for many years. To be able to race here again in my hometown, after so many years of racing outside Mexico City, will be very special, especially after the work they have done on the track. After so many years of trying to get an event here, finally we have one. It is going to be huge. It goes without saying that this race means a lot to me - my family is here, my friends, everyone - and also my sponsors. Obviously I would like to be in better shape than I am right now. If I do drive in the end, which I feel very positive, I will give my best even though I am not in the best shape with these two accidents within the last few months. I have a lot of faith. Hopefully, we can get a good result in what has been a difficult year and that would make me very happy. If we could come away with a victory or a podium, that would be very special for us."

SHINJI NAKANO (#52 Alpine/Mitsuba Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): "It is going to be an important race for us with Adrian competing in his home country and in his hometown. It is going to be a busy weekend for Fernandez Racing. I have heard the track is beautiful and I am looking forward to driving there. Race-wise, I have been having tough luck lately but, hopefully, we will have a good weekend here. The team has been working really hard. The results that I want haven't come yet, but I still believe in myself and I still believe in the team and I think we can make something happen here in Mexico City."

ORIOL SERVIA (#20 Visteon/Patrick Racing Toyota/Reynard/Bridgestone): "I am very excited to be racing in Mexico City. The promoters have done a fantastic job with this race track. It has a nice combination of fast and slow turns and there appears to be some good passing areas. I think the circuit will be good for the Reynard chassis because the Visteon/Patrick Racing Team has shown in the past that our car works very well on circuits that have fast corners. The Visteon/Patrick Racing Team did a good job in Fontana. We started the weekend off a little slow, but we kept working hard and by the end of the race we had the fastest car on the track. Everybody on the team did their job and did it well, but to win in this series you have to do everything from the start of the weekend through the end of the race perfect. Plus, you need a little magic. I am confident that with everything we have learned over the last nine races and the track we are going to, the Visteon/Patrick Racing Team is in a good position to win this race or at least finish on the podium. That would be a great way to end this season."

MARIO DOMINGUEZ (#55 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone): "This is by far the most important race of my career. Obviously, I'm very excited about racing at a world renowned track like Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. I've raced there before in F3, F3000, and prototypes so this is my really my home track. They've made some changes to it but they're minor from the standpoint of the track layout. But the standard of the track overall has been raised so much - it is truly a world-class facility. I'm proud, as a Mexican, to say that I think it's the best track on the CART circuit. But I'm betting that after next Sunday, most of the other drivers will agree with me. It's a big responsibility for us to race in front of all of our sponsors, Herdez, del Valle, Corona, Televisa, Quaker State... but most of all, the Mexican fans. As always, we'll give 110 percent effort toward giving them all a good result."

FAST FACTS

• WHAT: Gran Premio Telmex/Gigante Presented by Banamex/Visa
• WHERE: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico
• WHEN: Friday-Sunday, November 15-17
• SUPPORT EVENTS: Mustang Series, Dodge Truck Series, Dodge Neon Series, Celebrity Race
• TRACK LAYOUT: 2.75-mile road course
• RACE LENGTH: 73 laps (200.750 miles)
• RACE ROUND: 19 of 19 in the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series.
• NEXT EVENT: November 22, CART Season Awards Banquet, Hotel Intercontinental, Miami Florida.