Race No. 7

Miller 200
The Milwaukee Mile — West Allis, Wisconsin
May 30-June 1, 1997

1996 Pole Winner: Paul Tracy (based on practice speeds due to rain)
1996 Race Winner: Michael Andretti
1996 SpeedCenter Report
Milwaukee Weather Forecast
Milwaukee Mile Area Map

Tracy's Quest
Searching for 4th consecutive win and Penske's 100th win at the Mile
By Ray Sprouse

©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.

In last year's Miller 200 at the Milwaukee Mile, Michael Andretti's victory wasassisted by a newly installed restart format similar to that used inNASCAR's double row restart format. A late-race yellow spawned therestart and brought the record crowd of 48,153 to their feet with cheersthat drowned the engine noise on the track.

With Unser, Jr. running first, Andretti second, Emerson Fittipaldithird, and Paul Tracy fourth, the Penske Mercedes Goodyear package wasto experience their best finish of the season.

When the green flag waved, it was a matter of tire choice that gave theedge to Andretti. "It was Al's day, but he made the choice of tires. Itcame down to luck. If I was in Al's shoes I would be a little upsetsince he dominated the race and got passed on the last couple of lapsduring a yellow. But that's the way it goes," Andretti said of thesituation. Unser offered his comments as well, "Today it came down towho had hard Goodyear tires and who had soft Goodyear tires. My car wasset up for the long runs, not a trophy dash."

Tracy had made a run from fourth to second on the restart, but wasovertaken by Unser before the checkered flag flew. For the first time ofthe '96 season, Honda powered cars finished no better than eighth, andFirestone tires no better than fifth. The top-five order in the '96Miller Genuine Draft 200 was; Andretti, Unser, Jr., Tracy, EmersonFittipaldi, and Greg Moore.

By contrast, Tracy seems to be the driver to beat in late race flurriesof the'97 season. Andretti was hard on Tracy's rear wing in the finallaps of the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix in Nazareth, PA, only to berelegated to a second place finish when the race finished under yellow.In Rio, Tracy was the beneficiary of Bobby Rahal's fuel shortage on thenext-to-last lap. Finally, at last Saturday's Motorola 300 at theGateway International Raceway in St. Louis, Tracy's run to overtakerookie Patrick Carpentier, again in the next-to-last lap, was the mostspectacular finish of the season so far. Carpentier was forced toturn-down the turbo-boost to conserve fuel and avoid falling furtherback in the field.

The last of four consecutive short oval races of the year returns to theinfamous Milwaukee Mile next Sunday, and will be televised on ESPN at2:00PM EDT. One of the most competitive fields of PG CART World Seriesdrivers, teams, and equipment in history will take to a track with anasphalt surface only one year old.

Raul Boesel's record one lap qualifying speed of 21.719 sec., 165.752mph has stood since 1993, and the record race (200 Miles) speed of1:26:56.201, 138.031 mph is held by Michael Andretti, and has stoodsince 1992.