The 1999 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami was the first and opening round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held March 21, 1999, on the Homestead-Miami Speedway in

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Report

The race was less than a lap old when

Naoki Hattori is a motoring journalist and racing driver from Japan. After he won the Japanese Formula 3 championship in 1990, he failed to pre-qualify for two Formula One Grands Prix with Coloni in 1991 as a late-season replacement for Pedro Chaves. He r ...

and

Al Unser Jr. Alfred Unser Jr. (born April 19, 1962), nicknamed "Little Al", "Al Junior", or simply "Junior", is a retired American race car driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. History Unser was born into a racing family in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ...

crashed in turns 1 and 2, collecting

Raul Boesel Raul de Mesquita Boesel (, born 4 December 1957) is a Brazilian former racing driver who raced for the March and Ligier Formula One teams and later raced in Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. He won the 1987 World Sportscar Championship and t ...

. Boesel was substituting for

Paul Tracy Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill". ...

, who was suspended for the race due to multiple rough-driving incidents during the 1998 season. Boesel was unhurt, but Unser and Hattori both suffered leg injuries. Richie Hearn dropped out of the race due to suspension problems. In an interview with ABC pit reporter

Gary Gerould Gary Gerould, nicknamed “The G-Man”, is an American sportscaster, best known as the radio voice of the NBA's Sacramento Kings since 1985. The Sacramento Kings renewed his radio broadcaster contract for 4 years on September 15, 2017. He is ...

, Hearn noted he and the team had been having problems with the car all weekend, deciding to retire as to not impede other drivers. Scott Pruett crashed in turns one and two to bring out the second yellow flag on lap 81. He was trying to pass Mauricio Gugelmin for 16th place, but lost control and spun into the wall, though he was unhurt in the crash. Several drivers took advantage of the caution to make pit stops. Helio Castro-Neves inherited the lead when they did not pit under caution.

Patrick Carpentier Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a retired Canadian professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 2002 ...

and

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, IMSA, IROC and the Dakar Rally. He is active in top-tier off road motorsports such as BITD, N ...

served drive-through penalties for not using the access road to properly enter the pits during the caution. For Gordon, it was insult added to injury, since he dealt with mechanical problems during the race, already several laps down. He later retired from the race after the third caution. The third caution came out on lap 111, when

Adrian Fernandez Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the main ...

crashed in turn four. Despite a strong start and race, Fernandez's engine blew, and he slid into the turn four wall. Castroneves pitted from the lead, ceding the lead back to Moore. Greg Moore won the opening race of the season from pole, leading 96 out of the 150 laps, winning comfortably ahead of

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and Dario Franchitti before a crowd of roughly 40,000. Moore capitalized on a mistake Andretti made in the pits. Andretti had won the race the previous two years, but accidentally shut off his engine during his pit stop under the 2nd caution. It would turn out to be Moore's final pole and win.

Shigeaki Hattori Shigeaki "Shige" Hattori (服部茂章, November 3, 1963) is a Japanese professional race car driver and team owner based in the United States. As a driver, he competed in the CART and IndyCar Series, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (now th ...

crashed during practice on Friday, the impact measured at 140 Gs. Although he was removed from the car by track personnel, he only suffered a concussion and, despite withdrawing from the race, was at the track during the race on Sunday.Wood 1999 This was the first Champ Car race since the

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without 3-time champion

Bobby Rahal Robert Woodward Rahal (born January 10, 1953) is an American former auto racing driver and team owner. As a driver he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also won the 2004 ...

, who retired after the 1998 season.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Caution flags

Lap Leaders

Point standings after race

References

{{American Championship Car race report footer , Series = CART , Series_long = CART FedEx Championship Series , Name_of_race = Grand Prix of Miami , Year_of_race = 1999 , Previous_race_in_season = ''none'' , Next_race_in_season =

1999 Firestone Firehawk 500K The 1999 Firestone Firehawk 500K was the second round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on April 9, 1999, on the Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Tochigi, Japan. This was the first Champ Car race since the 1995 Indianapolis ...

, Previous_year's_race =

1998 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami The 1998 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami was a CART race which happened at the Homestead Motorsports Complex. It happened on March 15, 1998. It was the 1st round of the 1998 CART season. Starting grid # Greg Moore 217.541 mph / 24.856 second ...

, Next_year's_race = 2000 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami

Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami The Grand Prix of Miami refers to an intermittent series of American open wheel races held in South Florida dating back to 1926. AAA held one board track race in 1926, and then the facility was destroyed by a hurricane. The popular CART IndyCar ...

Homestead–Miami Indy 300