Throwback Thursday: 2000 CART Fontana

IndyCar's return to Auto Club Speedway this weekend coincides with the 15-year anniversary of a momentous race on the Fontana oval by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART).

It was a troubling return to what was then known as California Speedway for the season-ending Marlboro 500. One year earlier, popular Canadian driver Greg Moore – who had signed to drive for Penske Racing the following season – was killed in a violent accident on the 10th lap of the season finale. Moore was just 24 years old. His replacement at Penske would be Helio Castroneves, who has gone on to become one of the most successful open-wheel racing drivers of the modern era.

While the tragedy of 1999 still cast a shadow, the event produced one of the craziest, most competitive events in CART's history. The first set of fireworks was set off by championship points leader Gil de Ferran, who won the pole comfortably with a closed-course world record speed of 241.428mph.

But this would be anything but a procession. The 250-lap shootout saw 12 drivers in the 26-car field swap the lead a whopping 57 times, and the intensity of the fight proved brutal on the machinery. By the halfway point, there were only 14 cars remaining on the track. Engine failures marred the event until the very end, and it didn't matter if the driver was behind the wheel of a Mercedes, Toyota, Honda or Ford (the four car manufacturers in the series that year); no car seemed secure until the checkered flag flew. Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy were among the aces sidelined by blown engines.

The rash of mechanical failures made de Ferran opt to run a conservative approach, with the hopes that it would keep both his car and championship lead intact. In the final few laps, he ran in third place with the second-place man in the points, Adrian Fernandez, running close behind in fifth.

Race leader Christian Fittipaldi (RIGHT), meanwhile faced a hard-charging challenge by fellow Brazilian Roberto Moreno. Alex Tagliani became Fittipaldi's beneficiary for the win, as his engine blew with two laps left and also resulted in a hard crash for the Canadian driver. De Ferran (LEFT) secured his third-place finish and won the championship title over Fernandez by 10 points. It also gave Brazilians a 1-2-3 podium sweep (BELOW).

It hadn't all been a thing of beauty, but it had been an epic race that underscored the challenge and magic of a 500-mile race in a CART era that would soon fade away.