2000 Michigan 500

The 2000 Michigan 500 was the eleventh round of the twenty-round 2000 CART season. It happened at the Michigan International Speedway.

2000 Michigan 500

Race details
Race 11 of 20 in the 2000 CART season
Date	July 23, 2000
Official name	2000 Michigan 500
Location	Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Michigan, United States
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi / 3.219 km
Distance	250 laps 500.000 mi / 804.672 km
Pole position
Driver	Paul Tracy (Team Green)
Time	30.645 (234.94 mph)[1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Juan Montoya (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	31.162[2] (on lap 232 of 250)
Podium
First	Juan Montoya (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Michael Andretti (Newman/Haas Racing)
Third	Dario Franchitti (Team Green)

Qualifying

The Canadian driver Paul Tracy, from Team Green, set the pole, followed by Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi.

Qualifying - 22 July 2000
Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Lap Time	Behind	Speed (mph)
1	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	30,645		234.949
2	6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	30,687	0,042	234.627
3	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	30,739	0,094	234.230
4	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	30,878	0,233	233.176
5	2	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	30,904	0,259	232.980
6	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	30,933	0,288	232.761
7	1	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	30,963	0,318	232.536
8	33	Alex Tagliani  R	Forsythe Racing	30,990	0,345	232.333
9	32	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	31,036	0,391	231.989
10	8	Kenny Bräck  R	Team Rahal	31,065	0,420	231.772
11	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	31,127	0,482	231.310
12	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	31,146	0,501	231.169
13	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	31,201	0,556	230.762
14	97	Cristiano da Matta	PPI Motorsports	31,321	0,676	229.878
15	96	Oriol Servià  R	PPI Motorsports	31,371	0,726	229.511
16	20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	31,567	0,922	228.086
17	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	31,780	1,135	226.558
18	55	Tony Kanaan	Forsythe Racing	31,835	1,190	226.166
19	5	Shinji Nakano  R	Walker Racing	31,885	1,240	225.812
20	17	Mauricio Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	31,909	1,264	225.642
21	10	Memo Gidley	Della Penna Motorsports	32,053	1,408	224.628
22	16	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	32,175	1,530	223.776
23	25	Luiz Garcia Jr.	Arciero Racing	32,714	2,069	220.089
24	34	Tarso Marques	Dale Coyne Racing	0,000	30,645	0.000
25	19	Takuya Kurosawa  R	Dale Coyne Racing	0,000	30,645	0,000
Source: [3] [4]

•  R  Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Race

Eventual winner Juan Pablo Montoya led the race at the end of the first lap through to lap 16, where he was overtaken by eventual runner up Michael Andretti. Across the 250 laps, the race saw nine different leaders, with 52 lead changes. There were five cautions over the course of the race, taking 38 laps in total.^[5] Thirteen cars did not finish the race, and only seven cars completed the full 500-mile distance. The race culminated in a battle between Montoya and Andretti, with seven lead changes in the final twenty laps. Montoya set the race's fastest lap on lap 232 of 250. Andretti led lap 249, but was passed by Montoya on the final lap.^[6] Montoya's margin of victory was just 0.040s.^[5] Montoya's victory was Toyota's second in ChampCar, and he became the first driver since Rick Mears in 1991 to win both the Indianapolis 500 and Michigan 500 in the same year.

Race results^[6]

Rank	Driver
1	Juan Pablo Montoya
2	Michael Andretti
3	Dario Franchitti
4	Patrick Carpentier
5	Hélio Castroneves

Championship Battle

See also: 2000 CART season

Michael Andretti became the new leader of the championship with 100 points. The previous leader, Roberto Moreno was in 2nd with 90 points. Race winner Juan Pablo Montoya moved up to 5th in the Championship standings with 74 points.^[6]

Broadcasting

The Michigan 500 was broadcast by ABC. Paul Page was the lead announcer and was joined by Parker Johnstone as color commentator.^[7]

The race had a lead-in audience from the 2000 Open Championship as Tiger Woods won his first Open Championship. In the United States, the race had a 2.5 overnight rating.^[8] The race had a final rating of 2.0 with 2.058 million households watching. It was the most-watched CART race of 2000.^[9]

Qualifying for the race was broadcast tape-delayed on ESPN2 on the morning of Sunday, July 23. The qualifying broadcast had a rating of 0.1 and watched by 45,000 households.^[9]

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Rank +/– Driver Points 1 1 Michael Andretti 104 2 1 Roberto Moreno 90 3 1 Paul Tracy 80 4 1 Gil de Ferran 75 5 4 Juan Pablo Montoya 74 Sources:[10][11]

Constructors' standings Rank +/– Constructor Points 1 Reynard 215 2 Lola 173 3 Swift 5 Sources:[10][11]

Manufacturers' standings Rank +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Ford-Cosworth 194 2 Honda 169 3 Toyota 165 4 Mercedes 46 Sources:[10][11]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for the drivers' standings.