1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston

The 1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston was the seventeenth round of the 1998 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on October 4, 1998, at a street adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The race was a rain-interrupted race, with the start being delayed 30 minutes due to heavy rain. Another heavy rainshower after 70 laps out of the scheduled 100 forced the race to be stopped, with the win handed to Dario Franchitti, who was leading at the time.

1998 Houston

Race details
Race 17 of 19 in the 1998 CART season
Original track layout of the Houston Grand Prix.
Date	October 4, 1998
Official name	1998 Texaco Grand Prix of Houston
Location	George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas, United States
Course	Temporary street course 1.527 mi / 2.457 km
Distance	70 laps 106.89 mi / 171.99 km
Weather	Heavy rain
Pole position
Driver	Greg Moore (Forsythe Racing)
Time	59.508
Fastest lap
Driver	Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Time	1:02.797 (on lap 59 of 70)
Podium
First	Dario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green)
Second	Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Third	Tony Kanaan (Tasman Motorsports Group)

The race was the scene of an infamous Lap 48 collision between winner Franchitti and his Team KOOL Green teammate, Paul Tracy. While running second, Tracy attempted to pass Franchitti on the inside going into the left-handed Turn 6; however, Franchitti was already making the turn, leading to the teammates touching, and Tracy spinning, brushing the inside wall enough to bend his left front suspension, ending his race. This led to a terse conversation over the radio between Tracy and team owner Barry Green. When Tracy returned to pit road, he and Green nearly came to blows in plain view of television cameras and the crowd on the start-finish straight. Ironically, within days of their near fistfight, Tracy and Green agreed to a four-year contract extension.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	70	1:36:30.979	2	20+1
2	1	Alex Zanardi	Chip Ganassi Racing	70	+0.646	8	16
3	21	Tony Kanaan	Tasman Motorsports Group	70	+5.792	11	14
4	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	70	+8.342	3	12
5	25	Max Papis	Arciero-Wells Racing	70	+11.170	14	10
6	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	70	+13.425	12	8
7	2	Al Unser Jr.	Team Penske	70	+17.725	16	6
8	8	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	70	+26.906	6	5
9	10	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	70	+27.812	18	4
10	9	JJ Lehto	Hogan Racing	70	+35.089	21	3
11	20	Scott Pruett	Patrick Racing	69	+1 Lap	19	2
12	36	Alex Barron	All American Racing	69	+1 Lap	20	1
13	24	Robby Gordon	Arciero-Wells Racing	69	+1 Lap	24
14	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing Group	68	+2 Laps	22
15	98	Vincenzo Sospiri	All American Racing	68	+2 Laps	28
16	77	Arnd Meier	Davis Racing	68	+2 Laps	26
17	3	André Ribeiro	Team Penske	66	+4 Laps	10
18	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing Group	52	Electrical	16
19	34	Dennis Vitolo	Payton/Coyne Racing	49	Electrical	27
20	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	48	Contact	4
21	5	Gil de Ferran	Walker Racing	38	Spun off	7
22	33	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	36	Contact	25
23	7	Bobby Rahal	Team Rahal	35	Suspension	9
24	16	Hélio Castro-Neves	Bettenhausen Racing	35	Suspension	17
25	19	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Payton/Coyne Racing	13	Contact	23
26	99	Greg Moore	Forsythe Racing	3	Contact	1	1
27	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	3	Contact	5
28	6	Michael Andretti	Newman-Haas Racing	2	Steering	13

Caution flags

Laps	Cause
1-3	Multiple cars spinning due to rain
5-9	Moore (99), Fittipaldi (11) contact
14-16	Jourdain Jr. (19), Gordon (24) contact, road block. Later red-flagged.
39-43	Carpentier (33) contact
46	Vitolo (34) contact
68-70	Heavy rain

Lap Leaders

Laps Leader 1-70 Dario Franchitti

Driver Laps led Dario Franchitti 70

Point standings after race

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alex Zanardi	250
2	Jimmy Vasser	148
3	Dario Franchitti	143
4	Adrián Fernández	134
5	Greg Moore	120