Franchitti wins CART race

MONTREAL -- Dario Franchitti slowed Cristiano da Matta's momentum a bit, holding off the runaway CART series leader Sunday to win the inaugural Montreal Molson Indy.

Franchitti won a strategic battle in the 80-lap race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, making one less pit stop than da Matta and crossing the finish line 2.588 seconds -- about half the last straightaway -- ahead.

"The car was faultless today and the guys from Team Kool Green were on it in the pits, which is what it takes to win races," said Franchitti, who had gone through some frustrating moments in the pits this season. "We had nothing go wrong today."

It was the first experience for most of the CART drivers on the 2.709-mile, 14-turn road course on which the Formula One series has competed since 1978. The demanding track was particularly hard on brakes.

Franchitti and da Matta swapped the lead several times on pit stops and it appeared the Scottish driver, who made his last stop on lap 63, was home free when he found his Honda-powered Lola out front by nearly 5 seconds after da Matta made his final stop on lap 68.

Da Matta got one last shot at the leader, though, when Adrian Fernandez crashed on lap 71, bringing out the third and final caution flag of the race.

On the restart on lap 75, Shinji Nakano, a lap down, was between the two leaders and da Matta didn't get by until Nakano moved over to let him go on lap 76. By that time Franchitti was ahead by 2.6 seconds.

"The yellow came out at just the wrong time and that put it back in Cristiano's hands, but it all worked out," Franchitti said. "He got caught in traffic and I got a little gap and that was it."

IRL: Pole sitter Gil de Ferran won his second IRL race of the season, beating teammate Helio Castroneves to the finish line in te Gateway Indy 250 in Madison, Ill., and moving within a point of the lead in the overall standings.

Castroneves leads the series with 437 points, one more than de Ferran. Sam Hornish Jr., who led the standings heading into the race, finished fifth and dropped 18 points back at 429.

Alex Barron finished third.

--From wire reports