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Patrick Carpentier wins Grand Prix of Monterey by a hair

Polesitter Patrick Carpentier jumped out to the lead at the green flag Sunday and never surrendered it to win the Grand Prix of Monterey.

Carpentier beat runner-up Bruno Junqueira by 0.844 seconds in the CART race. Paul Tracy nudged teammate Carpentier during a false start, then followed him the rest of the afternoon to finish third, 28.545 seconds back at Laguna Seca.

Michel Jourdain, who had won the pole Saturday but lost it when his car was ruled to be underweight, charged from the 13th spot on the grid to finish fourth.

"I was just going to start, but Bruno had a big run on me and I laid off and boom, Paul hit me," Carpentier said.

Tracy later tried to make a move around his teammate as the two left a pit stop 1-2 on the 48th lap, but had to lock up his front end to avoid a collision.

"I had to suffer with flat-spotted tires. I couldn't stop, I couldn't turn," he said.

With Junqueira bearing down on him, Tracy slipped off course in the 56th lap, and Junqueira took over second place for good. Junqueira pulled within a few car lengths, but no closer.

"The car ran very, very well, but Patrick drove very well and didn't make any mistakes," Junqueira said.
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