Penske Team in Top Form

Penske Racing might be ready to reclaim its position of dominance in the CART series.

Penske driver Helio Castroneves finished first and teammate Gil de Ferran was second Sunday in the Miller Lite 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course at Lexington, Ohio.

Castroneves and de Ferran ran in the first two spots for 79 of the race’s 83 laps, losing ground only on pit stops, and neither of the Penske Reynard-Hondas was lower than fourth at any point.

It was the first one-two finish for Penske drivers since 1994, when Paul Tracy was first and Al Unser Jr. second at Nazareth, Pa.

De Ferran, the pole-sitter even though he flipped his car at the end of Saturday’s qualifying, led the first 28 laps before pitting ahead of his teammate. Castroneves took the lead at that point, maintained it after his pit stop one lap later and never trailed after that in winning by 4.425 seconds at a speed of 106.558 mph.

The victory was the second for Castroneves, who also won at Detroit in June.

Christian Fittipaldi, who did not race two weeks ago in Chicago after hurting his back in practice, finished third in a Lola-Ford.

Also on Sunday, CART announced it will eliminate in-season testing and Friday qualifying for its Champ car division in the 2001 season.

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Steve Park held off Mark Martin to win NASCAR’s Global Crossing on Watkins Glen International’s 2.45-mile road course at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Park, who started 18th, drove his Chevrolet to a five-length victory over Martin.

Jeff Gordon’s bid for a record seventh road-course victory ended when he tangled with Tony Stewart on the second lap, and the two drivers got into a shouting match after the race.

Gordon wound up 23rd after he was penalized for jumping a restart as he was trying to get back a lost lap. Stewart finished sixth.

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Finland’s Mika Hakkinen won the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating German Michael Schumacher by 7.916 seconds at Budapest to take the lead in the Formula One standings.

Hakkinen drove his McLaren to the inside heading into the hairpin first turn and forced Schumacher, the pole-sitter and season leader, to back off and avoid ending a third consecutive race with a first-turn wreck.

It was Hakkinen’s 17th victory, his third this season, and put him back on track to become the first man to win three consecutive drivers’ titles since Juan Fangio in the 1950s.

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Rookie Townsend Bell of Costa Mesa earned his first Dayton Indy Lights Championship victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Bell passed teammate and pole-sitter Jason Bright of Australia at the start and led all 34 laps.