2000 Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit

The 2000 Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) race that was held on June 18, 2000 on the Raceway on Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. It was the seventh race of the 2000 CART season. The race was won by Hélio Castroneves for Team Penske. Max Papis finished second, and Oriol Servià clinched third.

Preparations for the race were overshadowed by the news that CART CEO Andrew Craig had been voted out from his position, and his duties had been temporarily taken on by Bobby Rahal. Juan Pablo Montoya claimed pole position for the race, and led the first 58 laps of the race before he briefly relinquished the lead to Roberto Moreno when he made a pit stop. He regained first position a lap later, but only led for one more lap before he slowed down, and eventually cruised into the pit lane, and retired with a broken drive shaft. Castroneves took over the lead, and remained at the front for the rest of the race. To celebrate his win, Castroneves parked his car on the track, leapt out and climbed the fence, shaking it in jubilation. It was the first win that Castroneves, or any other racing driver, celebrated in this fashion, and he has since repeated the celebration for each of his victories, and it has also been mimicked by other drivers.

There were three cautions, totalling 10 laps during the race. It was Castroneves's first victory of his CART career, and he was the seventh different winner in the first seven races of the 2000 season. Of the 24 drivers that started, 14 were listed as running at the end of the race; four retired after contact, five retired with mechanical issues, and Paul Tracy was disqualified after he hit a crew member during service on pit lane.

Classification

Race results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	84	2:01:23	3	24	**20**
7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	84		5	0	**16**
96	Oriol Servià	PPI Motorsports	84		12	0	**14**
27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	84		2	0	**12**
32	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	84		9	0	**10**
33	Alex Tagliani	Forsythe Racing	84		14	0	**8**
12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	84		17	0	**6**
16	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	84		16	0	**5**
2	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	83	+1 lap	4	0	**4**
34	Tarso Marques	Dale Coyne Racing	82	+2 laps	21	0	**3**
18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	81	+3 laps	15	0	**2**
19	Takuya Kurosawa	Dale Coyne Racing	81	+3 laps	23	0	**1**
6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	80	Mechanical	11	0	**0**
10	Norberto Fontana	Della Penna Motorsports	78	Mechanical	20	0	**0**
5	Shinji Nakano	Walker Motorsport	78	+6 laps	22	0	**0**
17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	78	+6 laps	18	0	**0**
20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	65	Contact	10	1	**0**
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	61	Mechanical	1	59	**2**
11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	60	Contact	8	0	**0**
26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	59	Disqualified	19	0	**0**
40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	31	Contact	13	0	**0**
25	Luiz Garcia Jr.	Arciero Racing	25	Mechanical	24	0	**0**
97	Cristiano da Matta	PPI Motorsports	14	Mechanical	6	0	**0**
8	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal	10	Contact	7	0	**0**