RACE: Virtually no yellows drove the fuel strategists bonkers. Good action up front.

TRACK: Forgot how wide Motegi is. Good thing on that first lap spin.

BRACK: Not on front row for first time this year. Breaks the curse by maintaining the Honda Motegi curse. Hey, Kenny, go get Mad Max and have a Miller -- it'll taste a lot better than your sponsor.

FORD: Perfect in the Land of the Rising Sun despite never getting a Motegi pole.

CASTRONEVES: Quite surprising that the Penske outfit couldn't get the fuel mileage figured out.

KANAAN: Sure looked like he would give Honda their long sought home win.

ZANARDI: Starting to get fast again -- had fastest race lap -- but horrible fuel planning by his team.

NAKANO: Gave the locals something to cheer about, and got the second fastest lap time as well.

TRACY: Sometimes the best car doesn't always win.

TEAM GREEN: And then there were none...

FORSYTHE: Ditto.

JUNQUEIRA: Bruno, don't do that at Indy, or it will be a disaster.

GANASSI: Just two yellows in the whole race, and your drivers brought them both out.

ANDRETTI: The Andretti May luck returns. And this year he has that big race at the end of the month...

JOURDAIN: Great qualifying job again. Another disappointing race, though he did get his first points of the year.

HERTA/CARPENTIER: Challenging for the hard luck award this year.

GUGELMIN: Slowest qualifying time, third slowest race lap, and somehow he got a point.

HONDA: For all the advertising and marketing hype they spew out on their great fuel mileage in street cars, they sure don't have it on the race track.

RESTART: This is not at all meant to take anything away from Kenny Brack, but that was not a legal restart. No way, no how. From rule 6.22.2 -- "When the pace car has accelerated away from the field, the driver of the lead car will, with consistency, increase speed in order to allow all drivers in the field to accelerate in a like manner to avoid large gaps or congestion prior to the display of the green flag." CART never should have allowed that restart.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The stat combination that wasn't. Michael Andretti took his 274th start, a new CART record, as Newman-Haas started their 300th race. But not together.

HISTORICAL FACT OF THE WEEKEND: The only other national championship race in Japan was back in 1966 when USAC went to Fuji Speedway for a non-points event. It was won by Jackie Stewart powered by a Ford, of course. And that time they had the pole.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Kenny Brack on how it felt not winning for so long, "To be honest, it was starting to irritate me a little bit."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Goes to Helio Castroneves for learning this line in Japanese, "I'm going to climb the fence."

SCHEDULE: Let's face it, most CART fans will be watching Indy this year. Then it's off to historic Milwaukee.

Copyright © 2001 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.