CART Molson Indy victory in Toronto is Tracy's sweetest of career

The Canadian led every lap to easily beat Michel Jourdain Jr.
TORONTO (AP) -- There was only one race on the calendar that Paul Tracy had his eye on this season: the Molson Indy in his hometown of Toronto.
A winner on his local street course in 1993, Tracy badly wanted to return to the top of the podium. He finally did Sunday, dominating the race and winning in Canadian-based sponsor Player's final appearance in Toronto.
"This means 10 times more that my first win here," he said. "I've been breaking my back ever since then to get back to Victory Lane here and it paid off."
It was the sweetest victory of Tracy's career. He led every lap, built a 59-second lead at one point, and easily beat Michel Jourdain Jr. to the finish line.
Series lead widens
It was special in so many ways for Tracy, who used the victory to widen his lead in the CART series standings to 15 points over third-place finisher Bruno Junqueira.
The 34-year-old Tracy was home at the pinnacle of his career and as the star of CART. He drives for a Canadian based team and is helping send off Player's, which must leave the series later this year because of a ban on tobacco advertising.
His family was on hand to watch it and the crowd of more than 73,000 seemed to be solely rooting for him.
"This is the most important win in the world for me," Tracy said. "To come back and win with a Canadian sponsor, a Canadian team and a lot of Canadians on the team, it's the defining win of my career."
So when the surprisingly large crowd lingered to watch the podium celebration, then began to sing along with "O Canada," the tears began to well up in Tracy's eyes.
"To hear the fans start singing and everyone still standing, it gave me goose bumps," Tracy said. "Michel said to me on the podium 'I need to win in Mexico because I've got goose bumps."
Indeed, even his rivals were enjoying Tracy's time in the spotlight.
Jourdain, so irritated recently with Tracy over alleged blocking on the race track, readily joined in on the celebration as he and Junqueira doused Tracy with champagne.
Pumped up
"The whole crowd is going crazy here," Jourdain said. "I am really jealous of him, someday I would like to win in Mexico City and be like him. He really deserves it and I think it's great."
Tracy started from the pole and was never challenged on the winding 1.755-mile temporary street course at Exhibition Place.
The gap only closed because of a yellow flag on lap 78 and Tracy pitted. Junqueira and Jourdain came in behind him, and flopped spots after the stop.
So the field was bunched together for the restart, but Tracy got a tremendous jump and steadily pulled away again.
After crossing the finish line, he made a leisurely celebratory lap, waving to his fans, then jumped on top of his car to salute them when he finally came to a stop.
He then fell into the arms of his crew members, who surrounded him to help celebrate Player's first-ever victory on its home soil in its final race in Toronto.
"I was so motivated coming into this race," he said. "We wanted to win for Player's. This is the biggest race of the year for them. This is a great day for Canada and a great day for Player's."
Tracy, who scored his only other win at his home track in 1993, said this one was 10 times better.
"I want everybody that's here to party tonight in the streets of Toronto," he said.
Tracy, finally in position to win his first CART title, won for a series-high fourth time this season.
Junqueira came into the weekend only eight points behind. He was in second most of the race, but never came close to challenging Tracy.
"I was really second and I think I didn't have the speed to follow Tracy," Junqueira said. "The last pit stop, I made a mistake and lost position to Michel."