FONTANA, Calif. -- Victories and championships didn't seem very important.
Greg Moore, the 24-year-old Canadian driver and one of the budding stars of the CART FedEx Series, was killed in a devastating crash early in Sunday's season-ending Marlboro 500 at California Speedway.The race went on, with Adrian Fernandez winning with a fuel gamble and rookie Juan Montoya coming from behind to win the points championship he led most of the season.
But the aftermath of the race was awash in tears instead of the traditional victory champagne, with most of the drivers learning of Moore's death only after the checkered flag had been waved.
Fernandez, whose first of five CART victories came in July 1996, in Toronto in a race in which driver Jeff Krosnoff was killed, gambled on making it to the end on a waning fuel load and made it, beating runnerup Max Papis to the finish line by 7.634 seconds.
The Mexican driver pumped his fists from the open cockpit as he circled the track slowly on his victory lap. But, after getting out of his Reynard-Ford and being told of Moore's death, Fernandez broke into tears.
He went into seclusion briefly. Later, his voice choked with tears, he said haltingly, "It's so hard. Greg was such a good friend of ours. We've been racing for a while and shared so many good moments on and off the track.
"This is a tragedy for all of us. The win doesn't matter anything. My heart goes out to his family."
Moore, whose father, stepmother and girlfriend were at the track, died from massive head and internal injuries after his car went off the two-mile oval at more than 220 mph and slammed into a concrete retaining wall.
The accident occurred during a restart on the 10th lap of the 250-lap event.
Moore lost control of his car coming off turn two. It skidded onto the infield grass, became airborne and crashed hard into a retaining wall before breaking into pieces. It appeared Moore's helmet came in contact with the concrete wall.