Italian driver, Max Papis, driving for Team Rahal, scored his first FedEx Championship Series victory Sunday in the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Papis, who lives in nearby Miami Beach, executed a fantastic pass of  leader Paul Tracy  with 10 laps to go in the race and went on to win by only a 0.620 second margin over Roberto Moreno. It was close but no cigar for both Moreno and Tracy. It sure made for an exciting finish!.

Moreno equaled his career best with the second place finish and recorded his best-ever finish on an oval. Tracy led 32 of the 150 laps and finished third after starting from17th position.

Papis scored his first career victory in 60 career starts and his first in any race sinc July 1996 when he took the title at Watkins Glen in an IMSA event. Papis, in his second season with Team Rahal is a five-year racing veteran. Papis ended last season with consecutive 2 runner-up finishes at Australia and the California Speedway.

This is the first victory for Team Rahal since Bryan Herta's win at Laguna Seca in 1999, and its first on an oval since Bobby Rahal's 1992 victory at Nazareth Speedway.

The FedEx Championship Series season opener was a race of slow destruction among the leaders. Juan Montoya, who started on the outside pole, was the first to go out due to an engine problem after leading the first 21 laps.

Adrian Fernandez took the lead and held it before retiring due to an oil leak. Rookie Kenny Brack, Papis' Team Rahal teammate, then held the lead for six laps, becoming the first rookie to lead in his FedEx Championship Series debut since Nigel Mansell at Australia in 1993.

Alex Tagliani, another talented rookie, took over from Brack for two laps, then Mark Blundell stayed in first place for another two laps before Gil de Ferran had a 41-lap stay on the lead, the longest of the event. De Ferran, who led those 41 laps, pitted on Lap 99 and was suffered when a caution flag came out due to Mauricio Gugelmin running out of fuel. When the green flag waved on Lap 111, de Ferran was running sixth, and that was to be his finishing position.

Tagliani became the only two-time leader of the race from Laps 99 through 104, then Tony Kanaan took over for four laps. But both Kanaan and Tagliani were penalized during the Gugelmin caution; Kanaan for entering a closed pit and Tagliani for a blend-line violation. Both were moved to the back of the field, ending any chance for victory for the pair.

Following the penalties, Tracy took the lead for 32 laps, capping a spectacular drive from the 17th starting position. With Papis running second, the pair came upon lapped traffic on Lap 141. Papis moved around Tracy heading onto the start/finish straight, Moreno followed, and the three remained in that order until the checkered flag. In all, there were nine different leaders.

Jimmy Vasser  finished fourth and was followed by Patrick Carpentier  . Vasser collected his fourth top-four finish in five career appearances at Homestead while Carpentier earned his best finish since a runner-up effort at Vancouver last year.

Papis leads the FedEx Series championship after Round 1 of 20 with 20 points. Moreno is second with 16, Tracy third with 14, Vasser fourth with 12, and Carpentier and de Ferran follow with 10 points each. De Ferran earned two of his 10 points for winning the pole Saturday and leading the most laps Sunday.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

MAX PAPIS, Miller Lite Ford Reynard: "First of all, I'm really, really glad to be here for the first win and with Paul and Roberto. They both taught me several things, and I used that to beat them today. We proved we can make it happen. The feeling has been there since the middle of last year. As soon as Paul was caught in traffic, I was right there to take the opportunity. It was a great race, great competition. It is really good to win here where my good friend Greg Moore won the first race last year. I also want to thank everyone with Ford because they're putting in a tremendous effort. There is going to be much more to come. To get my first win here is special for me because I am from here and everyone was here for me. It feels great, especially with a difficult qualifying session. I got a lot of congratulations for that (yesterday) but I got more today. It was a special race because there were many friends here. I couldn't choose a better place to win."

ROBERTO MORENO, Visteon Ford Reynard: "It's good to retire 'Super Sub' [Moreno's nickname for substituting for drivers and excelling throughout his career] and it's good to be here [on the podium]. It was a great to race up front with them. The car was good if I was by myself and I could go a little bit faster, but there is a lot of turbulence when we were behind each other. I was just following Max, and I was just behind him. Max, if you would have run out of fuel this time, I would have pushed you. If you would believe that, you'll believe anything. I'd like to thank [team owner] Pat Patrick for giving me this opportunity and making us title contenders. You don't know how good of a feeling it is after you spend all of this time talking to people and trying to find a ride. It's hard to put it into words. I'm going to share this with my family."

PAUL TRACY, KOOL Honda Reynard: "First, I'd like to say congratulations to Max. He's had a lot happen to him and it's good to see him smiling again. I didn't have a great car all weekend. I had a push condition in the middle of the turns and I was loose coming off, but we got good points coming out of here. It would have been better if there wasn't traffic, but this is racing. I was trying to dictate the pace and not catch a bunch of traffic, but we had to just take what we could get. To get third is a huge achievement for us. My guys gave me great stops. I can't say enough about the job they do. They take a lot of credit for what we do. Obviously, there were a few problems with the Fords and that allowed us to have a good finish. From our team's perspective, this weekend was a big success."

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

* Max Papis (Miller Lite Ford Reynard) became the first CART driver to collect his first career victory in a season opener since Jimmy Vasser won at Homestead in 1996. Vasser went on to the FedEx Championship Series championship.

* Roberto Moreno's (Visteon Ford Reynard) runner-up effort matched a career-best established at Laguna Seca last year. It was the third podium finish of his career, including a third-place performance in The Inaugural U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway in 1996.

* Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard) collected his second career podium performance at Homestead, the other a runner-up effort in 1997. Tracy also won the first-ever Budweiser Hard Charger award, given to the driver who makes the greatest improvement from start (17th) to finish at each race.

* Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Reynard) and Alex Tagliani (Player's Forsythe Racing Team Ford Reynard) became the first rookies to lead a lap in their first FedEx Championship Series event since Nigel Mansell led at Australia en route to victory in 1993.

* Actor Sylvester Stallone and Fr. Phil De Rea, Catholic chaplain of Championship Auto Racing Teams, gave the command to start engines prior to the event. Stallone is spearheading a movie project, titled Champs, which utilizes Champ Cars and the FedEx Championship Series as its setting.