VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) This time, hard-charging Paul Tracy played it safe, and teammate Dario Franchitti broke a one-year winless streak with a victory in the Vancouver Molson-Indy.

Two accidents late in Sunday's race left the Team Kool Green drivers - with a history of hitting each other on track while battling for the lead - nose-to-tail for the final restart.

Franchitti drove away from Tracy, and the two Honda-powered cars were never close after the green flag waved on the 96th of 100 laps.

"I was a bit worried on the restart, but I got on it really hard trying to get a gap from Paul," Franchitti said. "I don't know if he would have made a challenge and risk our finishing 1-2, but I didn't want to let him get close enough to try."

The Scot drove to a 2.6-second lead at the end of the first lap and cruised to the eighth win of his career, crossing the finish line 1.239 seconds - about 10 car lengths - ahead of Tracy.

"It's very tough to overtake on cold tires and I wasn't going to do that and make a mistake," Tracy said. "I needed the points. It was all I could do to keep my car on the track anyway."

In a race that begun under caution after Michel Jourdain crashed on the pace lap, only seven of 18 starters were on the 1.781-mile temporary street course at the finish. It was Franchitti's second Vancouver win and his first victory since July 2001 in Cleveland.

After Shinji Nakano's crash into a tire barrier scattered debris, Patrick Carpentier ignited the worst crash of the race on the ensuing restart with nine laps remaining.

Carpentier, running fourth but on cold tires after a pit stop, spun. Bruno Junqueira ran into the back of a braking Adrian Fernandez, sending him into the concrete wall. Alex Tagliani, Carpentier's teammate, also was clipped by another car and hit the barrier.

Debris was all over the track again and Fernandez had to be extricated from his battered car by safety workers, bringing out a red flag that lasted 16 minutes, 40 seconds.

Fernandez went to the infield medical center on a stretcher, then to a hospital. He had a deeply bruised left hip.

The last two cautions erased the 11-second lead Franchitti had built over Tracy after the Canadian pitted with 15 laps left.

The teammates found themselves on different pit strategies after team owner Barry Green decided to keep Tracy on the track as the other leaders made their first pit stops. That left the Canadian out of sequence the rest of the day.

After inheriting the lead when Franchitti pitted on lap 69, Tracy pulled away to a lead of 17 seconds - a third of the track - before he pitted on lap 86.

"We knew Paul would have to pit again and it's unfortunate for him, but our stategy worked wonderfully today," Franchitti said.

Tony Kanaan finished a season-best third, followed by Jourdain and Carpentier, who kept his car going after his spin and was the last driver on the lead lap.

Cristiano da Matta, who had been dominating the Champ car series, had his second straight bad race.

In Cleveland, two weeks ago, he had an engine failure but his lead remained intact because his closest pursuers also had trouble. This time, his gearbox broke and he wasn't as lucky.

Da Matta, who went into the race with a 51-point lead over Junqueira, now leads Franchitti by 38. Junqueira and Jourdain are tied for third, 48 points back and Tracy moved up to sixth, just behind Carpentier and 54 in back of the leader.

Franchitti was right behind da Matta when the latter stopped on course while leading on the 65th lap.

"I thought, `Good. Now let's take advantage of the situation,"' he said.

Da Matta had won four races in a row in one stretch and five of the first eight races.

"It's disappointing that we dropped out of another race while leading, but those things happen in a season with so many races," he said. "It's just the math."

The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.