LEXINGTON, Ohio (AP) Patrick Carpentier left it all on the track Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Grand Prix. Right down to his checkered-flag underwear.

After winning the pole Saturday, Carpentier said he might run around the racetrack naked if he won the race. He politely declined to back up the boast following the victory, but about three hours later, he stripped to his boxers and stood in the track to pose for pictures.

"I never said when I was going to do it, or at what time," he said.

A day after Carpentier took his first pole in four years, the French Canadian driver won his second straight CART race in Ohio, averaging 106.680 mph to hold off Christian Fittipaldi by 3.2 seconds at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Michael Andretti was third. Series leader Cristiano da Matta finished out of the points in 13th, but he kept the overall lead with 122 points. Carpentier moved into second with 95, and Bruno Junqueira is third with 86.

Carpentier led 90 of the 92 laps in his Ford Cosworth-Reynard, losing the lead only after two pit stops. Carpentier picked up the maximum 23 points available for the weekend, getting 20 for the victory, one for leading the most laps and one each for being the fastest qualifier Friday and Saturday.

Carpentier, a 30-year-old French Canadian who drives for Player's Forsythe, called it the best performance of his career. He also won last month in Cleveland, the open-wheel series' other Ohio stop.

His only serious threat came from da Matta, but the Brazilian dropped out of contention when he spun backward into a gravel trap on lap 70 as he tried to overtake Carpentier in the track's "keyhole" turn.

Under special rules for this race and the one next week in Elkhart Lake, Wis., da Matta was allowed to continue, and he finished 13th - one spot out of the points.

"I thought I had pulled away from Cristiano, but suddenly I saw him coming toward me," Carpentier said. "I thought he was going to try to outbrake me, so I pushed the brake really, really far. I got around the corner, then saw his car going backward and said, 'That doesn't look good (for him)."'

"I wasn't trying to pass Patrick. I was just trying to put pressure on him," da Matta said. "When I tried to put my nose alongside his car, he braked for the corner and turned in. I think that made me lose my air and I locked up my rear tires and went off course. ... It cost us a lot of points, so I am really disappointed."

Fittipaldi said he couldn't recover from a long pit stop early in the race.

"Our first pit stop lasted 14 seconds, which didn't help me a bit," he said. "We lost second place, and it basically cost me the race today. But I'm happy to finish a strong second after not finishing the past two races."

Conditions were hot and humid, with the temperature 91 degrees at race time, and Andretti said it made for an especially exhausting day.

"The place was a bear," he said "It's such a physical race track, then to have the heat and the pace we had was incredible.

"My quickest lap was with three laps to go. That's how hard you had to push the whole time. Then they lengthened the race, so it was a long day."

The race was nine laps longer than it's been for the last several years because more television time was available this year.

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