Needing only to finish 14th or better in the season-ending Excite 500 to claim the title and $1-million, Lazier did much more Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Lazier finished fourth, .7 seconds behind winner Scott Goodyear in the fastest race in series history. Lazier led 38 consecutive laps near the end and ran with the lead pack the entire 208 laps.

"At a couple of points out there, I thought Buddy was nuts. Buddy was aggressive," said Goodyear, who beat Eddie Cheever by a car length, 0.14 seconds.

"My strategy was to do exactly the same thing I've done all year, but not do anything stupid," Lazier said. "We didn't want to lay back, all of a sudden have 26 cars finish and be out of the top 14."

The average winning speed was 175.276 mph, breaking the series record of 169.182 set by Scott Sharp at Texas on June 11 when he beat Robby McGehee by just 0.059 seconds, the closest finish on the 5-year-old circuit.

In his last race for Penzoil Panther Racing, Goodyear won for the first time this season and third in his Indy Racing career.

Lazier was the only driver to win more than once in the series this season. He won the Belterra Resort Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway and the MCI WorldCom Indy 200 at Phoenix, and had seven top-10 finishes in the nine races.

He took the lead at Texas on the 157th lap when he decided not to pit with everyone else during a caution. He stayed in the lead until he had to make a final stop alone for fuel on the fourth and final caution at the end of Lap 194.

Cheever regained the lead coming out of that caution. Cheever was in front and raced side-by-side with Goodyear, who went ahead for good when he went high around Cheever in the first turn with two laps to go.

Billy Boat finished third. Pole-sitter Greg Ray, the 1999 series champion, completed just 19 laps and finished 26th.

INDY 300: Adrian Fernandez picked his way through a course strewn with accidents to win the CART event at Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Fernandez came from 17th to win a race marked by five caution flags for 19 of the 59 laps. The race, on a two-hour time limit, ended six laps short of its planned distance.

Only 13 of 25 starters finished. Seven hit the wall or other cars, including a first-turn collision between Juan Montoya and points leader Gil de Ferran.

The 20 points for the win and another for leading for the most laps moved Fernandez into second place in the standings, five behind de Ferran with the race Oct. 29 at Fontana, Calif., left.

"We struggled all week in qualifying, but I knew if we could just stay out on the course, we'd have a chance of winning," Fernandez said.

Rookie of the year Kenny Brack was second, .324 seconds behind, followed by Jimmy Vasser and Cristiano da Matta.

Vasser was distressed at the way some drivers handled the 2.8-mile street circuit.

"They drive like they don't want to finish, so they don't," he said.

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