First '02 victory for G Force.

Chip Ganassi Racing's Jeff Ward earned G Force's first victory of 2002 on Saturday night with a stunning last lap pass to win the IRL Boomtown 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Ward charged around Al Unser Jr. in the final metres of the final lap to take the win with Airton Dare in third spot just inches behind. The finish was the closest in IRL history with .0111 of a second covering the first two cars and .0595 the top three.

The victory by the G Force chassis continues a winning run of being in victory lane in every year of IRL competition since the debut of new chassis regulations in 1996-97.

"We were coming up to the white flag, and they said I was in second, and I knew we were in the lead pack," Ward said."I just got a perfect line off of (Turn) two and got in behind Little Al down the back straight and then just kept my wing halfway behind his back wheel to give a bit of draft instead of getting may car way out, and I just floated off the corner.

"Halfway around the final turn, I just came around the outside, and I got to give credit to Little Al for giving me the room. I was just amazed that the car just kept pulling.

"The finish line seemed to come up a lot slower than it normally does. So it felt like I had more time to get there. But it was great to be able to have that momentum on the outside."

The G Force chassis also earned a strong finish for Felipe Giaffone for Mo Nunn Racing in fifth place."We always knew that despite the fact we didn't have the speed in qualifying, we would have a very strong race car and Jeff certainly proved that tonight," G Force, Senior Technical Engineer, Chris Rushforth said;

"The G Force teams were probably a little unlucky not to win the Indy 500, so to take the victory here is very pleasing.

"The technical team at G Force is working very hard on improvements to boost our qualifying pace which should give us a really strong package because our car is already fast in race conditions."

The Indy Racing League will now head to Pikes Peak International Raceway for the Radisson Indy 225 on June 16,