Fernandez: It's a shame.

Adrian Fernandez' 150th CART FedEx career start was not a memorable one as the Mexican driver ended his day on the outside of the second corner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca following a multi-car first lap crash.

Adrian Fernandez racked up his first DNF of the 2002 CART FedEx Series in Sunday's Shell 300 at Laguna Seca to cap off a dismal weekend for CART's only owner/driver.

Heading into Laguna Seca's tight second turn, Fernandez had already made up two places from his 13th grid position but it soon went sour for the 2000 Championship runner-up as he tapped Michel Jourdain Jr into a spin that was to prove to be the catalyst for a costly first lap chain reaction.

As Fernandez swerved to avoid the rotating Jourdain, he was clipped by Townsend Bell and Mario Dominguez, damaging both sides of his Lola-Honda and forcing him out.

Dario Franchitti was also eliminated on the spot when he tried to thread between Fernandez, Bell and Jourdain, the left rear wheel and rear spoiler of Franchitti's Team KOOL Green Lola getting ripped off by the reversing Jourdain. Somehow Jourdain was able to continue as were Tracy, Bell, Dominguez (eventually) and the delayed Jimmy Vasser.

"I have to see the replay, but going into the first turn everyone was really bunched up," said a thoroughly dispirited Fernandez as he trudged back to the Fernandez Racing pit.

"I had already passed Mario Dominguez, and [Townsend] Bell basically opened the door. I went to the inside and I think I touched Michel [Jourdain]. At the same time, we were so bunched up that any little thing could have caused this to happen. It's a shame.

"It's our first DNF [did not finish] of the year, but we are looking forward to putting it back together for Portland. This is just racing. On this type of track, where it is so difficult to pass, you just have to try to make up as many positions as you can at the beginning. Unfortunately, this time it didn't work."

Fernandez Racing's second driver, Shinji Nakano, was one of those to benefit for the first lap melee as the Japanese driver rose from 18th to 12th inside the first lap.

Sadly Nakano was unable to transfer that gain into a points scoring finish as he struggled throughout the 87 lap race with a persistent understeer problem tat eventually relegated him to a 14th place finish.

"It was a difficult day and actually a very difficult weekend for me," said Nakano afterwards. "I had a lot of problems with the car the past two days. We just couldn't find a good set-up. I had a big understeer during the race. It was bad and the car was really difficult to drive."

Tom Anderson, Fernandez Racing co-owner and Team Manager was typically reflective on one of the less successful days of his long career. "Obviously contact is part of motorsports and unfortunately we got caught up in it today with Adrian's car.

"It's very disappointing not to make it through to the end. The guys all worked really hard and I think Adrian and Don had a pretty good race set-up, so it was going to be an interesting day.

"On Shinji's side, we never really came to total grips with the track. We struggled with the handling most of the weekend, and did so in the race. The guys had really good pit stops and I was pleased with their performance and with our fuel strategy.

"All in all, it was probably the 52 side's best weekend mechanically. Although we had some problems early in the weekend, I was really pleased with what the guys did and thought the team put on a pretty good race. Fortunately, this time of year, you don't have to sit around and think about it too long because we race next weekend at Portland."