Another near miss for Felipe.

Once again Felipe Giaffone came within a whisker of his maiden Indy Racing League victory as he drove to a third place finish in Sunday's superb Michigan Indy 400.

In a race that featured 25 lead changes among nine drivers, Giaffone started 12th but got off to a great start and found himself in sixth after just the first tour around the 2 mile high-banked tri-oval and ran with the leaders the rest of the way.

After predicting that his Mo Nunn Racing G Force-Chevrolet would be stronger in the race than qualifying, Giaffone was fourth by Lap 7, and took the lead for the first time by Lap 70. He led five times for a total of 24 laps, including Laps 190-193 of the 200-lap, 400-mile event during which he thrilled the crowd with a fantastic wheel to wheel dice with Sarah Fisher.

But Tomas Scheckter passed him on Lap 194 and pulled away for an easy victory. Scheckter's teammate Buddy Rice, making his first-ever IRL start this weekend, passed Giaffone for second place on Turn Four of the very last lap. It was Giaffone's third third-place finish of the season, the others coming at the Indy 500 and Richmond.

"It was an exciting race and I am very proud of my team, as they gave me a great race car and we made the fastest pit stops of the race," said a still-pumped Giaffone. "I had a good start, jumping from 12th to sixth on the very first lap, and to fourth on Lap 7. I just had to make an adjustment in the front wing in the first part of the race, and after that I had one of the best cars on the track."

With Eddie Cheever's Red Bull team running riot throughout the whole weekend, Giaffone took extra solace by the fact that he was the first Chevrolet across the finish line.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy to fight against the Infiniti's. During the race I could go along with the guys from Cheever Racing, who started on the front three positions. But now I know they were saving the equipment, as they had so many problems with the reliability in prior races.

"When there were just 10 laps to go, I was leading the race after a good fight against Sarah Fisher, who has an Infiniti engine, as well. But then came (Tomas) Scheckter and (Buddy) Rice, using full power. I couldn't hold them off anymore."

As the IRL season winds down the 27 year old Brazilian still finds himself very much in the Championship battle and with Sunday's result he consolidated fourth place in the driver standings with 330 points, but closed the gap on leaders Gil de Ferran (377), Helio Castroneves (365) and Sam Hornish, Jr. (359).

Marlboro Team Penske teammates de Ferran and Castroneves, and defending series champion Hornish, finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively on Sunday but with just four races remaining and Giaffone showing no signs of weakening, all three still have to look over their shoulders at the Hollywood sponsored car.

"Third place is good," added Giaffone. "We are closer to the leaders, still fourth in points. This is our third third-place finish this season, so we are still in very good shape. We just had to postpone the first victory."

The next event on the 2002 Indy Racing League calendar is the Belterra Casino Indy 300 at the Kentucky Speedway 1.5-mile tri-oval in Sparta, Ky. (Aug. 9-11).