Andretti leaves CART with the wrong kind of bang.

Michael Andretti's 18-year CART career came to a premature end in Mexico City when he made hard contact with the wall in Turn 13 on lap 51 of the Gran Premio Telmex Gigante.

Andretti, running in his CART finale, had been as high as 5th before a flat-spotted tire caused him to go off track. CART's all-time active win leader will finish ninth in the 2002 CART FedEx Championship, the 17th time in 18 years he has finished in the top-10 in the season ending points.

"All of my memories of racing are from CART and it has been a tremendous run," said Andretti. "I'm just disappointed it ended in the wall. I feel bad for all of Team Motorola. I'm sad my CART career is over but also happy because I've done a lot of good things too."

"I flat-spotted my right front tire early in the stint and I just pushed it too hard and the car understeered and went straight into the grass. When I got into the grass there was no slowing down until I hit the wall. I thought it was going to hurt more than it did. But I hit at a good angle so I was lucky."

"This is a tough way to end the season for Team Motorola," added Team Manager Tony Cotman. "We have a pretty good record of finishing races this season but we've had some tough luck and that's the way it goes. I want to thank everyone at Team Motorola for doing a great job this season and especially Michael, he was a pleasure to work with."

Kenny Brack claimed his first win of the year, holding off 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta. Bruno Junqueira finished third and claimed second in this year's points chase.

Andretti's technical partner Dario Franchitti finished fifth to hold to fourth in the championship while Paul Tracy was forced out of the race on lap 62 by a mechanical problem.