After Alex Zanardi clinched his second straight CART FedEx champ car championship four races from the end of the season, and shortly thereafter announced that he was going to return to Formula One next year, speculation arose that the feisty little Italian might skip the year's final race at California Speedway.
"Not so," he said. "There are a million reasons why I will race at Fontana."
That would be the $1-million first-place prize for the Marlboro 500 on Sunday.
"Besides, I am under contract until Dec. 31, so I am obligated to be there to race. I would never turn away from a race. I enjoy it too much."
If Zanardi wins, it will match the $1 million he will receive Monday night at the CART banquet in the Century Plaza Hotel, and give him a lucrative sendoff after three years' racing in the United States.
"Money is wonderful, especially now that we have a little baby, but what matters most is the winning, the competition, the excitement I feel when I get in a race car," said Zanardi, who won seven races in Chip Ganassi's red Target Reynard-Honda, including four in a row, to dominate the CART season just as he did last year.
"Racing is my passion, and it has been my good fortune to be with a team that gives me a chance to win races. That's the dream of every driver."
Next year, Zanardi, 32, will drive in Formula One for Frank Williams. His place on Ganassi's team will be taken by Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, a Williams test driver this season.
"It was a hard decision to leave Chip Ganassi," Zanardi said. "I would not have left if I had not been going to one of the best teams in Formula One. I had a great time with my team here, great results, great friendships, but in life, if you achieve something, you then need to try something else and hope to achieve that. That is what made me decide to return to Formula One."
That, and the fact that his wife, Daniela, was homesick for Italy while living in Noblesville, Ind., and the fact that they wanted to raise their son, Niccola, in the home country.
And too, Zanardi was anxious to discard the name 'Alex,' one that Ganassi had given him three years ago, and return to his real name: Alessandro.
In three years as a CART driver, Zanardi won 15 races and 10 poles in 51 starts. The only race he missed was last year's Marlboro 500 at Fontana where he suffered a mild concussion in two crashes during practice. His place was taken by Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, an Indy Racing League driver, who crashed hard during the race.
