Alex Zanardi

Alex Zanardi pulled the chair out for his teammate, Jimmy Vasser, who an hour earlier had won the Marlboro 500. Then, with a flourish worthy of a waiter opening a bottle of the finest champagne, he twisted the cap off the bottle of water at Vasser's place at the interview table. Then, poker-faced, he sat down. Charlie Chaplin might have played it a little better. But the little tramp couldn't race a lick.

In the last two years on the CART FedEx champ car circuit, Alex Zanardi won 12 races and two PPG Cup championships. Now that he is gone--he's back in Formula One--who will replace him as champion? Or as the dominant series driver? With Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach the third race of the season, and the first on a street course, the race to Zanardi's No. 1 position is wide open.