Wild in the Streets; Cristiano da Matta clinches the CART title.(Racing)(Brief Article)

Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO

Cristiano da Matta ended his weekend in Miami with the 2002 CART championship, a $1 million paycheck and a Formula One contract from Toyota awaiting his signature. But those achievements were almost foregone conclusions. Going in, the tension swirled around other issues: Does CART still have the juice to play south Florida; and, more than seven years after its previous street race in Miami, would those who bought tickets like what they saw?

On Sunday the grandstands were nearly full, and organizers claimed corporate suites were full (official attendance figures haven't been released). Yet after two days of practice and qualifying, disintegrating pavement didn't bode well for pure racing excitement. ``I don't think you're going to see much passing,'' said pole-winner Tony Kanaan. ``If a guy doesn't want you to get by, you're going to be stuck behind him, or he's going to crash.''

Early on Kanaan and Scott Dixon pulled away from the pack, but not from each other. On lap 19 Dixon dove under Kanaan in the braking zone at the end of the straight; Kanaan squeezed down, knocking Dixon into a barrier and out of the race. Kanaan recovered and held the lead, but CART judged him responsible for the incident and sent him to the back of the pack.

The two fastest cars were thus removed from the chase, and the fight fell to drivers from Newman-Haas Racing ...