Preview: Miller Lite 200.

The FedEx Championship Series recently concluded its most grueling stretch of the season, with six races in seven weeks. The run began with reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves' second victory of the season at Detroit, and ended with 2000 CART Rookie of the Year Kenny Brack's third win of the year at Chicago.

Now, as the series heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Miller Lite 200 Brack leads the championship chase with 104 points and Castroneves is his closest pursuer, with 82. But a handful of other drivers remain in contention for the Vanderbilt Cup, emblematic of the FedEx Championship Series Championship, as the series enters its 13th round in Lexington.

Which is pretty much what you'd expect from a championship that has produced eight different winners in the season's first 11 completed events, not to mention a staggering 18 different podium finishers in that same span. That has already established a CART record for different podium finishers in a season, topping the 17 of 1995 and '96, while CART's record for different winners in a campaign is 11, established last year.

At the head of the most competitive driver lineup in the world at present is Brack, whose three victories this season are a series high. His victory at Chicago put him back in the points after back-to-back scoreless finishes at Toronto and Michigan.

All of Brack's victories have come on ovals this year - the other two were recorded at Japan and Milwaukee - but Team Rahal knows how to prepare for road-course competition as well, as evidenced by teammate Max Papis' victory at the most recent road-course event in Portland.

Castroneves, meanwhile, will be looking for a repeat of last year's dominant Marlboro Team Penske performance at Mid-Ohio, when teammate Gil de Ferran won the pole and Castroneves started on the outside. The two then combined to lead all 83 laps and finish one-two in the race, with Castroneves on top.

Castroneves has claimed a pair of victories this season, at Long Beach and Detroit, and has scored 50 of his 82 championship points on road or street courses. He holds a one-point lead over Dario Franchitti of Team KOOL Green, who stands third in the championship with 81 points. Franchitti, who owns a victory at Cleveland this season, is a two-time pole-sitter (1998, '99) at Mid-Ohio who also owns a podium finish of third at the venue in 1999.

Michael Andretti of Team Motorola, who stands fourth in the championship with 73 points, is a two-time winner at Mid-Ohio (1990, '91) who also owns three career pole positions (1990-92) at the track. Andretti holds a one-point edge over fifth-place de Ferran, the defending FedEx Championship Series champion and defending Mid-Ohio pole-sitter, who arrives off a podium finish of third at Chicago which brought his season total to 72 points.

Joining Castroneves and Andretti as previous winners at Mid-Ohio are Alex Zanardi of Mo Nunn Racing, who won back-to-back at Mid-Ohio in 1996 and '97; and Adrian Fernandez of Fernandez Racing, who logged his third of seven career victories at Mid-Ohio in 1998.