INSIDE LOOK: DA MATTA FINDS NO ROOM AT TOP NOWHERE TO PASS, BRAZILIAN TAKES SECOND.

Byline: Tim Haddock Staff Writer

LONG BEACH - Officially, Newman Haas Racing was .534 seconds from winning its third consecutive race.

But ask CART FedEx Series driver Cristiano da Matta, who finished second in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for Newman Haas, if he feels like he missed out on a chance to win three races in a row and he'll say he didn't miss a thing.

``I am not thinking this way,'' da Matta said. ``I didn't miss anything. I tried everything I could. The team tried everything it could. It wasn't our day. There was someone doing something better than us.''

That someone was Helio Castroneves, who won Sunday's race driving for Marlboro Team Penske. The Brazilian driver led from pole to finish and left little room or opportunity for anyone to pass him.

Sure, da Matta said he would have liked to have passed Castroneves at some point during the race, it's just that his chances were few and far between.

``It's always difficult to find a place to pass on street courses,'' said da Matta. ``The only chance I had was on the straightaway before Turn 1. I had nothing for him.''

Da Matta's second-place finish coupled with his win to open the season in Monterrey, Mexico, has him atop the series points standings. He holds a seven-point lead over defending champion Gil de Ferran, who was third for Team Penske at Long Beach.

``I think every year we'd like to start like this,'' said Newman Haas Racing general manager Brian Lisles. ``But we tried as hard as we try every year. We know it's going to be a hard season, but we're very pleased. And we are well aware it only takes a second for it all to go wrong.''

Da Matta was able to take advantage of some bad luck that struck Team Rahal driver Kenny Brack. A gear box failure ended Brack's day after the first pit stops. The Swede was running second before the mishap.

``I don't know what happened to Kenny,'' da Matta said. ``I got out of the pits and he was behind me. It was his mistake, not mine. We had a good stop and got out ahead.''

Da Matta quickly found himself in a two-car race with Castroneves for the final 51 laps after the pit stop.

But the tight course made it a challenge for da Matta to find any room to maneuver past Castroneves.

``I forced it as much as I could, but there wasn't any room,'' da Matta said. ``Every chance I had was on the outside. It was impossible to pass.''

Even though da Matta complained about there being little room to pass on the track, he said he never got frustrated. ``Frustration is not the right word,'' da Matta said. ``If you let your emotions take over, it's easy to make a stupid thing. You get so anxious to win, you might do something silly.

``It's not frustrating. It's just the way racing is. There are good, tough drivers here and they are not going to make it easy.''

Da Matta's finish ends a string of DNFs at Long Beach. Before Sunday, he had never finished a CART race at Long Beach in his two previous tries. He won and finished second in his only two Long Beach Indy Lights races.

Da Matta has doubled his career podium finishes in 2001. He had two entering the season, a win in Chicago in 2000 and a second in Cleveland the same year. He has two podiums in 2001.