da Matta beats Stewart: CART champion Cristiano da Matta has broken NASCAR’s five-year stranglehold on the Driver of the Year award in historic fashion. For the first time in the award’s 36-year history, a tiebreaker was used to determine the winner after da Matta and 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart each drew six votes from a nationwide panel of 16 motorsports journalists. Points awarded to each driver during four quarterly ballots were added, and da Matta beat Stewart 246-66 to claim the honor. Da Matta, a 29-year-old Brazilian nicknamed “Shorty,” clinched with three races remaining in a 19-event schedule. His 73-point margin over second-place Bruno Junqueira was the widest [actually 2nd widest] in CART history. Stewart, meanwhile, was taken to the season’s 36th and final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday before clinching the Cup title over Mark Martin by 38 points. Stewart, a 31-year-old native of Indiana, posted two poles, three victories and 15 top-five finishes in the #20 Home Depot Pontiac Grand Prix owned by Joe Gibbs. Beginning with Jeff Gordon in 1997, the Winston Cup champion also had won Driver of the Year through 2001. Also receiving votes in a secret ballot were Pennzoil World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser and National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon. John Force, the 12-time NHRA Funny Car champion and 1996 Driver of the Year, was the cumulative winner of a fan vote on ESPN.com. Winston Cup driver Kurt Busch won the fourth-quarter vote 117-59 over two-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr.(Fort Worth Star Telegram)(11-22-2002)
