Portland, Ore. ? Cristiano da Matta won his third race of the young CART season, holding off Bruno Junqueira in the G.I. Joe’s 200 on Sunday.

Da Matta, who drives for Newman-Haas, has won five of the last eight races dating to last season. All three of his 2002 victories have come on road courses.

Target-Ganassi’s Junqueira, who was born in the same Brazilian town as da Matta, finished 0.625 seconds behind the winner, while Kool Green’s Dario Franchitti was third, 7.761 seconds back. Visteon rookie Townsend Bell was a season-best fourth; he would have made the podium, but he thought his crew had finished refueling on the last stop. He took off, stalling the engine and falling from third.

Starting from the pole, da Matta immediately lost the lead to the No. 2 starter, Kenny Brack of Target-Ganassi. But Brack lost a wheel on the third turn of the 1.969-mile Portland International Raceway course, just after the start of the 61st lap.

Da Matta had open track in front of him after that, but two lucky breaks helped him preserve the victory. On the 87th lap, da Matta was about to lap Adrian Fernandez when Fernandez locked his brakes and skidded off to the left. Da Matta didn’t miss a beat, turning slightly to the right and plowing ahead through Fernandez’ smoke.

Da Matta’s crew gave him a quick final pit stop following the 90th lap. Junqueira came out behind him, but he locked the brakes, costing him 0.716 seconds.

Junqueira cut the deficit to less than half a second at the white flag, but it was too much to make up. With the victory, da Matta extended his lead in the standings to 20 points.