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Following the tide Marlboro Team Penske has thrown in the towel on building its own cars, its least for the time being. As anticipated. the teant announced in Vancouver that new drivers Gil de Ferran and Greg Moore will race Reynards in 2000. It's not hard to understand. Reynard supplies nearly two-thirds of the CART field and has won five consecutive chassis constructors' championships. A Penske car has not won a race since the spring of 1997. If Penske plans to switch engine or tire manufacturers, the team isn't letting on. However, officials with Mercedes- Benz and Ilmor wouldn't rule out the possibility that Penske might get Ford or Honda power, though they said they expect the team to stick with Mercedes. One reason Penske might switch is the creation of a new Mercedes t;tctory CART team. run by AMG. The wmounce- ment should come soon. Look for Bernd Schneider. long affiliated with Mercedes in sports cars and Formula One. to drive. Rather than start from scratch. AMG nti~=ht buy an existing CART team-possibly Walker Racing. which has no sponsor for 2000. Walker may be looking at the IRL; he has said that he'll be racing in the Indianapolis 500 in 2000. no matter what. lunior's job search, cont. How close is Al Unser Jr. to finding work for next season? "I'd like to make an announcement in a couple of weeks," he says. Unser confirmed several rumors that have been floating since Marlbnro Team Penske announced in early August that it has signed Gil de Ferran and Greg Moore for next season. He's had discus- sions with IRL owners Fred Treadway and Rick Galles (for whom Unser drove sever- al seasons in CART). He's spoken to Cal Wells and A.J. Foyt about driving for their start-up Winston Cup teams, and he's spo- ken to Gerald Forsythe about joining Tony Kanaun at Forsythe Championship Racing. Would L'nser like to stay in CART? "Sure I'd like to stav." he says. "But I want to race in the Indianapolis 500 more than anything else." Meanwhile. put your money on Kenny Brack to replace Bryan Herta at Bobby Rahal's CART team. Brack is the reigning IRL champ and Ind,v 500 winner, driving ti>r A.J. Foyt. Like CART rookie sensation Juun Montoya. Brack cut his contpetitive teeth in European F?0o11. AUTOWEEK SEPiEMBER 73, 1999