| Director | Renny Harlin |
|---|---|
| Budget | $94 million |
| Box office | $54.7 million |
Halfway through the alternate world of 2000 Champ Car Season, rookie sensation Jimmy Bly has already won five races. His success has drawn the ire of the defending champion and current points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he is not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia Simone becoming "a distraction". Beau breaks up their engagement and regains his winning streak at Chicago.
As Beau returns to form, Jimmy's paraplegic team owner Carl Henry is concerned that he is making more driving errors. He sees parallels to his former driver and Champ Car champion, Joe Tanto, whom he convinces to come out of retirement to mentor Jimmy. Joe agrees and is brought in to replace teammate Memo Moreno. Joe's ex-wife Cathy Heguy is now married to Memo. Despite all this, Joe and Memo are still friends. Meanwhile, Sophia meets Jimmy at a bar, and they begin to form a bond with each other.
In Canada, Jimmy leads and Beau is a close second. Jimmy cannot pull away from him, so Carl orders Joe to pit and holds him there until the leaders are about to come by, despite Joe's protests. Joe leaves the pit just in time to block out Beau, allowing Jimmy to win the race. Jimmy's brother/business manager Demille takes a dislike to Joe's mentoring, implying that Joe should just act as a blocker. Joe urges Beau to reconcile with Sophia, while Jimmy's growing bond with her causes him to further lose his form on the track during the next race in Japan, where he crashes.
At a party in Chicago, where the prototypes of the next season's cars are being introduced, Beau and Sophia reconcile, much to Jimmy's disappointment. Sophia apologizes to Jimmy, who lashes out at her and Beau, then takes one of the new cars and races it out of the convention center. Joe hops into another of the new cars and chases Jimmy down the streets, eventually calming him down.
In the coming race in Germany, Carl decides to reinstate Memo while making Joe mentor Jimmy from the pit lane. The next race begins in the middle of the rain, with Jimmy and Beau once again fighting it out for first. Jimmy needs one more win to take the championship, and Memo is instructed to block for him and keep out of his way. However, Cathy convinces Memo to go for the win, and as a result, he collides with Jimmy in a crash that sends him flying into a lake on the far end of the course. Jimmy and Beau dive into the lake and rescue Memo just as a burning tree collapses and ignites the car's leaking fuel, causing an explosion. This event causes Beau to warm up to Jimmy, saying that he is a good man and that he did not want to win the championship this way.
Angered that Jimmy has sacrificed his championship hopes to rescue another racer, Carl decides to replace him with Beau for the coming season and negotiates a deal with Demille, who will now represent Beau. Demille tries to get Beau to sign the new contract, but he rips it up and Sophia punches Demille in the face for the way he previously treated her. Initially, Jimmy is barred from competing due to a foot injury he sustained during the rescue, but Carl eventually decides to clear him for the race after he passes Carl's strength test. Jimmy thanks both Sophia and Beau for refusing his brother's deal.
At the season finale in Detroit, Jimmy and Beau contend for the championship. With Memo now hospitalized, Joe races again as Jimmy's teammate. In the final laps, Joe takes the lead but damages his front suspension by avoiding a crash, preventing him from contending for the win. In the final lap, Jimmy starts to have a mental lapse, but upon hearing Joe's words, he pulls ahead of Beau by just some inches and crosses the line first, while Joe's spinning car crosses in third. In front of a crowd of spectators, including Sophia and Demille, who shows he is proud of his brother, Jimmy is named the new champion and he celebrates his victory with Joe and Beau.