The 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series was the 23rd season of the FedEx Championship Series, the premier series sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and encompassed the 90th season of American open-wheel car racing alongside the rivaling 2001 Indy Racing Northern Light Series. The season consisted of 21 races, beginning in Monterrey, Mexico on March 11 and ending in Fontana, California on November 4. The Drivers' Championship was won by Gil de Ferran, the Constructors' Cup by Reynard, and the Manufacturers' Cup by Honda.
Off the track, the 2001 season was an unmitigated disaster for CART under the leadership of Joseph Heitzler. It included two race cancellations in Rio de Janeiro and Texas; a disastrous European tour that coincided with the September 11 attacks and witnessed a severe accident to former series champion Alex Zanardi in which he lost both of his legs; infighting amongst engine manufacturers that saw litigation and the announced future departure of Honda and Toyota; the loss of the series' television contract with ABC/ESPN; the departure of longtime tracks Michigan International Speedway and Nazareth Speedway; the loss of Firestone as the series' tire supplier and its replacement by parent company Bridgestone; and the defection of Team Penske to the rival Indy Racing League (IRL) at the conclusion of the season.
Team Penske and Team Motorola joined Chip Ganassi Racing in having concurrent IRL teams to run in the 2001 Indianapolis 500, with Penske's Helio Castroneves winning the race. In an unusual move, CART "sanctioned" the participation of teams in the race; this was an attempt to allow Penske's primary sponsor, Marlboro, to appear on cars in the 500, as they were prohibited from being in more than one racing series by the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. This legal maneuver was not successful, and Penske's cars ran without advertising.
Teams and drivers The following teams and drivers competed in the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series. All teams competed with tires supplied by Firestone.
TeamChassisEngineDriver Team Penske Reynard 01I Honda HR-1 1 Gil de Ferran All 3 Hélio Castroneves All Chip Ganassi RacingLola B01/00Toyota RV8E 4 Bruno Junqueira All 12 Nicolas Minassian 1–7 Memo Gidley 8–21 Walker Motorsport Reynard 01I Toyota RV8E 5 Toranosuke Takagi All Newman/Haas Racing Lola B01/00 Toyota RV8E 6 Cristiano da Matta All 11 Christian Fittipaldi All Team Rahal Lola B01/00 Ford-Cosworth XF 7 Max Papis All 8 Kenny Bräck All Bettenhausen Racing Lola B01/00 Ford-Cosworth XF 16 Michel Jourdain Jr. All PacWest Racing Reynard 01I Toyota RV8E 17 Maurício Gugelmin All 18 Scott Dixon All Patrick RacingReynard 01IToyota RV8E19 Townsend Bell16–17 20 Roberto Moreno All 40 Jimmy Vasser All Dale Coyne RacingLola B2K/00Ford-Cosworth XF19 Michael Krumm1–221 Luiz Garcia Jr.1–2 Sigma Autosport Lola B01/00 Ford-Cosworth XF 22 Oriol Servià All Arciero-Blair Racing Lola B2K/00 Phoenix 25 Max Wilson 1–4 Ford-Cosworth XF 6–11, 13–19 Alex Barron 20–21 Team Green Reynard 01I Honda HR-1 26 Paul Tracy All 27 Dario Franchitti All Team Motorola39 Michael AndrettiAll Forsythe Racing Reynard 01I Ford-Cosworth XF 32 Patrick Carpentier All 33 Alex Tagliani All 77 Bryan Herta All Fernández Racing Reynard 01I Honda HR-1 51 Adrián Fernández All 52 Shinji Nakano All Mo Nunn Racing Reynard 01I Honda HR-1 55 Tony Kanaan All 66 Alex Zanardi 1–16 Casey Mears 18–21Source:
Team changes Chip Ganassi Racing's success with Toyota in the 2000 season increased demand for their RV8 engine, with Walker Motorsport, Newman/Haas Racing, PacWest Racing, and Patrick Racing switching to the engine for 2001. Because of the overwhelming engine production, Toyota ceased their support of two teams, Della Penna Motorsports and PPI Motorsports, forcing both to shut down their CART operations at the end of 2000; PPI Motorsports shifted their efforts to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.
PacWest Racing was one of four teams that fielded cars powered by Mercedes-Benz engines in the previous season, but was forced to switch to a different engine supplier after DaimlerChrysler—Mercedes-Benz's parent company—announced their departure from the series at the season's end in order to exclusively focus on their Formula One program. Ilmor, the company responsible for building Mercedes-Benz's CART engines, chose to stay in the sport and supply their own engines, named the Phoenix, for Arciero-Brooke Racing, though the team resorted to Ford-Cosworth's XF engine starting from the Miller Lite 225. As for the other teams, Bettenhausen Racing also ran the XF engine, while Mo Nunn Racing used Honda's new HR-1 engine alongside four other teams, including the newly-formed Team Motorola and Fernández Racing, marking Honda's largest lineup in their history with CART.
Only two constructors, Lola and Reynard, supplied chassis for 2001 after Swift left the series following an uncompetitive 2000 season with Dale Coyne Racing. Reynard had won the Constructors' Cup the previous season and introduced their new 01I chassis.
Schedule Key Icon Legend Oval/Speedway Road course Street circuitCCancelled race
Round Race Name Circuit City Date 1 Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey Fundidora Park Monterrey, Mexico March 11C Rio 200 Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway Rio de Janeiro, Brazil March 25 2 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California April 8 3 Firestone Firehawk 600 (Cancelled) Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas April 29 4 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania May 6 5 Firestone Firehawk 500 Twin Ring Motegi Motegi, Japan May 19 6 Miller Lite 225 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin June 3 7 Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit The Raceway on Belle Isle Park Detroit, Michigan June 17 8 Freightliner/G. I. Joe's 200 Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon June 24 9 Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio July 1 10 Molson Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario July 15 11 Harrah's 500 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan July 22 12 Target Grand Prix of Chicago Chicago Motor Speedway Cicero, Illinois July 29 13 Miller Lite 200 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio August 12 14 Motorola 220 Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin August 19 15 Molson Indy Vancouver Concord Pacific Place Vancouver, British Columbia September 2 16 The American Memorial EuroSpeedway Lausitz Klettwitz, Germany September 15 17 Rockingham 500 Rockingham Motor Speedway Corby, United Kingdom September 22 18 Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas October 7 19 Honda Grand Prix of Monterey Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California October 14 20 Honda Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Australia October 28 21 Marlboro 500 California Speedway Fontana, California November 4
The original calendar called for 22 races on five continents, by far the most ambitious calendar CART had ever attempted. With the race at Texas being canceled and the Rio 200 being dropped, the 2001 season ultimately had the same number of races as the previous year. For the first time, CART would race in the United Kingdom and Germany and also return to Mexico for the first time in almost twenty years. The original calendar released on August 5, 2000, had the first round of the season at Jacarepaguá in Brazil, but disagreements with the track owners several months later led to the event being dropped. The events at Homestead-Miami and Gateway were dropped after negotiations with the owners of the track; rival series Indy Racing League secured the contracts instead, and both tracks were featured in the 2001 Indy Racing League season. The removal of Gateway from the calendar meant that Memorial Day weekend would be empty, allowing several teams and drivers the opportunity to compete at the Indianapolis 500. The 2001 season was the final time Michigan Speedway appeared on the calendar.
Results
Rnd Race Name Pole position Fastest lap Lead most laps Winning driver Winning team Report 1 Monterrey Kenny Bräck Dario Franchitti Cristiano da Matta Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Racing Report 2 Long Beach Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Report 3 Texas Kenny BräckRace cancelled Report 4 Nazareth Bruno Junqueira Tony Kanaan Kenny Bräck Scott Dixon PacWest Racing Report 5 Motegi Hélio Castroneves Alex Zanardi Hélio Castroneves Kenny Bräck Team Rahal Report 6 Milwaukee Kenny Bräck Dario Franchitti Kenny Bräck Kenny Bräck Team Rahal Report 7 Belle Isle Hélio Castroneves Michael Andretti Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Report 8 Portland Max Papis Max Papis Max Papis Max Papis Team Rahal Report 9 Cleveland Maurício Gugelmin Roberto Moreno Memo Gidley Dario Franchitti Team Green Report 10 Toronto Gil de Ferran Hélio Castroneves Gil de Ferran Michael Andretti Team Motorola Report 11 Michigan Kenny Bräck Patrick Carpentier Max Papis Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing Report 12 Chicago Tony Kanaan Kenny Bräck Hélio Castroneves Kenny Bräck Team Rahal Report 13 Mid-Ohio Gil de Ferran Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Report 14 Road America Kenny Bräck Bruno Junqueira Hélio Castroneves Bruno Junqueira Chip Ganassi Racing Report 15 Vancouver Alex Tagliani Hélio Castroneves Alex Tagliani Roberto Moreno Patrick Racing Report 16 EuroSpeedway Gil de Ferran Tony Kanaan Kenny Bräck Kenny Bräck Team Rahal Report 17 Rockingham Kenny Bräck Patrick Carpentier Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran Team Penske Report 18 Houston Gil de Ferran Jimmy Vasser Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran Team Penske Report 19 Laguna Seca Gil de Ferran Hélio Castroneves Gil de Ferran Max Papis Team Rahal Report 20 Surfers Paradise Roberto Moreno Jimmy Vasser Roberto Moreno Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Racing Report 21 Fontana Alex Tagliani Max Papis Max Papis Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Racing Report
Final driver standings