The 2002 The 500 Presented by Toyota was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) open-wheel race that was held on November 3, 2002, at California Speedway in Fontana, California before 50,000 spectators. Contested over 250 laps, it was the 18th and penultimate round of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series and the sixth running of the event. Team Rahal driver Jimmy Vasser won the race from the sixth position. Michael Andretti, driving for Team Motorola, finished second, and Patrick Carpentier finished third for Forsythe Racing.
Tony Kanaan won his fourth career pole position by posting the fastest lap of qualifications. The early portions of the race were dominated by Andretti and Team Green teammate Paul Tracy, though the latter driver eventually fell out with engine issues. Vasser overtook Kanaan for the lead following a cycle of pit stops on lap 76 and dominated a majority of the race, only conceding the lead to Michel Jourdain Jr. and Dario Franchitti during pit stop sequences. With each cycle of stops, series champion Cristiano da Matta inched closer to Vasser until he finally assumed the lead on lap 203. After Vasser's team made a slight mistake during his final pit stop, da Matta seemed poised to take the win until his engine expired on lap 236. Andretti overtook Vasser for the lead on the ensuing restart, but after Franchitti suffered an engine failure, CART officials issued the red flag to ensure a green-flag finish. Vasser took the lead from Andretti shortly after the last restart to earn his 10th and final career victory and second at California Speedway.
The result moved Carpentier up to third in the Drivers' Championship standings, three points behind second-place Bruno Junqueira. Constructors' Cup champion Lola continued lengthening their lead over Reynard, as did Manufacturers' Cup titlist Toyota over Honda with one race left in the season. The race had an average speed of , which was the fastest for a 500-mile American open-wheel car race until 2014. The race wound up being CART's last at California Speedway as the 2003 running of the event was cancelled because of the Old Fire.
Background
The 500 was confirmed to be included on Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART)'s 2002 schedule in November 2001. It was the 18th of 19 races scheduled by CART, the sixth annual edition of the event, and was held on November 3, 2002 at the California Speedway, a four-turn oval circuit, in Fontana, California, United States. It was to be contested for 250 laps over a distance of . Each team was allotted of fuel and allowed to start the race with up to ; in addition, drivers were mandated to enter pit road at a 33-lap interval.
Heading into the race, Newman/Haas Racing driver Cristiano da Matta, the defending champion of The 500, garnered 219 points and led the Drivers' Championship, which he had already clinched following his victory in the Grand Prix Americas on October 6. Bruno Junqueira held second with 144 points, and Dario Franchitti was third with 135 points. Patrick Carpentier and Christian Fittipaldi occupied the fourth and fifth positions with 131 and 116 points, respectively. In the Constructors' Cup standings, Lola, which had secured the championship with Junqueira's win in the Grand Prix of Denver, held first with 357 points, 148 more than Reynard. As for the Manufacturers' Cup, Toyota accumulated 301 points and obtained the championship on account of Kenny Bräck's fourth-place finish at Surfers Paradise. They were followed by Honda (255 points) and Ford-Cosworth (226 points).
The Handford device was trimmed three inches by CART, allowing an influx of speed and a significant reduction of aerodynamic drag in the race. Jimmy Vasser, who won the 1998 edition of the event and finished ninth in the Indy Racing League race at the circuit earlier that year, predicted that The 500 would be "a wild one" due to the Handford device's new configuration. After a disappointing finish in the preceding Honda Indy 300, da Matta felt confident in his ability to win at California for the second consecutive year. Da Matta's teammate Fittipaldi spoke on the many physical and mental adversities that drivers have to face for The 500. Paul Tracy expressed enthusiasm for the forthcoming event after testing a Honda engine at the track several weeks prior. Michael Andretti reflected on his team's recent misfortunes, including a controversial loss at Surfers Paradise, and hoped to have a "perfectly trouble-free weekend" at California.
Between the eighteen entries for the race, the lone driver change was of the 51 Fernández Racing entry. Adrián Fernández, who normally drove the car, suffered two thoracic fractures in a major opening-lap pileup at Surfers Paradise and was prohibited from competing at California. In the meantime, Max Papis was chosen to substitute for the injured Fernández. Tora Takagi also endured minor pelvic fractures in the accident, but he was allowed to race at California so long as he felt comfortable enough to do so.
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held prior to the race on Sunday—two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 75 minutes, and the third 60 minutes. In the first practice session on Friday morning, Tony Kanaan was fastest with a timed lap of 31.364 seconds, besting Franchitti, Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, and Andretti. Later that afternoon, Tagliani paced the second practice session with a time of 31.252 seconds, followed by Vasser, Michel Jourdain Jr., Kanaan, and Franchitti. Kanaan improved on his quickest time during the final practice session on Saturday morning, with a lap of 31.006 seconds; he outpaced Franchitti, Tagliani, Carpentier, and Jourdain Jr. Kenny Bräck, fifteenth-quickest in the session, spun without contact while exiting the second turn.
During qualifying, which was held on Saturday afternoon and lasted 120 minutes, drivers were allowed to complete up to five warm-up laps prior to their two timed laps, the fastest of which would determine their starting position. Kanaan earned the fourth pole position of his CART career with a quickest time of 31.483 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Junqueira, who was 0.118 seconds slower and held the pole position until Kanaan's lap. Da Matta qualified third, Andretti fourth, and Tracy fifth. Vasser, Tagliani, Carpentier, Franchitti, and Papis took positions sixth through tenth, and Jourdain Jr., Shinji Nakano, Fittipaldi, Scott Dixon, Bräck, Takagi, Mario Domínguez, and Oriol Servià completed the starting grid. After the qualifier, Kanaan jokingly ribbed on Junqueira and believed that the race would produce many passes and lead changes.
Qualifying classification Driver Team + Final qualifying results 1 10 Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Racing 31.483 232.011 1 2 4 Bruno Junqueira Chip Ganassi Racing 31.601 231.145 2 3 1 Cristiano da Matta Newman/Haas Racing 31.679 230.575 3 4 39 Michael Andretti Team Motorola 31.685 230.532 4 5 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 31.734 230.176 5 6 8 Jimmy Vasser Team Rahal 31.736 230.161 6 7 33 Alex Tagliani Forsythe Racing 31.737 230.154 7 8 32 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 31.740 230.132 8 9 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 31.759 229.995 9 10 51 Max Papis Fernández Racing 31.798 229.713 10 11 9 Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Rahal 31.804 229.669 11 12 52 Shinji Nakano Fernández Racing 31.836 229.438 12 13 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman/Haas Racing 31.877 229.143 13 14 44 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 31.923 228.813 14 15 12 Kenny Bräck Chip Ganassi Racing 31.981 228.398 15 16 5 Toranosuke Takagi Walker Racing 32.050 227.906 16 17 55 Mario Domínguez Herdez Competition 32.087 227.644 17 18 20 Oriol Servià Patrick Racing 32.277 226.304 18Source:
Warm-up All eighteen drivers took to the track on Sunday morning for a thirty-minute warm-up session under sunny weather. Kanaan showed even more speed during the session, setting the fastest time at 32.180 seconds. His lap was 0.041 seconds quicker than Jourdain Jr.'s fastest time; Takagi, Franchitti, and Tracy completed the top five.
Race
Live television coverage of the event aired on the Speed Channel and began at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00). Play-by-play commentary was provided by Bob Varsha, while Scott Pruett and Tommy Kendall took the roles of race analysts. Ambient air temperatures towards the start of the race were recorded at with partly sunny skies. Approximately 50,000 people attended the event. The green flag was waved at 12:38 p.m. to signify the beginning of the race, and Andretti immediately fired past Kanaan on the outside line to take the lead. As Andretti quickly amassed a two-second lead, Kanaan lost second place to Tracy on the second lap, but regained the position four laps later. By utilizing the slipstream from the rear of Andretti's car, Kanaan got by Andretti for the lead in the first turn on lap 9. Andretti remained in hot pursuit of Kanaan and eventually overtook him again on lap 12, while Vasser simultaneously passed Tracy for third place; Vasser was eventually relegated to fifth place, behind Tracy and Carpentier, by the 15th lap. In the next two laps, Tracy made his way up from third to first, passing Andretti for the lead while entering turn one on lap 17. Andretti reclaimed the lead two laps later, but was quickly passed by Tracy again on the 20th lap. Vasser moved into the lead for the first time three laps later, and gained a 1.6-second lead ahead of Tracy and Andretti by lap 32 as both drivers engaged in a wheel-to-wheel duel for second place.
Vasser led all the drivers into pit road for the first round of green-flag pit stops on the 33rd lap; Andretti was credited with leading the lap, though Vasser regained the lead while exiting pit road. The first caution flag of the race was issued on lap 34 after a lug nut in Junqueira's left-rear tire loosened as he drove off of pit road, causing his tire to fall off. Junqueira later rejoined the race, albeit several laps down. The caution period allowed Franchitti to pit again. On the lap-39 restart, Andretti charged by Vasser to take the lead once again. Vasser then fell to third place a lap later as Tracy overtook him in the first corner. With each passing lap, Andretti, Tracy, Vasser, and Kanaan remained close together in the top four positions, as Papis challenged Carpentier for seventh place. Tracy slowly inched closer to Andretti before finally pulling to his outside at the fourth turn of lap 44, though he was unable to complete the pass for the lead. On the 46th lap, Tracy finally reclaimed the lead as Andretti fended off Vasser. Andretti got by Tracy two laps later, and from laps 48–64, Tracy and Andretti exchanged the lead nine times. Kanaan gradually climbed up the running order in the meantime and passed Tracy to retake the lead on the 65th lap.