The 2001 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Presented by Toyota was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) open-wheel race that was held on May 6, 2001, at Nazareth Speedway in Nazareth, Pennsylvania before 25,000 spectators. It was the fourth round of the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series and the 15th running of the event. Scott Dixon of PacWest Racing won the 225-lap race; Team Rahal's Kenny Bräck finished second, while Paul Tracy took third for Team Green.

Bruno Junqueira recorded the fastest time of qualifying and earned his first career pole position. He was quickly overtaken by Bräck, who went on to lead the first 125 laps while Dixon and others made pit stops on the 116th lap with the intention of saving fuel to make it to the end. After Bräck pitted, Tony Kanaan assumed the lead for the next 64 laps. He made his last stop on lap 190, allowing Dixon to take the lead. Because Bräck struggled to garner speed at the exit of the corners, Dixon was able to pull away and score his first (and only) CART win in his third start. He became the youngest winner in CART history at 20 years, nine months, and 14 days old. The lead was swapped twice between three different drivers, and six caution flags were issued.

With 17 races remaining in the 2001 season, Tracy tied with Cristiano da Matta for the Drivers' Championship lead, and Jimmy Vasser tied with defending series champion Gil de Ferran for third in the standings. Reynard maintained their lead in the Constructors' Cup, while Toyota overtook Honda for the lead in the Manufacturers' Cup standings. This was the last CART race at Nazareth Speedway; from 2002 to 2004, the event was sanctioned by the Indy Racing League.

Background The Lehigh Valley Grand Prix was a motor race that had been held on an annual basis since 1987 under the sanctioning of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). The 15th edition of the event was included as the fourth of 21 open-wheel races for CART's 2001 FedEx Championship Series schedule. It was held at Nazareth Speedway, a four-turn, tri-oval track, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, United States, over a distance of 225 laps and . The USAC Silver Bullet Series and the Atlantic Championship hosted support races during the weekend. Gil de Ferran was the defending race winner. Firestone provided seven sets of tires per car for the weekend.

Heading into the race, Cristiano da Matta led the Drivers' Championship with 37 points, seven more than second-place de Ferran and ten ahead of third-place Hélio Castroneves. Paul Tracy stood fourth on 26 points, and Jimmy Vasser was fifth on 18. In the Constructors' Cup, Reynard held the lead with 39 points, while Lola trailed them by one. Honda was leading the Manufacturers' Cup standings with 38 points; Toyota placed second with 37 points, and Ford-Cosworth was third on 15.

The race weekend was overshadowed by the controversy of the previous round, the Firestone Firehawk 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, which had been postponed because the g-forces that drivers were experiencing on the circuit were deemed too excessive and unsafe. Although officials of the track and CART discussed options over possible dates later in the year, Texas Motor Speedway issued a statement on May 2 confirming that the race had been officially cancelled.

It had also been determined that this was to be the last CART race at Nazareth Speedway, which track president and general manager Craig Rust confirmed in November 2000. The track's contract with the series expired in May 2001, and CART's board of directors chose not to renew it. With Nazareth removed from the schedule, the series was left without a presence in the Northeastern United States after having previously hosted races in the Meadowlands, Pocono, and New Hampshire. Team owner Roger Penske, who owned Nazareth Speedway from 1987 to 1999, felt that the track acted as "(CART's) east coast anchor" and encouraged CART to settle on a consistent race date, namely in May prior to the Indianapolis 500. On the day of the race, CART president Joseph Heitzler issued a statement that the series would be reviewing its options after the race in Japan and make a decision then:

Because of driver complaints that the aerodynamic package used in oval races the year before had caused too much turbulence and reduced the amount of on-track passing, CART introduced a low-downforce version of the Hanford device on the cars instead of the high-downforce version that was used previously. This configuration debuted at Nazareth and was intended to slow the cars down in the corners enough to encourage passing. Another rule that was implemented in this race was the requirement for all teams to use a single-point refueling system to fuel their cars.

Of the 26 full-time drivers in the series, the only driver who did not compete in the race was Maurício Gugelmin, who withdrew from the race following the death of his six-year-old son, Giuliano, who succumbed to respiratory complications on May 3. Gugelmin had not missed a CART race since his debut at Mid-Ohio in 1993; his streak of 130 consecutive races had been the longest of all active drivers in the series. PacWest Racing decided not to replace him for the weekend and withdrew his 17 car. The Nextel sponsorship on Gugelmin's car was resultantly placed onto that of his teammate, Scott Dixon.

Practice Three practice sessions preceded the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted 120 minutes, and the second and third sessions lasted 105 minutes. Bruno Junqueira topped the time sheets during the first practice session on Friday morning with a 20.485-second lap. He and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Nicolas Minassian previously tested at the track in November 2000 and in April 2001, the latter of which was for a rookie test that Dixon and Tora Takagi also participated in. Hélio Castroneves was second-quickest, just under two tenths of a second slower than Junqueira, while Kenny Bräck was third, Max Papis was fourth, and Michel Jourdain Jr. was fifth.

Although the high temperatures on Friday afternoon were expected to decrease speeds, many drivers set their fastest times of the day during the second practice session, which was led by Papis with a time of 20.653 seconds. Bräck, Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, and Paul Tracy were second-through-fifth fastest in the session. Junqueira remained the fastest overall driver on Friday with his morning session time.

For the third practice session on Saturday morning, the 25 drivers were split into two groups based on their position in the Drivers' Championship standings and were each allotted 45 minutes of on-track time. A 15-minute break separated the two groups. The session, which ended prematurely because of rain showers, was led by Bräck with a 19.926-second lap; he and Castroneves, who was five hundredths of a second slower, were the only two drivers to post times below 20 seconds. Junqueira, Oriol Servià, and Papis were third-, fourth-, and fifth-fastest, respectively. Papis caused the only stoppage of the session when he spun while exiting turn four.

Qualifying

During the qualifying session, held on Saturday afternoon, each driver was allowed up to four warm-up laps before completing two timed laps, the fastest of which would determine their starting position. The start of the session was delayed by eight minutes so that track marshals could dry the track's surface after the rainfall subsided. Junqueira earned his first pole position in his third start in CART with a time of 19.700 seconds, becoming the first rookie to win a pole in the series since Alex Tagliani in the 2000 Rio 200. It also marked Chip Ganassi Racing's third consecutive pole at Nazareth Speedway. Bräck continued his streak of four front-row qualifying efforts with a lap that was 0.038 seconds slower than Junqueira. Michel Jourdain Jr. took third place, the best qualifying result of his career thus far, while Servià qualified fourth to complete a top-four sweep for Lola chassis. The top ten positions were rounded out by Castroneves, Adrián Fernández, Bryan Herta, Tracy, Cristiano da Matta, and Tony Kanaan.

Jimmy Vasser struggled with understeer and qualified 11th, ahead of Dario Franchitti in 12th and Michael Andretti in 13th. Papis accelerated too early and looped his car one and a half times in turn four, but managed to avoid hitting anything. He was limited to one timed lap in his second qualifying attempt and took the 14th position. De Ferran started 15th with an understeering car; Roberto Moreno, Christian Fittipaldi, Tora Takagi, Shinji Nakano, and Tagliani rounded out the top-20. Alex Zanardi resorted to a backup car because of mechanical issues in the morning practice session and started 21st, with Patrick Carpentier in 22nd, Scott Dixon in 23rd, and Max Wilson in 24th. Nicolas Minassian was the only driver who did not complete his qualifying attempt. In the second turn, Minassian slammed the outside wall with such force that an oil line ruptured, causing his car to burst into flames. Minassian was uninjured, but was forced to switch to a backup car for the race and occupy the 25th and final position on the starting grid. Qualifying classification + Final qualifying results Driver Team Time 1 4 Bruno JunqueiraChip Ganassi Racing19.700172.873 12 8 Kenny BräckTeam Rahal19.738172.540 23 16 Michel Jourdain Jr.Bettenhausen Racing19.950170.707 34 22 Oriol ServiàSigma Autosport19.996170.314 45 3 Hélio CastronevesTeam Penske20.007170.220 56 51 Adrián FernándezFernández Racing20.059169.779 67 77 Bryan HertaForsythe Racing20.064169.737 78 26 Paul TracyTeam Green20.148169.029 89 6 Cristiano da MattaNewman/Haas Racing20.162168.912 910 55 Tony KanaanMo Nunn Racing20.187168.703 1011 40 Jimmy VasserPatrick Racing20.191168.669 1112 27 Dario FranchittiTeam Green20.201168.586 1213 39 Michael AndrettiTeam Motorola20.205168.552 1314 7 Max PapisTeam Rahal20.297167.788 1415 1 Gil de FerranTeam Penske20.319167.607 1516 20 Roberto MorenoPatrick Racing20.353 167.327 1617 11 Christian FittipaldiNewman/Haas Racing20.406166.892 1718 5 Toranosuke TakagiWalker Racing20.414166.827 1819 52 Shinji NakanoFernández Racing20.455166.492 1920 33 Alex TaglianiForsythe Racing20.459166.460 2021 66 Alex ZanardiMo Nunn Racing20.505166.086 2122 32 Patrick CarpentierForsythe Racing20.549165.731 2223 18 Scott DixonPacWest Racing20.681164.673 2324 25 Max WilsonArciero-Brooke Racing21.117161.273 2425 12 Nicolas MinassianChip Ganassi Racing—— 25 Sources:

Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05:00) on Sunday for a 30-minute warm-up session. Bräck posted the fastest time of the session at 20.894 seconds, with Castroneves in second, Takagi third, Junqueira fourth, and Carpentier fifth. Papis' left-rear tire was punctured, causing CART to issue a caution flag to inspect the track. Later in the session, Dixon and Wilson both spun on the front stretch in separate incidents.

Race

The cloudy weather that dampened Saturday's track activities gave way for sunny skies on Sunday. Air temperatures were recorded from , while track temperatures ranged from . Approximately 25,000 spectators attended the race. Roger Penske commanded the drivers to start their engines. The drivers lined up two-by-two for a rolling start and the race began at 1:05 p.m. Bräck pulled ahead of Junqueira in the first turn to take the lead, as did Servià to Jourdain for third place. Shortly after, the first caution flag of the race was flown when Bryan Herta spun to the inside of the track and sustained minimal front wing damage. As the field prepared to restart on lap four, Castroneves spun in the third turn and lost six positions, causing the second caution to be thrown. Meanwhile, Servià overtook Junqueira for second place. During the caution period, Dixon made a pit stop for of fuel as part of his race strategy.