The 2002 Firestone Indy 200 was an Indy Racing League (IRL) motor race that was held at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee on July 20, 2002. It was the tenth round of the 2002 Indy Racing League and the second running of the event. Blair Racing driver Alex Barron won the 200-lap race from the fifth starting position, the first of his two IRL victories. Gil de Ferran of Team Penske finished second, and Sam Hornish Jr. was third for Panther Racing.
Billy Boat earned the pole position, his first since 1999, by lapping the fastest time of qualifying and setting a new track record in the process. Hornish passed him on lap 13 and soon became a clear factor to win the race, leading 95 laps. However, he was hit from behind by George Mack while slowing for a caution flag on lap 171, which putting him out of winning contention for the rest of the race. Scott Sharp resultantly assumed the lead until Barron overtook him on the 190th lap and led the remaining 11 laps. Sharp originally came in third, but was given a one-lap penalty by IRL officials for blocking on the final restart and dropped to eighth place.
The finishing order gave de Ferran the lead in the Drivers' Championship with a ten-point advantage over teammate Hélio Castroneves. Barron also improved three positions to claim fifth place in the standings with five races left in the season.
Background
The second running of the Firestone Indy 200 was held on Saturday, July 20, 2002, as the tenth of 15 open-wheel races scheduled by the Indy Racing League (IRL) for their 2002 season and the third and final race to start at nighttime. Tire supplier Firestone was announced as the race's title sponsor in January 2002, replacing gaming corporation Harrah's Entertainment. As in the previous year, it was held at Nashville Superspeedway, a concrete-surfaced, oval track with banking as high as 14 degrees in its four turns. Entering the event, Hélio Castroneves led the Drivers' Championship with 315 points, eight more than countryman and Team Penske teammate Gil de Ferran. Sam Hornish Jr. stood third with 296 points, followed by Felipe Giaffone and Airton Daré with 269 and 226 points, respectively.
There were 16 teams that entered 22 cars for the race, the smallest entry list of the season. All cars used chassis built by either Dallara or G-Force, engines built by Chevrolet or Infiniti, and Firestone-produced tires. Two days before the race, Al Unser Jr. announced at a press conference in Indianapolis, Indiana that he would be seeking treatment for his alcohol addiction in an undisclosed rehabilitation center after getting arrested on July 9 on charges of alleged domestic violence, which were later dropped. In the meantime, Kelley Racing test driver Tony Renna took Unser's seat for the next two races. Three months after a crash in Indianapolis 500 testing left Eliseo Salazar with a broken vertebral artery, he completed his recovery process and returned at Nashville, forcing A. J. Foyt Racing to field a third entry for Salazar's temporary replacement, Greg Ray. Robby McGehee withdrew from the race after Beck Motorsports owner Ray Parsons was hospitalized for unexpected stomach surgery, though he was expected to return for the succeeding Michigan Indy 400.
Firestone Racing executive director Al Speyer predicted that speeds would exceed during the race weekend after Ray nearly eclipsed the mark to win the pole position the year prior. His sentiment was vindicated when Tomas Scheckter completed 125 laps in a testing session at Nashville Superspeedway on July 10, recording a top speed of . Scheckter took a liking to testing at the track because "the concrete surface is different. It has less grip and a few bumps." De Ferran, who also tested at the circuit on the week of the race, admitted that he struggled with adjusting his vision for nighttime races: "While the track is illuminated, the look of the circuit is very different from that of a day race. There is nothing that can be done about it, you just have to get used to it and adjust visually to the nighttime conditions." Castroneves held a similar opinion, though he also felt positively about nighttime races because of the lack of humidity.
Practice and qualifying Three practice sessions were conducted prior to the race on Saturday night, two 90-minute sessions on Friday and one 30-minute session on Saturday afternoon. In the first two sessions, the drivers were also split into two groups, each receiving equal track time. Billy Boat was fastest in the first practice session with a lap time of 22.9531 seconds, followed by Scheckter, Buddy Lazier, Eddie Cheever, and Hornish. Boat then recorded the quickest time of the second practice session at 22.9425 seconds, with Lazier in second, Giaffone in third, Richie Hearn in fourth, and Scheckter in fifth.
On Friday afternoon, 90 minutes after the second practice session ended, the qualifying session was held to determine the starting grid. Each driver was to individually complete two timed laps, the fastest of which would determine their starting position. With a time of 22.9666 seconds, Boat earned his ninth career pole position and his first since the 1999 Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500. His speed of was a new track record, approximately faster than Ray's track record set the previous year. Castroneves was 0.0464 seconds slower than Boat and started alongside him on the grid's front row. Hornish, Scheckter, and Alex Barron rounded out the top-five, and the remaining top-ten positions were taken by Hearn, Sarah Fisher, Giaffone, Cheever, and Robbie Buhl. Scott Sharp, Lazier, de Ferran, Renna, Raul Boesel, Mark Dismore, Salazar, Jeff Ward, Daré, Ray, and George Mack filled the next 11 spots on the grid. Laurent Redon, 22nd, did not make a qualifying attempt because of an issue with his fuel pump.
The next day, Hornish lapped the quickest time of the third practice session at 23.2319 seconds, outpacing Sharp, Lazier, Hearn, and Castroneves. Ward prompted the only stoppage of the session when he contacted the front stretch wall with the right side of his car, which forced him to resort to a backup car. As a result, he was initially required to start 22nd as per IRL rules, but was later moved up to 21st because he had recorded a lap time in qualifying, whereas Redon did not.
Qualifying classification + Final qualifying results Driver Team 1 98 Billy Boat CURB/Agajanian/Boat Indy Racing 22.9666 203.774 1 2 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 23.0130 203.363 2 3 4 Sam Hornish Jr. Panther Racing 23.0446 203.084 3 4 52 Tomas Scheckter Cheever Racing 23.0560 202.984 4 5 44 Alex Barron Blair Racing 23.0599 202.950 5 6 20 Richie Hearn Sam Schmidt Motorsports 23.0639 202.915 6 7 23 Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23.0941 202.649 7 8 21 Felipe Giaffone Mo Nunn Racing 23.0946 202.645 8 9 51 Eddie Cheever Cheever Racing 23.1121 202.491 9 10 24 Robbie Buhl Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23.1233 202.393 10 11 8 Scott Sharp Kelley Racing 23.1265 202.365 11 12 91 Buddy Lazier Hemelgarn Racing 23.1315 202.322 12 13 6 Gil de Ferran Team Penske 23.1555 202.112 13 14 7 Tony Renna Kelley Racing 23.1797 201.901 14 15 12 Raul Boesel Bradley Motorsports 23.2625 201.182 15 16 2 Mark Dismore Team Menard 23.2963 200.890 16 17 11 Eliseo Salazar A. J. Foyt Enterprises 23.3061 200.806 17 18 9 Jeff Ward Chip Ganassi Racing 23.3616 200.329 21 19 14 Airton Daré A. J. Foyt Enterprises 23.3640 200.308 18 20 41 Greg Ray A. J. Foyt Enterprises 23.3774 200.193 19 21 31 George Mack 310 Racing 23.8742 196.028 20 22 34 Laurent Redon Conquest Racing No time No speed 22Sources:
Notes – Jeff Ward was forced to start in 21st place for switching to a backup car after a crash in the final practice session. – Laurent Redon failed to set a lap time because of a mechanical issue.
Race The race was contested over a distance of 200 laps and . Ahead of the race, weather conditions were partly cloudy and humid, with air temperatures at and track temperatures at . Firestone president and chief executive officer John Lampe commanded the drivers to start their engines, and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford led the field with the pace car during the three warm-up laps. The race began at 7:35 p.m. Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00); Boat used his pole position to his advantage and pulled clear of Castroneves to lead the first lap by 0.2724 seconds. By the end of the lap, Lazier had already improved from twelfth to fifth place. Six laps later, Hornish overtook Castroneves for second place entering turn three. He then reeled in Boat and attempted to pass him on the outside line in turn one, but Boat briefly managed to hold him off. On lap 13, Hornish dove to the inside line, nearly colliding with Boat in the process, and got by him to claim the lead. Fisher drove to pit road on the 18th lap after an issue with her car's battery caused her pace to slow.
Hornish held a 2.8945-second lead over Boat until the first caution flag was thrown on lap 24 when smoke billowed from the rear of Buhl's car, which meant that both Dreyer & Reinbold Racing drivers were out of the race. Most of the leaders opted to make pit stops during the caution period, while Renna and Salazar assumed the top-two positions for the lap-33 restart, ahead of Hornish, Castroneves, and Scheckter. Hornish struggled to get by the slower Salazar, allowing Castroneves to overtake him on the back stretch for third place on lap 42. Five laps later, Hornish finally maneuvered around Salazar and Castroneves to reclaim second place, though he remained over eight seconds behind Renna. Castroneves passed Salazar to move into third place on the 49th lap, and after de Ferran overtook Boat the following lap, he also passed Salazar on lap 53, dropping him to the fifth position. Salazar finally made a pit stop two laps later, although an issue replacing his right-rear tire prolonged the stop.
On the 59th lap, Boesel drifted into the right-side wall at the second turn, while Ray simultaneously made heavy contact with the wall on the front stretch, which brought about the race's second caution flag. Ray retired from the race, having sustained too much crash damage to continue. Renna led many of the leaders into pit road, but as he drove off, he spun and hit several cones. His car failed to restart, which resulted in him being pushed to his pit stall by track officials and losing three laps to the leaders. Cheever, who decided not to pit, led the field back up to speed during the restart on the 70th lap, followed by Barron in second, Castroneves in third, Hornish in fourth, and de Ferran in fifth. By the end of lap 75, Hornish had already improved to the second position, while Barron dropped to second and Castroneves fell to fifth. After maneuvering around the lapped Salazar, Hornish set his sights on Cheever, whom he quickly overtook for the lead in turn one on lap 78. Shortly thereafter, Cheever was also passed for the second position by de Ferran.