2002 Indianapolis 500

86th running of the Indianapolis 500

The 86th Indianapolis 500 mile (805 km) race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 2002. It was the seventh Indianapolis 500 held as part of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series schedule, and was part of the 2002 Indy Racing League season. Rookie Tomas Scheckter led 85 laps, and appeared on his way to a possible victory, which would have marked the third consecutive Indy win for a first year driver. However, Scheckter crashed on the front stretch while leading with only 27 laps to go. Hélio Castroneves, who also won the 2001 running became the fifth driver in Indy 500 history to win back to back races. It was his second of four Indy 500 victories. It is largely considered one of the most controversial races in Indy history. On the 199th lap, second place Paul Tracy was alongside leader Hélio Castroneves, going for the lead in the third turn. At the same time, a crash occurred on another part of the track, bringing out the caution flag. Indy Racing League officials ruled that the yellow came out before Tracy completed the pass, and Castroneves was declared the victor. After an official protest was filed, and after an appeals hearing, Castroneves' victory was upheld on July 2, 2002. About 7.46 inches of rain fell during the month of May, considerably interrupting the on track activities. The second day of time trials was completely washed out, while Bump Day was cut short due to rain. Likewise, six of the ten practice days were either delayed by moisture or halted due to rain showers. Uncomfortably cold temperatures also were observed during most of the month. Private testing and rookie orientation in April was also hampered several times due to rain and cold temperatures. Race day, however, was sunny, warm, and clear.

During the off season, several CART teams again committed to entries in the IRL sanctioned Indy 500 for 2002. Penske Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Team Green all announced they would return from 2001. Rahal Letterman Racing also announced they would join the CART teams and cross party lines to race at Indy. Due to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, Team Green announced that they would not have primary sponsor KOOL, but their cars would carry the colors of associate sponsor 7 Eleven. Robby Gordon announced on March 28 that he would attempt "double duty" for 2002 by racing in the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 on the same day. Tony Stewart, who attempted the feat in 1999 and 2001, announced he would not do so for 2002. John Andretti, who did so in 1994, also announced he would not attempt the double. During the spring, the asphalt pavement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway underwent a diamond grinding in an effort to smooth out several bumps. In April, the new SAFER barrier was retrofitted to the retaining walls in the turns at the Speedway. It marked the first installation of the revolutionary new energy absorbing technology at an American superspeedway.

For the 2002 race, all pit crew members that work over the wall must wear approved helmets. This requirement was in response to a succession of accidents and injuries (particularly head injuries) involving pit crew members in series sanctioned by members of ACCUS (NASCAR, IMSA, SCCA, NHRA, CART, IRL). Many pit crews in the series had already been utilizing optional helmets since about 1999, after Steve Fried, the crew chief for Robby McGehee was critically injured in a pit accident. The accident put Freid in a coma for several weeks. Prior to 2002, it was only required that the crew member operating the fuel rig was to wear a helmet. It was to protect from fire in case of a fuel spill, and protect him in case he lost his balance. His position between the front and rear axles was deemed particularly precarious. The tire changers did not wear helmets, despite the fact that they were more exposed and vulnerable to injury from other cars entering and exiting the pit lane. The standardized font car numbers (black numerals on a white box) used from 1999 to 2001 were scrapped. Teams were permitted to utilize any color/font for car numbers decals, provided they were sufficiently visible. Car number decal placement locations were also adjusted. The required car number locations were to be one on the nose, and one on each of the rear wing vertical panels (right & left).

On opening day, Robby McGehee became the first driver to crash into the newly installed SAFER barrier. Scott Sharp and Hélio Castroneves led the speed chart. Junqueira and the rest of the leaders pitted, but he stalled exiting the pits, giving the lead over to rookie Tomas Scheckter.

A sequence of pit stops around the 65th lap shuffled the leaderboard. Indy rookie Tony Kanaan took over the lead on lap 70. On lap 78, Sam Hornish Jr. brushed the wall, damaging his suspension. He drove the car to the pits for repairs. Three laps later, while the leaders pitted, fifth place Robby Gordon suffered a large fire and explosion in his pit stall. The explosion blew the top off the pit side fuel tank. Gordon was uninjured, and the car was able to continue. Under the yellow, the leaders pitted. Exiting the pits, Gil de Ferran lost a wheel that was not secured, and fell out of contention. Gambling on fuel, Hélio Castroneves stayed out and took over the lead. On lap 181, the green flag came back out with Castroneves leading, and Felipe Giaffone running second. The lapped car of Dario Franchitti slipped by to get in front of the field. Franchitti's car was painted nearly identical to Tracy's, and caused some confusion/misidentification by announcers. With ten laps to go, Castroneves still led Giaffone, with Paul Tracy charging into third. Barry Green soon responded "there's a problem." The Corvette pace car, was in turn 4, Castroneves then drove to the frontstretch, jumped out of his car, and climbed the catch fence just as he did a year earlier in 2001. Such rules are used if electronic transponder based scoring with multiple timing loops was not used, as in the past, but since the advent of transponder based scoring, the rule has generally been instead of the last completed lap, but the last timing loop the car crossed at the point of caution. Page also, on at least one occasion, misidentified Dario Franchitti's car as that of Tracy's (the two cars had identical liveries). However, ABC did air split screen footage clearly showing the crash occurred before the pass. Donald Davidson echoed the same erroneous information that the scoring reverted to the previous lap (though it was last completed loop prior to caution), and added that the cars did not race back to the yellow, as was the policy in NASCAR at the time (the rule was changed in September 2003, when the practice was banned and scoring reverts to the last scoring loop crossed before the caution was called, except in the final lap or a caution that ends a race because of weather or darkness, when it reverts to video replays). Speedway President Tony George presided over the hearing, with Indianapolis attorney Dave Mittingly assisting. Both Team Green and Penske Racing presented evidence, and several persons involved provided testimony. Among those who gave testimony were Tracy, Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti, Brian Barnhart (race control), Doug Boles (spotter in turn three for Hornish Jr.), and Jeff Horton (IRL Director of Engineering). The day after the race, he presented video footage on RPM 2Night, which he claimed showed evidence the pass was completed under green. Shirts and hats were sold at CART events declaring Tracy the "Real IRL 500 winner", which Tracy would be seen publicly wearing at times. With Tracy officially relegated to second finishing position, he ultimately failed to break a 91 year old record that dated back to the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Tracy had started 29th, and had he won the race, would have set the record for the lowest starting position by the race winner. It also would have been a post WWII record for lowest starting position for a winner in any Indy car race. The all time record was set by Ray Harroun in 1911 (and subsequently tied by Louis Meyer in 1936) by winning the Indianapolis 500 from the 28th starting position. Tracy also missed out on matching the record of fewest laps led by an Indy 500 champion, as he would have led only the final two laps of the race (the previous fewest was in 1912 with only 2 laps led); Dan Wheldon would take the record in 2011 with only one lap led. Starting with the next IndyCar Series telecast, ABC/ESPN experimented with a new on screen graphic displaying a yellow banner or yellow symbol the instant a caution period commenced. The system was tied to official race control, and was utilized to avoid confusion about yellow light conditions, similar to the graphic that had been deployed by Fox, FX, NBC, and TNT for their NASCAR telecasts beginning in 2001. A few weeks after the decision, Barry Green announced he was selling his share of Team Green to Michael Andretti, and would be taking a sabbatical from the sport. He reportedly had spent over $100,000 on legal expenses. With CART facing financial trouble at season's end, Michael Andretti took the team, then called Andretti Green Racing and now Andretti Autosport, full time to the IndyCar Series for 2003. Andretti Autosport has since scored five Indianapolis 500 wins 2005, 2007, 2014, 2016, and 2017. Andretti also is a partner in Bryan Herta Autosport in the 2016 race that team won. Tracy, angered by the loss, refused to return to the IRL and the Indy 500 in subsequent seasons. On September 23, 2003, when asked if he were interested in driving in the IRL in 2004, he responded "I'm not driving one of those crapwagons." The quote took on a life of its own, and was adopted as a political slogan and battle cry for IRL detractors for years to come. Under the profile section Tracy's official web site (PaulTracy. com) career highlights include "2002 Indy 500 Runner Up (yeah right)." Tracy continued in the Champ Car series, finally winning a season title in 2003, although it came after most of the top teams had already defected to the IRL. He eventually left the series, and had a short stint in the NASCAR Busch Series. In the wake of the 2008 open wheel unification, Tony George himself reportedly offered Tracy a ride with Vision Racing. Tracy initially declined, musing that "I'm not going to drive for hamburgers and hot dogs." In July 2008, Tracy finally crossed lines and signed with Vision Racing to drive in the Edmonton Indy. He then made a highly publicized return at the 2009 Indianapolis 500, and was previously with NBC Sports as one of the network's INDYCAR broadcasters until he left at the end of the 2021 season.