The 2002 FedEx Championship Series season, the twenty-fourth in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 19 races, beginning in Monterrey, Mexico on March 10 and concluding in Mexico City on November 17. The FedEx Championship Series Drivers' Champion was Cristiano da Matta. Rookie of the Year was Mario Domínguez.
Sports television channel ESPN dropped CART coverage for the 2002 season. CBS and Speed Channel took its place for two seasons. This reflected a continued decline for the series in a year saw which saw the German 500 cancelled due to the fact the planned host venue for that round, Eurospeedway Lausitz was at that time suffering from financial problems, as well as a controversial round at Surfers Paradise where two drivers (Adrián Fernández and Toranosuke Takagi) were injured in a start crash and as well as there being some contentious decisions from race officials in relation to the running of that race particularly regarding its conclusion. In addition Chip Ganassi Racing would withdraw from the CART series at the end of the season just as Team Penske had done at the end of the season prior, with the Ganassi operation choosing to completely defect to the IRL from 2003 onwards having run entries in concurrently in CART and the IRL during 2002. Michael Andretti would also complete a buyout of Team Green with that team also defecting to the rival IRL series for 2003. In a further financial blow to the series, freight company FedEx which had been title sponsor of the CART series since the 1998 season ended their title sponsorship deal with CART at the end of the year.
Engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota would also pull out of CART and move across to the IRL at the end of the season leaving Ford-Cosworth as the sole engine supplier for 2003. Cosworth would remain the sole supplier for the series ( which be formally rebranded as the Champ Car World Series from 2004 to 2007) until the series ended following the reunification of American-open wheel racing in 2008.
Contents
Drivers and teams
Bridgestone became the exclusive tire supplier for CART, replacing Firestone, an association that would continue until the final Champ Car season in 2007. The 2002 season was the last to feature multiple engine manufacturers.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2002 CART Championship Series season.
Team changes
The biggest change to the team lineup in the 2002 CART season was the defection of Team Penske to the rival Indy Racing League. The departure of Team Penske, a CART stalwart from its earliest days, was an early sign of a major shift in the CART-IRL rivalry. Several other major CART powers would follow Penske to the IRL for the 2003 season. Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Mo Nunn Racing both set up separate IRL teams in 2002, but continued to compete in CART for the time being, though Mo Nunn downsized his team to a single car. They would be among the teams to leave CART for the IRL in 2003. Blair Racing also left CART for IRL. Patrick Racing downsized their effort to a single car, while Forsythe Racing shut down their third car driven by Bryan Herta in 2001 for lack of sponsorship.
Driver changes
1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser, one of two former champions in the 2002 field (the other being Michael Andretti), left Patrick Racing for Team Rahal. Joining him at Rahal was Michel Jourdain Jr. who left Herdez Competition. Rahal's 2001 drivers, Kenny Bräck and Max Papis moved to Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Sigma Autosport. Papis took the seat previously occupied by Oriol Servià, who replaced the retiring Maurício Gugelmin at PWR Championship Racing. The 2002 season started with two rookies. 2001 Dayton Indy Lights champion Townsend Bell led a one car effort at Patrick Racing. Mario Domínguez signed on for another single car effort with Herdez Competition.
In-season changes
Lack of sponsorship led to the shutdown of PWR Championship Racing after the third race in Motegi, Japan. Scott Dixon landed in a third car at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, while Oriol Servià was sidelined for the time being.
Having already dropped the Bettenhausen name from its team name with the conclusion of the 2001 season, Herdez Competition changed their car number from 16 to 55 beginning with the fifth round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. #16 had long been associated with Tony Bettenhausen Jr. and his race team.
The fifth race at Laguna Seca was the last appearance for Sigma Autosport, which, like PWR earlier in the season, found their sponsorship well run dry, leaving Max Papis without a ride.
A run of disappointing performances and a two probation sanctions from CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach Sr. led to the firing of Townsend Bell from Patrick Racing after the ninth round at Cleveland. Oriol Servià drove the #20 car for the remainder of the season.
Adrián Fernández fractured his hip in a crash in the tenth race at Vancouver and sat out the following race at Mid-Ohio. Max Papis substituted for him.
Dale Coyne helped put together what was described as an "all-England" team named Team St. George for a one shot effort for the fifteenth race at Rockingham, England. Darren Manning was chosen to be the driver. The team used Coyne's traditional #19 car.
After clinching the season championship by winning the sixteenth race in Miami Cristiano da Matta ran with #1 on his car for the rest of the season.
Adrian Fernández was involved in a crash in the seventeenth race at Surfer's Paradise, Australia and suffered two thoracic fractures, which forced him to sit out the final two races of the season. Max Papis sat in for him again at Fontana and Luis Díaz substituted at Mexico City.
Rule changes
The biggest rule change was the implementation of mandatory pit windows.
A maximum pit window was established; meaning each car go no further than a specified number of laps without pitting. As a result, there were a minimum number of pit stops per race.
To count as a mandatory stop, all 4 tires had to be changed. Adding fuel on a pit stop was officially optional to encourage teams to go off sequence with an early stop.
Failure to pit within the specified number of laps resulted in a drive-through penalty in addition to the mandatory stop.
The rule closing pit road when a full course caution flag was displayed was eliminated to prevent teams from missing their window due to a caution flag coming out.
All mandated pit stops must be completed before the white flag lap.
The goal of the rule was to eliminate fuel economy runs and allow drivers to run as hard as they could the entire run as they had all the fuel needed to do so. However, teams ended up changing their strategy to conserve fuel so they could release the car from their pit stops as soon as the tire changes were complete. This led to a series of incidents where cars were being released back on track before the tire changes were complete and loose wheels coming off cars once back on track. To deter this CART instituted a mid-season 1-lap penalty and $5,000 fine for any car losing a wheel after a pit stop in addition to the time lost recovering the car to remount the tire.
Traction control was formally legalized after CART officials determined they could not successfully enforce a ban.
After several controversies with changing turbo boost in recent years, CART and its engine manufacturers agreed to a reduction of the boost to 34" to remain in place for the entire 2002 season. While technically a reduction by 2" from where engines ended in 2001, lap times and horsepower numbers were still on par and in most cases faster and higher than the previous year.
Results
Nations' Cup
Top result per race counts towards Nations' Cup.