The 2002 The 500 presented by Toyota was the eighteenth round of the 2002 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on November 3, 2002 at the

California Speedway Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previo ...

in Fontana, California, United States. The race was won by

Jimmy Vasser James Vasser Jr. (born November 20, 1965) is an American former racing driver. Vasser won the 1996 CART IndyCar championship with Chip Ganassi Racing, and scored ten victories in the series. Vasser was the last American to win the CART champio ...

, the final Champ Car victory for the 1996 season champion. The race was completed in 2 hours, 33 minutes, 42.9877 seconds, for an average speed of 195.185 MPH under the common 2.000 mile measuring standard used by NASCAR and INDYCAR. Because of CART's discrepancy in listing the track at 2.029 miles for a 507.25 mile race, they listed the average speed at 197.995 MPH. Regardless, it was the record for the fastest 500 mile race ever contested until it was broken at the

2014 Pocono IndyCar 500 The 2014 Pocono IndyCar 500 was the twenty-first running of the event, and was an IndyCar Series race held on July 6, 2014, at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race was the eleventh in the 2014 IndyCar Series season. Juan Pablo M ...

(2:28:13). The 500 at Fontana was the final 500 mile race in

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

history. A 500-mile race scheduled at the same race track in 2003, the 2003 King Taco 500, was cancelled because of wildfires in Southern California. No further 500 mile races were scheduled by CART for the remainder of its history. Also, other than the famed

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

, it was the last 500-mile open wheel race for ten years, when

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

held the

2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships The 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships was the 15th and final race of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. The event took place on September 15, at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. It was the first IndyCar race at this facilit ...

at Fontana as the season finale.

Qualifying results

Race

Caution flags

Notes

* New Race Record

2:33:42.977 * Average Speed 197.995 mph (Fastest 500 mile race in history; using the CART standard of 2.029 miles; 195.185 mph using the more recognised 2.000 mile distance)

References

Vasser wins fastest 500-mile open wheel race in Fontana

Qualifying Results

{{CART World Series race report, Name_of_race =

2002 The 500 The 2002 MAVTV 500, The 500 presented by Toyota was the eighteenth round of the 2002 CART season, 2002 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on November 3, 2002 at the Auto Club Speedway, California Speedway in Fontana, California, United ...

, Year_of_race = 2002 , Previous_race_in_season =

2002 Honda Indy 300 The 2002 Honda Indy 300 was the seventeenth round of the 2002 CART World Series season, held on 27 October 2002 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Surfers Paradise, Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland ...

, Next_race_in_season =

2002 Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante The Gran Premio de México, 2002 Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante was the nineteenth and final round of the 2002 CART season, 2002 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on November 17, 2002 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, ...

, Previous_year's_race =

2001 Marlboro 500 The 2001 Marlboro 500 was a Champ Car, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on November 4, 2001 at the California Speedway, in Fontana, California. It was the 21st and final round of the 2001 CART season and the fifth annual edit ...

, Next_year's_race = 2003 Toyota Indy 400 (IRL)
2003 King Taco 500 (CART)
Cancelled

2012 MAVTV 500 INDYCAR World Championships The 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships was the 15th and final race of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. The event took place on September 15, at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. It was the first IndyCar race at this facilit ...

(next 500-mile open wheel race)
''NOTE: In 2002, both Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (500 miles), and Indy Racing League, LLC (400 miles) held races at Fontana. Both sanctioning bodies scheduled races in 2003, but the CART event was called off because of wildfires. From 2004-05, only the IRL held races for open-wheel racing at Fontana. In 2012, the next open-wheel California 500 was held, again by the now-unified Indy Racing League, LLC (dba INDYCAR).'' Fontana MAVTV 500 November 2002 sports events in the United States