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 in Fontana, California, United States.
The race was won by Jimmy Vasser, 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 (2:28:13).[1]
The 500 at Fontana was the final 500 mile race in Champ Car 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, it was the last 500-mile open wheel race for ten years, when IndyCar Series held the 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships at Fontana as the season finale.
| Pos | Nat | Name | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Tony Kanaan | Mo Nunn Racing | 31.483 | |
| 2 | | Bruno Junqueira | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 31.601 | |
| 3 | | Cristiano da Matta | Newman/Haas Racing | 31.679 | |
| 4 |  | Michael Andretti | Team Motorola | 31.685 | |
| 5 |  | Paul Tracy | Team KOOL Green | 31.734 | |
| 6 | | Jimmy Vasser | Team Rahal | 31.736 | |
| 7 | | Alex Tagliani | Team Player's | 31.737 | |
| 8 | | Patrick Carpentier | Team Player's | 31.740 | |
| 9 | Dario Franchitti | Team KOOL Green | 31.759 | ||
| 10 |  | Max Papis | Fernández Racing | 31.798 | |
| 11 |  | Michel Jourdain Jr. | Team Rahal | 31.804 | |
| 12 |  | Shinji Nakano | Fernández Racing | 31.836 | |
| 13 | | Christian Fittipaldi | Newman/Haas Racing | 31.877 | |
| 14 |  | Scott Dixon | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 31.923 | |
| 15 |  | Kenny Bräck | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 31.981 | |
| 16 | | Tora Takagi | Walker Racing | 32.050 | |
| 17 | | Mario Domínguez | Herdez Competition | 32.087 | |
| 18 |  | Oriol Servià | Patrick Racing | 32.277 |
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Jimmy Vasser | Team Rahal | 250 | 2:33:42.977 | 6 | 21 | |
| 2 | 39 | Michael Andretti | Team Motorola | 250 | +0.400 | 4 | 16 | |
| 3 | 32 | Patrick Carpentier | Team Player's | 250 | +1.794 | 8 | 14 | |
| 4 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | Mo Nunn Racing | 250 | +2.502 | 1 | 13 | |
| 5 | 20 | Oriol Servià | Patrick Racing | 249 | + 1 Lap | 18 | 10 | |
| 6 | 44 | Scott Dixon | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 249 | + 1 Lap | 14 | 8 | |
| 7 | 11 | Christian Fittipaldi | Newman/Haas Racing | 249 | + 1 Lap | 13 | 6 | |
| 8 | 33 | Alex Tagliani | Team Player's | 248 | + 2 Laps | 7 | 5 | |
| 9 | 4 | Bruno Junqueira | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 247 | + 3 Laps | 2 | 4 | |
| 10 | 27 | Dario Franchitti | Team KOOL Green | 242 | Engine | 9 | 3 | |
| 11 | 1 | Cristiano da Matta | Newman/Haas Racing | 236 | Engine | 3 | 2 | |
| 12 | 12 | Kenny Bräck | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 235 | Drive shaft | 15 | 1 | |
| 13 | 9 | Michel Jourdain Jr. | Team Rahal | 218 | Engine | 11 | 0 | |
| 14 | 51 | Max Papis | Fernández Racing | 214 | Engine | 10 | 0 | |
| 15 | 52 | Shinji Nakano | Fernández Racing | 202 | Upright | 12 | 0 | |
| 16 | 55 | Mario Domínguez | Herdez Competition | 107 | Engine | 17 | 0 | |
| 17 | 26 | Paul Tracy | Team KOOL Green | 86 | Throttle | 5 | 0 | |
| 18 | 5 | Tora Takagi | Walker Racing | 85 | Contact | 16 | 0 |
| Laps | Cause | |
|---|---|---|
| 34-37 | Junqueira (4) lost wheel | |
| 99-104 | Jourdain (9) spin; Tagliani (33) spin | |
| 238-241 | da Matta (1) tow in | |
| 245-247 | Franchitti (27) fire |
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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).