Alex Barron's first IRL win came from fifth on the grid

Alex Barron won the 2002 Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway after starting fifth, the first of his two Indy Racing League victories. Billy Boat had taken pole and set a track record, and Sam Hornish Jr. led most of the race before a collision with George Mack ended his chances. Barron took the lead from Scott Sharp late on and held it to the flag.

Who won the 2002 Firestone Indy 200?

Barron took the 200-lap race from the fifth starting position, earning his first IRL win in his eleventh start. The lead changed hands nine times among seven drivers before the flag. He led only the final 11 laps, but that was enough. Gil de Ferran finished second, 0.4234 seconds behind, and Hornish was third for Panther Racing.

Barron's team, Blair Racing, had put a season of effort into the result. Team owner Larry Blair called it a moment he had dreamed about for about two years, and said that seeing it come true was a very special experience.

The win came from fifth on the grid, and the lead changed hands in the last ten laps.

What was new about the 2002 event?

Tyre supplier Firestone became the title sponsor in January 2002, replacing the gaming corporation Harrah's Entertainment. The race was held on Saturday, July 20, at Nashville Superspeedway, a concrete oval of 2.14 km (1.33 miles) with banking as steep as 14 degrees in its four turns.

It was the tenth of 15 open-wheel races on the Indy Racing League calendar, and the third and final race of the season to start at night. Several drivers found the lights unfamiliar. De Ferran said the circuit looked very different at night and that he had to adjust his vision, while Castroneves liked the lack of humidity after dark.

The field was the smallest of the season, with 16 teams entering 22 cars. All of them ran Dallara or G-Force chassis, Chevrolet or Infiniti engines and Firestone tyres. Al Unser Jr. was in rehabilitation after a July 9 arrest, and Tony Renna took his seat for the next two races. Greg Ray moved into A. J. Foyt Racing's third entry while Eliseo Salazar recovered from a crash.

Firestone's Al Speyer had predicted speeds above 200 mph (320 km/h), and Tomas Scheckter confirmed it when he topped 324.4 km/h (201.6 mph) in testing on July 10. Scheckter found the concrete surface different, with less grip and a few bumps, and said he liked testing there for that reason.

How did practice and qualifying set the grid?

Three practice sessions took place before the race, two of 90 minutes on Friday and one of 30 minutes on Saturday afternoon. Billy Boat was fastest in the first session at 22.9531 seconds, ahead of Scheckter, Buddy Lazier, Eddie Cheever and Hornish. He went fastest again in the second, at 22.9425 seconds.

In qualifying Boat posted 22.9666 seconds for his ninth career pole and his first since the 1999 Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500. His speed of 327.942 km/h (203.774 mph) was a new track record, about 6.4 km/h (4 mph) faster than Ray's mark from the year before. Castroneves was 0.0464 seconds slower and started alongside him on the front row.

Hornish, Scheckter and Alex Barron completed the top five. Hearn, Sarah Fisher, Giaffone, Cheever and Buhl filled the top ten. Laurent Redon did not make an attempt because of a fuel pump problem, and Jeff Ward was moved to twenty-first after a practice crash forced him onto a backup car.

Hornish set the quickest time of the third session at 23.2319 seconds, ahead of Sharp, Lazier, Hearn and Castroneves. Ward brought out the only stoppage of that session when he hit the front stretch wall, and he had to switch to a backup car. Under IRL rules he was due to start twenty-second, but he was moved up to twenty-first because he had set a lap time in qualifying, which Redon had not.

How did the race unfold?

Firestone's John Lampe gave the command to start the engines, and Johnny Rutherford led the field through three warm-up laps as the pace car. Boat used his pole to pull clear of Castroneves and led the first lap by 0.2724 seconds. Lazier had already climbed from twelfth to fifth by the end of that lap.

Hornish dived to the inside on lap 13, nearly collided with Boat, and got past to lead. Fisher pitted early after a battery problem slowed her car. The first caution came on lap 24, when smoke billowed from Buhl's car and both Dreyer and Reinbold Racing cars were out.

Renna and Salazar led the restart on lap 33, with Hornish stuck behind the slower Salazar. Castroneves took advantage on the back straight to move into third on lap 42. Five laps later Hornish got around Salazar and Castroneves to reclaim second, though he remained more than eight seconds behind Renna. De Ferran then got past Boat, and on lap 53 he also passed Salazar, which dropped Salazar to fifth.

The second caution came when Boesel drifted into the right-side wall while Ray hit the front stretch wall heavily. Ray retired. Renna led many of the cars into the pits but spun on the cones as he drove off, and his engine would not restart. Officials had to push him to his stall, and he lost three laps.

Cheever chose not to pit and led the restart that followed, with Barron second, Castroneves third, Hornish fourth and de Ferran fifth. By the end of lap 75 Hornish had moved into second, and he overtook Cheever for the lead on lap 78. De Ferran then passed Cheever for second.

Debris brought out the third caution, and Cheever and others pitted for fuel, tyres and adjustments. Hornish led the lap-84 restart and stretched his lead over de Ferran to 3.0961 seconds over the next 23 laps. Dare stayed third, Castroneves fourth and Scheckter fifth.

What decided the closing laps?

In the middle stint de Ferran punctured his right-rear tyre and dived into the pits, rejoining a lap down. Three laps later Salazar slid into the wall at the second corner, causing a fourth caution. During the pit sequence Hornish lost two places to Castroneves and Dare.

Cheever had planned to finish on only three pit stops and led for a second time, but Dare took the lead within a lap of the restart on lap 117. Cheever lost second to Castroneves and third to Hornish. Hornish then passed Castroneves for second and took the lead from Dare on lap 128, after Dare slid into the outside wall in turn four and brought out the fifth caution.

The top five at the lap-137 restart were Hornish, Castroneves, Scheckter, Boat and Giaffone. Hornish built a gap of 7.5 seconds over Castroneves, but Castroneves then punctured his right-rear tyre and gave up second. Later Scheckter hit the turn-two wall while trying to pass his teammate Cheever, and Boat hit him, bringing out the sixth caution. Over the radio, Scheckter asked Cheever why he had done it.

Hornish slowed under the caution, and Mack's right-front tyre hit his left-rear tyre. The contact flattened the tyre and damaged his sidepod, so he pitted and gave the lead to Sharp. Hornish took a pit stop, and the field resumed on lap 179 with Sharp, Hearn, Barron, de Ferran and Hornish in the top five.

Lazier then slammed the turn-two wall, bringing out the seventh caution. Giaffone pitted only to change a tyre. On the restart on lap 189, Barron pulled alongside Sharp on the inside in turn one and overtook him in turn three. Hornish got by Hearn for fourth on lap 191.

How did the win turn on the final restart?

An eighth caution came when Ward spun at the exit of turn four, and the race resumed after a few more laps. On the final approach de Ferran dipped below the racing surface to get alongside Sharp, and in turn one he took second place away from him. Barron held the lead for the final laps and won by 0.4234 seconds.

Sharp finished third, but immediately afterwards he and Kelley Racing owner Tom Kelley were summoned to the IRL trailer. Officials docked Sharp one lap for blocking on the final restart, which dropped him to eighth. That moved Hornish up to third, with Hearn fourth, Raul Boesel fifth, Cheever sixth and Giaffone seventh. Castroneves and Renna rounded out the top ten.

Final classification

Sharp's blocking penalty was the only official change to the finishing order, and it moved him from third to eighth. Without it, Sharp would have stood on the podium. Renna, in his first IRL race, finished tenth after leading laps during the event.

What did the result do to the title race?

Entering the race, Castroneves led the championship with 315 points, eight ahead of de Ferran, while Hornish was third on 296 points. Giaffone had 269 and Dare 226.

De Ferran took the Drivers' Championship lead with 347 points, ten ahead of his teammate Castroneves on 337. Hornish held third on 333 points, and Giaffone was fourth on 295. Barron moved from eighth to fifth on 243 points, with five races left in the season.

Hornish had led 95 laps, and his exit from the lead cost him the win but not his place in the top three.

How did the drivers react?

Barron praised Blair Racing for its work all season. He described the weekend as up-and-down and said leading a restart is hard, because the cars behind can gauge your speed. He said he had simply run strong until the end while Sharp and de Ferran battled. De Ferran said he had timed the last restart well and praised Barron's pace on the final lap.

Sharp explained his blocking penalty by saying he had been unsure where de Ferran was, and that he chose to give him room and protect the inside. He also said his left-rear tyre had been leaking air. Renna, who led several laps on his IRL debut, said he wanted to thank the team and said he hoped Al Jr. had been watching.

Hornish compared the Mack incident to his collision with Cheever at the Boomtown 500 in June, and thanked his team for a car that was faster than the rest. Scheckter was unsure what caused his lap-171 crash, though Boat thought there might have been something on the track.