Michael Andretti came from 15th on the grid to win the CART street race, beating Jimmy Vasser by under half a second while Cristiano da Matta fell down the order.
Andretti won the Long Beach race from 15th on the grid, beating Jimmy Vasser by 0.466 seconds. The race was run on a temporary California street circuit, and the winner collected $100,000.
Staged in Long Beach, California, on 14 April 2002 over a street course built for the occasion, the CART open-wheel race was a demanding test of pace and strategy. Michael Andretti won from 15th on the grid, with Jimmy Vasser second and Max Papis third for Sigma Autosport. The result came after a race packed with six cautions, a late pit-road mistake that cost Cristiano da Matta the lead, and a stern test of fuel strategy.
What was the 2002 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach?
This was round two of the 2002 CART FedEx season, the 28th time the event had been held. Under CART sanctioning it counted as the 19th edition, and the race covered 90 laps. The race took place on an eleven-turn street course measuring 3.167 km (1.968 miles).
The race was one of 19 scheduled events that season. Every driver had to make a mandatory pit stop within 29 laps, and Bridgestone, the series' only tyre supplier, brought seven sets of slick tyres and four sets of wet-weather tyres per car. Those rules shaped the strategy of nearly every team.
The first race of the season, the Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix, had been won by Newman/Haas Racing's Cristiano da Matta, who arrived at Long Beach as the points leader.
A 15th-place start, one clean pit strategy and a late lead were enough to turn Long Beach into Andretti's day.
How did the championship stand before the race?
Da Matta topped the points table on 21, five clear of Dario Franchitti in second. Christian Fittipaldi was third, seven points behind da Matta. Jourdain Jr. and Tagliani were next, on 12 and 10 points, to complete the top five.
In the Constructors' Cup, Lola led with 22 points, ahead of Reynard on 16. Toyota led the Manufacturers' Cup on 21 points, with Honda four points behind while Ford-Cosworth sat third, five points further back.
Da Matta arrived on a streak of three straight CART victories, the latest run starting at the 2001 Honda Indy 300. A fourth straight win would have made him the third driver in series history to achieve that streak. He compared the track's hard braking zones and long straights to the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.
Why was da Matta the focus heading into the weekend?
Cristiano da Matta arrived as the points leader and the most in-form driver in the series, having won three races in a row. The media focus on him was intense, because a fourth consecutive victory would have put him in rare company in CART history.
Franchitti, who had finished second at Fundidora Park, hoped to take his first win of the season at Long Beach. His Team Green teammate Paul Tracy was also confident, having already won at the track twice. Their confidence set up a tight battle for the front of the field.
Jim Michaelian led the event for the first time in 2002. He had been chief operating officer from 1998 to 2001, and he replaced Chris Pook, the event's founder, who took over as CART's president and chief executive in December 2001. Michaelian said he regretted Pook's departure, yet he praised the decisions Pook had made.
How did qualifying decide the grid?
Jimmy Vasser claimed the pole with a lap of 1 minute and 7.742 seconds, his eighth career pole and his first since 1999 at the U.S. 500. He had used a back-up car after an oil leak in practice, and his time came with five minutes and 30 seconds of the session left, beating da Matta by 0.003 seconds.
Qualifying ran as two 60-minute sessions, with each driver allowed up to 15 timed laps. Da Matta had set the provisional pole on Friday at 1 minute and 9.092 seconds, with less than two minutes remaining, and Vasser's Saturday lap later beat that time by 0.003 seconds.
Bruno Junqueira and Kenny Brack, both Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, took the next two spots, with Townsend Bell fifth, the strongest qualifying result of his career. Tony Kanaan was sixth and Adrian Fernandez seventh. Paul Tracy qualified eighth despite hitting the turn-10 wall and puncturing his right-rear tyre late in the session.
Andretti had to settle for 15th after a crash into the turn-nine tyre barriers ended his session. Franchitti and Mario Dominguez complained of poorly handling cars, and Max Papis was limited to 18th by a malfunctioning gearbox. Scott Dixon started 19th, and Patrick Carpentier, 20th, had driven over the rumble strips at turn one and slid into the outer wall.
| Position | Driver | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Andretti | Team Motorola | Won from 15th on the grid |
| 2 | Jimmy Vasser | Team Rahal | Pole sitter, 0.466 seconds behind |
| 3 | Max Papis | Sigma Autosport | First podium for the team |
| 4 | Kenny Brack | Chip Ganassi Racing | Fourth place |
| 5 | Michel Jourdain Jr. | Team Rahal | Fifth place |
How did the race unfold?
The green flag fell at 12:43 p.m. local time, and da Matta swerved past Vasser on the first corner to take the lead. Fox provided live television coverage in the United States for the first time in the series' history. The crowd was estimated at 100,000.
The first caution came on lap 17, after Kanaan's car had an electrical failure and was left in turn three. Every leader pitted under the yellow and da Matta kept the first position at the restart on lap 20, ahead of Vasser, Brack, Tracy and Junqueira.
Da Matta was in front for 30 of the first 31 laps. Dixon's engine failed as he left the pits on lap 31, bringing out the second caution, and during the pit cycle Fernandez swung into da Matta's pit stall. That collision cost da Matta the lead, and he dropped to 16th when the race restarted.
Andretti, running a different strategy, stayed out and took the lead for the lap 37 restart. Papis, Vasser, Brack and Tracy followed him. Junqueira crashed into the tyre barriers in the first corner on lap 52, bringing out the third caution, and a fourth came when Tagliani collided with Bell.
Dominguez slid into the turn-one barriers from 11th on lap 63, which brought out the fifth caution. Andretti and Papis had a 34-second cushion over Vasser, whose tyres were colder. That gap helped them keep their positions under the yellows after their final stops.
Andretti pulled away at the restart on lap 66. Fittipaldi's car stopped near the pit-lane entrance with a gearbox failure, and Vasser was held up by Papis until he passed him on lap 73. Andretti then led by four seconds.
The sixth and final caution came on the 81st lap, when Oriol Servia had a mechanical problem in the sixth and seventh corners. Racing resumed on lap 83. Andretti got back up to speed quicker than Vasser and kept first place through the closing laps, winning by 0.466 seconds.
Vasser's runner-up finish gave American drivers their first 1-2 in the series since 1996, when Molson Indy Vancouver was run. Papis took third, with Brack fourth and Jourdain Jr. fifth. Kanaan ran out of fuel on the final lap and stopped between turns three and four.
Who finished on the podium and what did they earn?
Andretti collected $100,000 for the win and celebrated in victory lane and on the podium with Vasser and Papis. It was his first Long Beach win since his inaugural series victory there in 1986, and his 42nd CART victory overall.
Papis's third place was the first podium finish for Sigma Autosport. The team had little sponsorship compared with its rivals, so he described the result as equal to a win. Vasser said he had been more focused on beating Brack than Andretti, and he conceded he ought to have been quicker on his out lap.
Team Motorola was later fined $20,000 for breaking the minimum underbody height rule on Andretti's car. The penalty did not affect the win or the points he had earned. Andretti admitted he had been a little lucky, and he was close to tears during the victory-lane celebrations.
How did the result change the standings?
Da Matta topped the points table on 27, still in front of the field. Andretti's win moved him level with Michel Jourdain Jr. on 22 points, which was enough to put him second. Franchitti moved up to fourth on 20 points, while Papis sat fifth, two points behind him.
Lola kept its lead in the Constructors' Cup with 39 points, although its gap over Reynard shrank to two points. Honda took the Manufacturers' Cup lead on 38 points, with Toyota five points back and Ford-Cosworth trailing further still. There were 17 races left in the season.
The race was broadcast live on Fox and earned a rating of 1.0 with a share of two. Scott Pruett called it the essence of CART. Fans later voted it the fifth-best race of the season in a poll conducted by CART.
What did the drivers say about the race?
Da Matta was disappointed with his eighth-place finish. He said the car had been running strongly and that he did not blame Fernandez for the pit-lane collision. He also said the team had been strong all weekend.
Fernandez blamed a communication mistake from his team for the collision, saying they had sent da Matta out in front of him. Tagliani, who had wrecked with Bell on lap 56, said Bell should have been more patient, and Servia moved on to the next oval race with his team's weak points in mind.
Media coverage was largely positive. John Zimmermann of the Speed Channel praised the race for its finer points, even though the number of full-course yellows had been high. He also compared the event with the Yamaha Indy 400, which had drawn only about 15,000 spectators a month earlier.
Why does the 2002 race still matter?
The race was the last win of Andretti's full-time American open-wheel career, which ended in 2003. He went on to become a co-owner of Andretti Green Racing, the renamed team, that same year.
Long Beach also showed that a driver starting 15th could still win when the strategy worked.
Fox's live coverage was a first for the series, and it carried the race to a wider American audience. The Team Motorola penalty for underbody height did not change the result, and the points stood.
