| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Race 18 of 19 in the 2002 CART season | |
_-_Speedway.svg) California Speedway track layout | |
| Date | November 3, 2002 |
| Official name | 2002 The 500 Presented by Toyota |
| Location | California Speedway, Fontana, California, United States |
| Course | 2 Mile Banked Oval 2.029 mi / 3.265 km |
| Distance | 250 laps 507.250 mi / 816.250 km |
| Weather | Mostly Cloudy |
| Pole position | |
| Driver | Tony Kanaan (Mo Nunn Racing) |
| Time | 31.483 |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | Oriol Servià (Patrick Racing) |
| Time | 31.469 (on lap 234 of 250) |
| Podium | |
| First | Jimmy Vasser (Team Rahal) |
| Second | Michael Andretti (Team Motorola) |
| Third | Patrick Carpentier (Team Player's) |
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.