2002 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
motor car race
The 2002 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) open-wheel race that was held on April 14, 2002 at a temporary street circuit in Long Beach, California. Contested over 90 laps, it was the second round of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series and the 28th running of the event (19th under CART sanctioning). Michael Andretti of Team Motorola won the race from the 15th starting position. Team Rahal's Jimmy Vasser finished second and Max Papis finished third for Sigma Autosport.
Vasser lapped the fastest time of Saturday's qualifying session and won his first pole position since 1999. Championship points leader Cristiano da Matta, who was quickest in qualifications on Friday, out-braked Vasser in the first turn and held the lead for 30 of the first 31 laps until a pit road collision with Adrián Fernández kept him out of contention for the win. Andretti, hoping to gain positions with his alternative pit strategy, assumed the lead until he made his mandatory stop on the 47th lap. Andretti's strategy proved effective when a caution flag was flown on lap 63, and he had built such a large gap over the rest of the field that he ducked in and out of pit road without losing the lead to Vasser. He then pulled away from Vasser after the final restart to earn the win.
The race had six cautions and eight lead changes among four different drivers.
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This entry incorporates text from “2002 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.