2002 CART FedEx Championship Series
sports season
The 2002 FedEx Championship Series season, the twenty-fourth in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 19 races, beginning in Monterrey, Mexico on March 10 and concluding in Mexico City on November 17. The FedEx Championship Series Drivers' Champion was Cristiano da Matta. Rookie of the Year was Mario Domínguez.
Sports television channel ESPN dropped CART coverage for the 2002 season. CBS and Speed Channel took its place for two seasons. This reflected a continued decline for the series in a year saw which saw the German 500 cancelled due to the fact the planned host venue for that round, Eurospeedway Lausitz was at that time suffering from financial problems, as well as a controversial round at Surfers Paradise where two drivers (Adrián Fernández and Toranosuke Takagi) were injured in a start crash and as well as there being some contentious decisions from race officials in relation to the running of that race particularly regarding its conclusion. In addition Chip Ganassi Racing would withdraw from the CART series at the end of the season just as Team Penske had done at the end of the season prior, with the Ganassi operation choosing to completely defect to the IRL from 2003 onwards having run entries in concurrently in CART and the IRL during 2002. Michael Andretti would also complete a buyout of Team Green with that team also defecting to the rival IRL series for 2003. In a further financial blow to the series, freight company FedEx which had been title sponsor of the CART series since the 1998 season ended their title sponsorship deal with CART at the end of the year.
Engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota would also pull out of CART and move across to the IRL at the end of the season leaving Ford-Cosworth as the sole engine supplier for 2003.
The public source identifies “2002 CART FedEx Championship Series” as sports season. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around CART, FedEx and Championship.
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