2000 CART season

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

2000 CART season
FedEx Championship Series
Season
Races	20
Start date	March 26
End date	October 30
Awards
Drivers' champion	Gil de Ferran
Constructors' Cup	Reynard
Manufacturers' Cup	/ Ford-Cosworth
Nations' Cup	Brazil
Rookie of the Year	Kenny Bräck
← 1999 2001 →

The 2000 FedEx Championship Series season was the twenty-second in the CART era of open-wheel racing in the United States. It consisted of 20 races, beginning in Homestead, Florida on March 26, 2000 and concluding in Fontana, California on October 30, 2000. The FedEx Championship Series Drivers' Champion was Gil de Ferran. The Rookie of the Year was Kenny Bräck.

The relative decline of Chip Ganassi Racing and an atypical parity among the major engine and chassis builders led to the most wide-open championship race in the history of the series, with seven different winners in the first seven races of the year and 11 drivers winning a race. From 1997–1999, only two drivers came within 50 points of the champion, 9 would do so in 2000.

Penske Racing returned to prominence using Honda engines and abandoning their house chassis for a Reynard 2KI. Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves (the latter replacing the deceased Greg Moore), combined for 5 wins, 4 of which were on the road courses the team had not been competitive on in their previous chassis and engine. Veterans Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy, who were 1 and 2 in the championship after the Vancouver round, would fall short after poor finishes down the stretch. Most surprising of all to observers was the return to prominence of Patrick Racing, with veterans Adrian Fernandez and Roberto Moreno finishing second and third respectively in the championship.

Off the track, while CART remained fiscally strong, anxiety regarding the series' decline in prominence led to the ouster of CEO Andrew Craig at the midpoint of the season, leading to his replacement by Bobby Rahal. The series left open the traditional Indianapolis 500 date of Memorial Day, allowing teams to enter the Indy Racing League sanctioned race for the first time since 1995. Chip Ganassi Racing did so, with their driver Juan Pablo Montoya winning the race handily with purchased IRL equipment. While a competitive triumph for CART, Ganassi's efforts showed the continuing allure of the 500 for CART teams and their sponsors. 2000 would also be the final season for DaimlerChrysler via the Mercedes-Benz brand as an engine manufacturer, after DaimlerChrysler decided to shut down their CART program and coincidentally defected to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series via the Dodge brand in 2001.

Drivers and constructors[]

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2000 CART Championship Series season. Five years after the return of Firestone, rival tire manufacturer Goodyear withdrew from CART and its rival the Indy Racing League. So all cars ran on Firestone Firehawk tires.^[1] All teams were based in the United States.

Team	Chassis	Engine	No	Drivers	Races	Primary Sponsors
Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola B2K/00	Toyota RV8E	1	Juan Pablo Montoya	All	Target
			12	Jimmy Vasser	All
Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	2	Gil de Ferran	All	Marlboro
			3	Hélio Castroneves	All
Walker Motorsport	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	5	Shinji Nakano  R	1, 4–20	Avex
				Bryan Herta	2–3
Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B2K/00	Ford-Cosworth XF	6	Michael Andretti	All	Texaco-Havoline
			11	Christian Fittipaldi	All	Big Kmart
Team Rahal	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	7	Max Papis	All	Miller Lite
			8	Kenny Bräck  R	All	Shell
			91	Casey Mears  R	20	WorldCom
Della Penna Motorsports	Reynard 2KI	Toyota RV8E	10	Norberto Fontana  R	1–10	Video Match 9 DirecTV 11
				Memo Gidley	11–18, 20
				Jason Bright  R	19
Bettenhausen Racing	Lola B2K/00	Mercedes IC 108E	16	Michel Jourdain Jr.	All	Herdez
PacWest Racing	Reynard 2KI	Mercedes IC 108E	17	Maurício Gugelmin	All	Nextel
			18	Mark Blundell	All	Motorola
Dale Coyne Racing	Lola B2K/00	Ford-Cosworth XF	19	Takuya Kurosawa  R	1–11	MTCI 6 Sports Today 14
				Gualter Salles	12–14
				Alex Barron	15–20
			34	Gualter Salles	1–3	Dale Coyne Racing
	Swift 011.c			Tarso Marques	4–20	Panasonic
Patrick Racing	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	20	Roberto Moreno	All	Visteon
			40	Adrián Fernández	All	Tecate
Arciero Racing	Reynard 2KI	Mercedes IC 108E	25	Luiz Garcia Jr.	All	Hollywood Cigarettes
Team Green	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	26	Paul Tracy	All	KOOL
			27	Dario Franchitti	All
Forsythe Racing	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	32	Patrick Carpentier	1, 5–20	Player's
				Memo Gidley	2–4
			33	Alex Tagliani  R	All
			77	Bryan Herta	16	Rockingham Motor Speedway
Mo Nunn Racing	Reynard 2KI	Mercedes IC 108E	55	Tony Kanaan	1–7, 11–20	Hollywood Cigarettes
				Bryan Herta	8–10
PPI Motorsports	Reynard 2KI	Toyota RV8E	96	Oriol Servià  R	All	Telefónica
			97	Cristiano da Matta	All	Pioneer

Season summary[]

Schedule[]

Rnd	Race Name	Circuit	City/Location	Date
1	Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami	O  Homestead-Miami Speedway	Homestead, Florida	March 26
2	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	S  Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 16
3	Rio 200	O  Autódromo de Jacarepaguá	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	April 30
4	Firestone Firehawk 500	O  Twin Ring Motegi	Motegi, Japan	May 14
5	Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix	O  Nazareth Speedway	Nazareth, Pennsylvania	May 27†
6	Miller Lite 225	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin	June 5*
7	Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit	S  The Raceway on Belle Isle Park	Detroit, Michigan	June 18
8	Freightliner/G.I. Joe's 200	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon	June 25
9	Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland	S  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio	July 2
10	Molson Indy Toronto	S  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario	July 16
11	Michigan 500	O  Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	July 23
12		O  Chicago Motor Speedway	Cicero, Illinois	July 30
13	Miller Lite 200	R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	August 13
14	Motorola 220	R  Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 20
15	Molson Indy Vancouver	S  Concord Pacific Place	Vancouver, British Columbia	September 3
16	Honda Grand Prix of Monterey	R  Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	September 10
17	Motorola 300	O  Gateway International Raceway	Madison, Illinois	September 17
18	Texaco Grand Prix of Houston	S  George R. Brown Convention Center	Houston, Texas	October 1
19	Honda Indy 300	S  Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia	October 15
20	Marlboro 500	O  California Speedway	Fontana, California	October 29–30*

 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Dedicated road course
 S  Temporary street circuit

^† The Nazareth round was initially scheduled to be the second round on April 9, 2000, but snow caused the race's postponement.

Milwaukee was scheduled to be on June 4, but was postponed due to rain.

Fontana was scheduled for October 29, but during a caution on lap 22 for Cristiano da Matta crashing, rain began to fall and the remainder of the race was postponed to the next day.

Race results[]

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Lead Most Laps	Race Winner				Race Time	Report
					Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine
1	Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami	Gil de Ferran	Juan Pablo Montoya	Gil de Ferran	Max Papis	Team Rahal	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	1:22:01	Report
2	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	Gil de Ferran	Gil de Ferran	Gil de Ferran	Paul Tracy	Team Green	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	1:57:11	Report
3	Rio 200	Alex Tagliani	Alex Tagliani	Alex Tagliani	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	1:37:12	Report
4	Firestone Firehawk 500	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B2K/00	Ford-Cosworth XF	1:58:52	Report
5	Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix	Juan Pablo Montoya	Hélio Castroneves	Juan Pablo Montoya	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	2:06:10	Report
6	Miller Lite 225	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola B2K/00	Toyota RV8E	1:37:38	Report
7	Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit	Juan Pablo Montoya	Hélio Castroneves	Juan Pablo Montoya	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	2:01:23	Report
8	Freightliner/G.I. Joe's 200	Hélio Castroneves	Kenny Bräck	Hélio Castroneves	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	2:00:46	Report
9	Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland	Roberto Moreno	Juan Pablo Montoya	Roberto Moreno	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	1:52:12	Report
10	Molson Indy Toronto	Hélio Castroneves	Michael Andretti	Cristiano da Matta	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B2K/00	Ford-Cosworth XF	2:00:02	Report
11	Michigan 500	Paul Tracy	Juan Pablo Montoya	Hélio Castroneves	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola B2K/00	Toyota RV8E	2:48:49	Report
12	Target Grand Prix of Chicago	Juan Pablo Montoya	Adrián Fernández	Juan Pablo Montoya	Cristiano da Matta	PPI Motorsports	Reynard 2KI	Toyota RV8E	2:01:23	Report
13	Miller Lite 200	Gil de Ferran	Dario Franchitti	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	1:44:59	Report
14	Motorola 220	Dario Franchitti	Paul Tracy	Alex Tagliani	Paul Tracy	Team Green	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	1:37:53	Report
15	Molson Indy Vancouver	Dario Franchitti	Juan Pablo Montoya	Dario Franchitti	Paul Tracy	Team Green	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	1:53:06	Report
16	Honda Grand Prix of Monterey	Hélio Castroneves	Gil de Ferran	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Reynard 2KI	Honda HR-0	1:46:11	Report
17	Motorola 300	Juan Pablo Montoya	Patrick Carpentier	Michael Andretti	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola B2K/00	Toyota RV8E	1:55:38	Report
18	Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston	Gil de Ferran	Michael Andretti	Gil de Ferran	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola B2K/00	Toyota RV8E	1:59:02	Report
19	Honda Indy 300	Juan Pablo Montoya	Jimmy Vasser	Adrián Fernández	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	Reynard 2KI	Ford-Cosworth XF	2:01:14	Report
20	Marlboro 500	Gil de Ferran	Hélio Castroneves	Kenny Bräck	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B2K/00	Ford-Cosworth XF	3:38:04	Report

Final driver standings[]

Pos Driver MIA LBH RIO MOT NAZ MIL DET POR CLE TOR MIC CHI MDO ROA VAN LAG GAT HOU SUR FON Pts 1 Gil de Ferran 6* 7* 17 9 1 12 9 1 14 6 18 3 2 25 5 2 8 3* 23 3 168 2 Adrián Fernández 21 24 1 10 5 8 21 12 7 2 6 5 6 2 3 12 10 7 1* 5 158 3 Roberto Moreno 2 9 6 3 14 5 17 2 1* 13 23 6 11 4 10 25 3 11 19 2 147 4 Kenny Bräck  RY  18 17 10 5 3 4 24 6 2 10 22 4 5 3 9 5 11 15 2 13* 135 5 Paul Tracy 3 1 3 6 10 15 20 18 19 3 7 19 16 1 1 11 18 4 17 24 134 6 Jimmy Vasser 4 3 2 21 7 13 7 24 8 9 21 8 21 5 6 8 7 1 3 22 131 7 Hélio Castroneves 25 2 24 13 16 16 1 7* 21 16 5* 21 1* 9 20 1* 9 5 6 9 129 8 Michael Andretti 22 14 9 1 6 2 13 4 4 1 2 2 8 19 12 14 20* 13 20 19 127 9 Juan Pablo Montoya 23 19 22 7* 4* 1* 18* 17 6 24 1 12* 24 16 17 6 1 2 24 10 126 10 Cristiano da Matta 12 25 4 4 13 14 23 5 3 4* 17 1 17 13 7 15 4 14 4 25 112 11 Patrick Carpentier 5 21 3 5 10 5 7 4 14 7 21 24 9 2 19 5 14 101 12 Christian Fittipaldi 7 18 5 11 11 9 19 3 17 17 14 Wth 3 15 4 10 12 6 15 1 96 13 Dario Franchitti 11 23 11 2 23 6 4 9 13 25 3 20 22 12 2* 3 24 25 25 23 92 14 Max Papis 1 20 16 8 22 7 2 25 18 8 9 24 4 7 8 16 6 24 16 12 88 15 Oriol Servià  R  19 6 25 24 9 19 3 8 23 11 8 15 10 10 11 17 5 9 91 20 60 16 Alex Tagliani  R  9 4 13* 15 19 22 6 13 16 5 16 9 9 14* 18 23 14 16 22 6 53 17 Maurício Gugelmin 16 10 21 22 2 11 16 19 10 15 13 7 20 17 21 7 19 23 10 17 39 18 Bryan Herta 5 20 16 9 18 4 26 19 Tony Kanaan 10 16 18 16 8 10 DNS 24 16 13 8 14 22 13 10 8 18 24 20 Memo Gidley 21 8 18 10 10 12 6 16 19 22 21 21 20 21 Mark Blundell 13 8 7 19 17 17 11 20 12 22 19 23 14 11 25 13 23 20 11 15 18 22 Michel Jourdain Jr. 14 11 15 12 18 18 8 23 22 19 15 11 15 18 23 24 16 18 7 11 18 23 Casey Mears  R  4 12 24 Shinji Nakano  R  8 14 23 15 11 15 14 20 13 19 22 19 26 21 8 21 16 12 25 Tarso Marques 17 12 20 10 15 24 21 12 18 18 23 22 18 15 17 13 7 11 26 Alex Barron 13 21 17 12 14 8 6 27 Luiz Garcia Jr. 17 12 12 23 15 21 22 14 20 12 11 17 25 24 15 20 25 22 12 26 6 28 Norberto Fontana  R  15 15 23 Wth 20 14 21 11 20 2 29 Takuya Kurosawa  R  24 13 19 20 DNS 12 22 25 23 DNS 1 30 Gualter Salles 20 22 14 22 23 20 0 31 Jason Bright  R  18 0 Pos Driver MIA LBH RIO MOT NAZ MIL DET POR CLE TOR MIC CHI MDO ROA VAN LAG GAT HOU SUR FON Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th–6th place Light Blue 7th–12th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 12) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Nation's Cup[]

• Top result per race counts towards Nation's Cup.

Pos	Country	MIA	LBH	RIO	MOT	NAZ	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG	GAT	HOU	SUR	FON	Pts
1	Brazil	2	2	4	3	1	5	1	1	1	4	5	1	1	4	5	1	3	3	4	1	332
2	United States	4	3	2	1	6	2	7	4	4	1	2	2	8	5	6	8	7	1	3	4	256
3	Canada	3	1	3	6	10	3	5	10	5	3	4	9	7	1	1	9	2	4	5	6	226
4	Mexico	14	11	1	10	5	8	8	12	7	2	6	5	6	2	3	12	10	7	1	5	165
5	Sweden	18	17	10	5	3	4	24	6	2	10	22	4	5	3	9	5	11	15	2	13	135
6	Colombia	23	19	22	7	4	1	18	17	6	24	1	12	24	16	17	6	1	2	24	10	126
7	Scotland	11	23	11	2	23	6	4	9	13	25	3	20	22	12	2	3	24	25	25	23	92
8	Italy	1	20	16	8	22	7	2	25	18	8	9	24	4	7	8	16	8	24	16	12	88
9	Spain	19	6	25	24	9	19	3	8	23	11	8	15	10	10	11	17	5	9	9	20	64
10	England	13	8	7	19	17	17	11	20	12	22	19	23	14	11	25	13	23	20	11	15	18
11	Japan	8	13	19	14	DNS	23	12	11	15	14	20	13	19	22	19	26	21	8	21	16	13
12	Argentina	15	15	23	Wth	20	Wth	14	21	11	20											2
13	Australia																			18		0
Pos	Country	MIA	LBH	RIO	MOT	NAZ	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG	GAT	HOU	SUR	FON	Pts

Chassis Constructor's Cup[]

Pos	Chassis	Pts	Wins
1	Reynard 2KI	393	13
2	Lola B2K/00	313	7
Pos	Chassis	Pts	Wins

Engine Manufacturer's Cup[]

Pos	Engine	Pts	Wins
1	Ford-Cosworth XF	334	7
2	Honda HR-0	314	8
3	Toyota RV8E	275	5
4	Mercedes IC 108E	66	0
Pos	Engine	Pts	Wins

See also[]

• 2000 Toyota Atlantic Championship season
• 2000 Indianapolis 500
• 2000 Indy Racing League
• 2000 Indy Lights season

References[]

External links[]

• Official site & results
• "Standings after Fontana". Champ Car World Series. Archived from the original on 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• Entrant List