The 2000 FedEx Championship Series season was the twenty-second in the

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

era of

open-wheel racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single-s ...

in the United States. It consisted of 20 races, beginning in

Homestead, Florida Homestead is a city within Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida, between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. The population was 80,737 as of the 2020 census. Homestead is primarily a Miami sub ...

on March 26, 2000 and concluding in

Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It is now a regional h ...

on October 30, 2000. The

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

Championship Series Drivers' Champion was

Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran (born November 11, 1967 in Paris, France) is a French-born Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 5 ...

. The Rookie of the Year was

Kenny Bräck Kenny Bräck (born 21 March 1966) is a Swedish former race car driver. Until his retirement from racing, he competed in the CART, Indy Racing League and the IROC series. He won the 1998 Indy Racing League championship and the 1999 Indianapoli ...

. The relative decline of

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech ...

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 Helio may refer to: * Helio AU-24 Stallion * Helio (wireless carrier), a defunct American wireless communications provider (2005–2010); originally a joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink, purchased by Virgin Mobile USA in 2008 * He ...

(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 Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver and current team owner. Statistically one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, Andretti won the 1991 CART P ...

and

Paul Tracy Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill" ...

, 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 Patrick Racing was an auto racing team in both Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Patrick Racing was started by Pat Patrick in the 1970s. The team is best known for winning the Indianapolis 500 on three occasions (1973, 1982, 1989), and the I ...

, with veterans

Adrian Fernandez Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the main ...

and

Roberto Moreno Roberto Pupo Moreno (born 11 February 1959), usually known as Roberto Moreno and also as Pupo Moreno, is a Brazilian former auto racing, racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 c ...

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 Robert Woodward Rahal (born January 10, 1953) is an American former auto racing driver and team owner. As a driver he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also won the 2004 ...

. The series left open the traditional

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

date of

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

, allowing teams to enter the

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

sanctioned race for the first time since 1995. Chip Ganassi Racing did so, with their driver

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born September 20, 1975) is a Colombian racing driver. He won the International F3000 championship in 1998, the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999 in his debut year in the series, and the IMSA WeatherTech S ...

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 The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

via the

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

brand as an engine manufacturer, after DaimlerChrysler decided to shut down their CART program and coincidentally defected to the

NASCAR Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

via the

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

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

. So all cars ran on Firestone Firehawk tires. All teams were based in the United States.

Season summary

Schedule

Oval/Speedway
Dedicated road course
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

Final driver standings

Oriol Servià Oriol Servià i Imbers (born 13 July 1974) is a Spanish racing driver who competes part-time in the IndyCar Series. He raced for Dragon Racing in the 2014–15 Formula E season, and left the series prior to the 2015 Miami ePrix to become man ...

was penalized 4 points for rough driving in

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

Nation's Cup

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

Chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...
Constructor's Cup

Engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
Manufacturer's Cup

References

External links

Official site & results
*

{{Champ Car Seasons Champ Car seasons