The 2003 Chevy 500 was an IRL IndyCar Series motor race held on October 12, 2003, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas before 102,000 spectators. It was the 16th and final round of the 2003 IRL IndyCar Series and the sixth running of the event. The race was won by Team Penske driver Gil de Ferran, the last of his 12 wins in his final American open-wheel car racing start. Scott Dixon came in second for Chip Ganassi Racing, and Andretti Green Racing's Dan Wheldon took third place.
Five drivers – Dixon, Hélio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Sam Hornish Jr., and de Ferran – entered the race with a mathematical chance to win the Drivers' Championship. De Ferran earned the pole position by recording the fastest lap of qualifying. He emerged as an early contender for the race win, leading 32 of the first 100 laps and consistently racing within the top-five positions. However, after making a pit stop under a caution period, he was mired in the rear of the field and nearly involved in a two-car crash on the 99th lap. His team resorted to a conservative fuel strategy, which eventually succeeded when he assumed the lead for good on lap 160.
The race was brought to an end after 195 of the scheduled 200 laps were completed because of a violent crash on lap 188 in which Kenny Bräck slammed the back stretch catch fence at 214G, the highest G-force that a human has ever endured and lived. Bräck suffered severe injuries and only raced once in the IndyCar Series after the crash. As a result of Bräck's accident and several similar incidents throughout the 2003 season, the series' engines were downsized to reduce speeds.
The final result gave Dixon his first Drivers' Championship, as Castroneves, Kanaan, and Hornish were all sidelined by issues late in the race and de Ferran was unable to surmount Dixon's championship lead. Toyota also won the Manufacturers' Championship over Honda and Chevrolet. During the race, there were six cautions and 11 lead changes among six drivers.
Background
The 2003 Chevy 500 was first confirmed to be included on the IRL IndyCar Series' 2003 schedule in July 2002. The sixth annual running of the event, it was held at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), a four-turn, asphalt oval track with 24-degree banking in the turns, in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, October 12, 2003, as the 16th and final round of the 2003 season. Of the 22 cars entered for the race, which all used Dallara and G-Force chassis and Firestone tires, the lone driver change was for Dan Wheldon, who switched from the 26 car to the No. 7 car to promote the Texas-based store chain, 7-Eleven, on two cars in the weekend with Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan. The car had not been used since the Indianapolis 500.
Heading into the race, Scott Dixon and Hélio Castroneves were tied for the Drivers' Championship lead with 467 points each. Third-place Kanaan trailed the two by seven points, while Sam Hornish Jr. was fourth with 448 points and Gil de Ferran was fifth with 437. All five drivers were mathematically eligible to win the championship, as the race awarded a maximum of 52 points. As for the Manufacturers' Championship, Toyota led on 135 points, 36 more than Honda and 39 more than Chevrolet.
The five-driver battle for the title was the closest in IndyCar Series history up to that point, and was touted by the Indy Racing League (IRL; the IndyCar Series' sanctioning body) as the closest in the near century-long history of American open-wheel car racing. Several past champions of the sport, including Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, and Bobby Unser, spoke positively of the series' competitiveness and expressed their excitement for the race. Veteran journalist Robin Miller wrote for ESPN that TMS was the "calling card of the Indy Racing League" because of its "breathtaking" racing style. This was also the last race for de Ferran, two-time Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) champion and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner, who announced his retirement from the sport on August 25. He described himself as the "long shot" for the title, but hoped to win it to bring an "ideal" end to his career. As a tribute to de Ferran, Brazilian airline manufacturer Embraer provided him and his family with a plane to travel back to his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after the race.
In his final race with Panther Racing, Hornish wished that his points deficit to the leaders was not as large because he was forced to win and lead the most laps in order to win the title. He looked to become the second driver to win three consecutive American open-wheel championships, a feat only accomplished by Ted Horn in 1946–1948. Kanaan, who earned one victory to that point in his first IndyCar Series season, aimed to win the race by driving patiently until the end. Castroneves expected the race to be a "war" and contrasted it to the 2002 Chevy 500, in which only he and Hornish fought for the title. He also revealed that he hung a horseshoe above his garage stall for good luck. Dixon was confident in his team's ability to pull through with a win to ensure the championship, just as he had done in the 2000 Indy Lights season. To prepare for the race, Kanaan and Castroneves tested at TMS on September 25–26, as did Hornish on September 30.
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions preceded the race on Sunday, two on Friday and two on Saturday. For the first three sessions, which all lasted 60 minutes, the drivers were split into two groups, with each running for half the sessions. The last session was open to all drivers and was only held for 30 minutes. Dixon led the first practice session with a lap time of 23.4233 seconds, besting Tora Takagi, Kanaan, Hornish, and de Ferran. In the second practice session, Dixon continued displaying fast pace with a 23.4391-second lap, with Vítor Meira in second, Kanaan in third, Castroneves in fourth, and Bryan Herta in fifth. Wheldon reportedly had trouble locating his pit stall and was reminded by his team that he was in the No. 7 car.
On Friday evening, a 65-minute qualifying session determined the starting grid for the race. Each driver was required to complete two timed laps in their qualifying attempt, with the quickest of the two determining their position. De Ferran earned his fifth IndyCar Series pole position (and his 20th in American open-wheel car racing, counting his 15 poles in CART) with a time of 23.5031 seconds; his last pole was in the 2002 Gateway Indy 250. Dixon started second with a lap that was 0.0009 seconds slower, the second-closest deficit between the top-two qualifiers in series history. Tomas Scheckter took third, Felipe Giaffone fourth, and Castroneves fifth, with Meira, Kenny Bräck, Herta, Kanaan, and Robbie Buhl assuming the remaining top-ten positions. Positions 11th through 18th were taken by Takagi, Hornish, Greg Ray, Alex Barron, Roger Yasukawa, Wheldon, Al Unser Jr., and Richie Hearn. A. J. Foyt IV was intended to take to the track second in line, but was ultimately the last driver to make a qualifying attempt because of an issue with his car's fuel system; he qualified 19th, ahead of Scott Sharp in 20th, Sarah Fisher in 21st, and Ed Carpenter in 22nd.
The third practice session on Saturday morning was led by Yasukawa with a time of 23.3944 seconds, with Ray, Giaffone, Meira, and Bräck rounding out the top-five. Hornish did not participate in the session because his team installed a new engine and did not want to waste mileage on it yet. He went on to lap the fastest time of the final practice session in the afternoon at 23.3563 seconds, outpacing the times of Castroneves, Scheckter, Bräck, and Dixon. Barron and Buhl made slight contact during the session, but neither sustained any damage.
Qualifying classification + Final qualifying results Driver Team 1 6 Gil de Ferran Team Penske 23.5031 222.864 1 2 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 23.5040 222.856 2 3 10 Tomas Scheckter Chip Ganassi Racing 23.5988 221.960 3 4 21 Felipe Giaffone Mo Nunn Racing 23.5995 221.954 4 5 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 23.6073 221.881 5 6 2 Vítor Meira Team Menard 23.6095 221.860 6 7 15 Kenny Bräck Team Rahal 23.6492 221.487 7 8 27 Bryan Herta Andretti Green Racing 23.6928 221.080 8 9 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing 23.7186 220.839 9 10 24 Robbie Buhl Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23.7244 220.785 10 11 12 Tora Takagi Mo Nunn Racing 23.7564 220.488 11 12 4 Sam Hornish Jr. Panther Racing 23.7612 220.443 12 13 13 Greg Ray Access Motorsports 23.8132 219.962 13 14 52 Alex Barron Cheever Racing 23.8441 219.677 14 15 55 Roger Yasukawa Fernández Racing 23.8545 219.581 15 16 7 Dan Wheldon Andretti Green Racing 23.8671 219.465 16 17 31 Al Unser Jr. Kelley Racing 23.9697 218.526 17 18 91 Richie Hearn Hemelgarn Racing 23.9762 218.467 18 19 14 A. J. Foyt IV A. J. Foyt Racing 24.0782 217.541 19 20 8 Scott Sharp Kelley Racing 24.0796 217.529 20 21 23 Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 24.1475 216.917 21 22 18 Ed Carpenter PDM Racing 24.4969 213.823 22Source:
Race The 200-lap, race began at 2:45 p.m. Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00) and was attended by 102,000 spectators. The weather conditions were sunny, with air temperatures recorded from and track temperatures from . Chevrolet general manager Brent Dewar commanded the drivers to start their engines, and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford drove the pace car. When the race began, de Ferran used his pole position to his advantage and pulled ahead of Dixon to lead the first lap. Dixon drove to his outside and crossed the start/finish line 0.0056 seconds ahead of de Ferran on the second lap. Kanaan moved up to fourth place by the third lap, while Scheckter dropped from fourth to eighth a lap later after nearly losing control of his car in the second turn. De Ferran, meanwhile, reclaimed the lead on lap five. Hornish emerged into the top-ten on lap seven and moved to fifth place ten laps later, behind the other four championship contenders. He then steered to the right of Castroneves in turn four and passed him for fourth place on the 20th lap.
The caution flag was issued for the first time on lap 31 when debris was spotted by track officials on the back stretch. During the caution period, all of the leaders made pit stops for fuel, new tires, and adjustments to their cars on lap 33. Meira's right-rear tire detached from his car as he exited pit road, forcing him to come back in the next lap. Having taken the lead from de Ferran in the pit stop sequence, Kanaan led the field back up to speed on lap 37. Scheckter was tenth during the restart, but by the 50th lap, he had improved to fifth place. The next lap, Carpenter slowed to a stop on the apron in turn one with an alternator issue; the second caution was flown on lap 52 to allow officials to tow his car into pit road. Some of the leaders made stops under caution, but Kanaan stayed on-track and led at the lap-57 restart, ahead of Dixon, Wheldon, Giaffone, and Yasukawa. Hornish, who restarted outside of the top-ten, made his way up to fifth place by the 65th lap and fourth place five laps later. Castroneves also moved into the sixth position on lap 73. After losing 17 laps to the leaders while his electronic control unit was being replaced, Foyt IV continued struggling with engine issues, forcing him to retire from the race on the 81st lap.