page_title: 2002 Indianapolis 500
section_title: Initial confusion
hierarchical_section_title: 2002 Indianapolis 500 / Controversy / Initial confusion
caption_attribution_description: English: Helio Castroneves during the 2002 Indianapolis 500
context_page_description: The 86th Indianapolis 500-mile race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 2002. It was the seventh Indianapolis 500 held as part of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series schedule, and was part of the 2002 Indy Racing League season.
  Rookie Tomas Scheckter led 85 laps, and appeared on his way to a possible victory, which would have marked the third consecutive Indy win for a first-year driver. However, Scheckter crashed while leading with only 27 laps to go. Hélio Castroneves, who also won the 2001 running became the fifth driver in Indy 500 history to win back-to-back races. It is largely considered one of the most controversial races in Indy history.
  On the 199th lap, second place Paul Tracy was alongside leader Hélio Castroneves, going for the lead in the third turn. At the same time, a crash occurred on another part of the track, bringing out the caution flag. Indy Racing League officials ruled that the yellow came out before Tracy completed the pass, and Castroneves was declared the victor. After an official protest was filed, and after an appeals hearing, Castroneves' victory was upheld on July 2, 2002.
context_section_description: In the immediate aftermath of the race, confusion reigned among the competitors, broadcasters, and fans. Brian Barnhart, in Race Control, made the initial call at the moment, stating "yellow, yellow, yellow, three is your leader" ("three" being Castroneves car number) over the director's radio channel, and such was repeated by his assistant Mel Harder over the teams' race control radio channel. Harder was in charge of activating the yellow lights around the track, and the in-car dashboard yellow light system.
  On the television broadcast, commentator Paul Page erroneously stated that Castroneves was the leader because the scoring "reverted back to the previous lap." Such rules are used if electronic transponder-based scoring with multiple timing loops was not used, as in the past, but since the advent of transponder-based scoring, the rule has generally been instead of the last completed lap, but the last timing loop the car crossed at the point of caution. Page also, on at least one occasion, misidentified Dario Franchitti's car as that of Tracy's (the two cars have similar liveries). ABC waited over 14 minutes before they even showed a single replay of the pass or the crash. However, ABC did air split-screen footage clearly showing the crash occurred before the pass. The footage, however, did not show conclusive evidence of when the yellow light came on.
  On the live radio broadcast Mike King announced that "race control said the pass would not count." Donald Davidson echoed the same erroneous information that the scoring reverted to the previous lap (though it was last completed loop prior to caution), and added that the cars did not race back to the yellow, as was the policy in NASCAR at the time (the rule was changed in September 2003, when the practice was banned and scoring reverts to the last scoring loop crossed before the caution was called, except in the final lap or a caution that ends a race because of weather or darkness, when it reverts to video replays).  A similar controversy took place at the 2019 INDYCAR Portland road course event at the start when a massive crash at the opening chicane caused 11 laps of caution as officials could not determine positions based on video evidence.  Officials decided for the 2020 season that scoring reverts to the last loop crossed when a caution occurs. 
  In the pits, Barry Green immediately challenged the decision. He told Tracy over the two-way radio that there was "a problem," and later chimed sarcastically that "they (presumably IRL officials) are not going to let one of us (one of the CART teams) win." He contended that Tracy said he had completed the pass before the yellow caution light came on. Tracy said "I feel that I was ahead of him when it went yellow. I passed him, and I saw green. We’re going to protest this thing because I was ahead of him when the yellow came out." 
  Meanwhile, Castroneves stated the yellow had come out before the pass was made. "The only reason he passed me, it's because the yellow came on, and I lifted off." Other drivers had different opinion. Eddie Cheever called the finish "confusing." Dario Franchitti, Tracy's teammate, said that "Paul (Tracy) had passed (Castroneves) on the outside before the yellow came out." Mario Andretti, however, spoke with Tracy after the race, and said that Tracy was "more concerned with keeping an eye on Castroneves' car" than watching the yellow lights.
caption: Hélio Castroneves
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26"}