Initial Confusion
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" 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 was not in the official rulebook. Page also, on at least one occasion, misidentified Dario Franchitti's car as that of Tracy's. 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 back to the previous lap, and added that the cars did not race back to the yellow, as was the policy in NASCAR at the time.
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.
Read more about this topic: 2002 Indianapolis 500, Controversy
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