2001 CART FedEx Championship Series

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series. All teams competed with tires supplied by Firestone.

Team changes

Chip Ganassi Racing's success with Toyota in the 2000 season increased demand for their RV8 engine, with Walker Motorsport, Newman/Haas Racing, PacWest Racing, and Patrick Racing switching to the engine for 2001. Because of the overwhelming engine production, Toyota ceased their support of two teams, Della Penna Motorsports and PPI Motorsports, forcing both to shut down their CART operations at the end of 2000; PPI Motorsports shifted their efforts to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

PacWest Racing was one of four teams that fielded cars powered by Mercedes-Benz engines in the previous season, but was forced to switch to a different engine supplier after DaimlerChrysler—Mercedes-Benz's parent company—announced their departure from the series at the season's end in order to exclusively focus on their Formula One program. Ilmor, the company responsible for building Mercedes-Benz's CART engines, chose to stay in the sport and supply their own engines, named the Phoenix, for Arciero-Brooke Racing, though the team resorted to Ford-Cosworth's XF engine starting from the Miller Lite 225. As for the other teams, Bettenhausen Racing also ran the XF engine, while Mo Nunn Racing used Honda's new HR-1 engine alongside four other teams, including the newly-formed Team Motorola and Fernández Racing, marking Honda's largest lineup in their history with CART.

Only two constructors, Lola and Reynard, supplied chassis for 2001 after Swift left the series following an uncompetitive 2000 season with Dale Coyne Racing. Reynard had won the Constructors' Cup the previous season and introduced their new 01I chassis.

Schedule

• The original calendar called for 22 races on five continents, by far the most ambitious calendar CART had ever attempted. With the race at Texas being canceled and the Rio 200 being dropped, the 2001 season ultimately had the same number of races as the previous year.
• For the first time, CART would race in the United Kingdom and Germany and also return to Mexico for the first time in almost twenty years.
• The original calendar released on August 5, 2000, had the first round of the season at Jacarepaguá in Brazil, but disagreements with the track owners several months later led to the event being dropped.
• The events at Homestead-Miami and Gateway were dropped after negotiations with the owners of the track; rival series Indy Racing League secured the contracts instead, and both tracks were featured in the 2001 Indy Racing League season.
• The removal of Gateway from the calendar meant that Memorial Day weekend would be empty, allowing several teams and drivers the opportunity to compete at the Indianapolis 500.
• The 2001 season was the final time Michigan Speedway appeared on the calendar.

Results

Final driver standings

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1. Kenny Bräck also awarded 1 point for his pole position in Fort Worth. The race was canceled after qualifying due to excessively high speeds.
2. Toranosuke Takagi was penalized 2 points for rough driving in Toronto.
3. Alex Zanardi's car was impacted from the side by Alex Tagliani's car at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. He lost both of his lower legs in the impact. This signaled the end of his open-wheel racing career.

Nations' Cup

• Top result per race counts towards Nations' Cup.

[[Chassis]] Constructors' Cup

[[Engine]] Manufacturers' Cup

References

References

1. (May 25, 2001). "Penske must drop Marlboro logos for Indy 500". [[Autosport]].
2. (2001-05-25). "Indy 500 wasn't in Marlboro country; team drops logo".
3. "CART Championship Series - 2001: Entrylist". Speedsport Magazine.
4. (November 29, 2000). "Walker Racing Announces New Driver and Engine Supplier for 2001".
5. "CHAMPCAR/CART: Newman/Haas Racing tabs da Matta and Toyota".
6. (January 17, 2001). "PacWest Racing to Run Toyota Power in 2001".
7. (November 17, 2000). "Moreno tests 2001 Reynard at Sebring". [[Autosport]].
8. (October 26, 2000). "Toyota drops Della Penna.".
9. Mauk, Eric. (October 25, 2000). "PPI To Close Champ Car Operation After Fontana". [[SpeedVision]].
10. "PPI driver announcement".
11. "CART Championship Series - 2000: Entrylist".
12. (September 9, 2000). "Mercedes-Benz to pull out of CART". [[United Press International.
13. (January 21, 2001). "Ilmor Racing Engines: Up From The Ashes?". [[Autoweek]].
14. Mauk, Eric. (May 15, 2001). "Arciero-Brooke To Miss Japan". [[SpeedVision]].
15. Phillips, David. (January 4, 2001). "Herdez/Bettenhausen Goes With Ford Power". [[SpeedVision]].
16. Mauk, Eric. (September 26, 2000). "Michael Andretti Inks Three-Year Pact With Barry Green". [[SpeedVision]].
17. (October 28, 2000). "Fernandez Racing To Enter CART FedEx Championship Series".
18. (April 1, 2002). "Honda Championship Auto Racing Highlights". [[Honda]].
19. Kirby, Gordon. "The Way It Is/ Swift's 2012 Indy car concept".
20. "CHAMPCAR/CART: Reynard wraps up constructor's championship".
21. "2001 Reynard 01I".