[2] The Ganassi team of Jimmy Vasser and Juan Pablo Montoya competed as a one-off entry, and were well received by fans and fellow competitors.

[1] Both drivers were quickly up to speed with the IRL regulars, and were expected to be favorites in both qualifying and on race day.

Also making a heralded return to Indianapolis was two-time winner Al Unser Jr.[1] who had switched full-time to the IRL in 2000.

This was an effort to prevent any chance of the leader(s) accidentally passing the pace car on a restart (which happened to Scott Goodyear in the 1995 race).

During practice, IRL regulars generally topped the speed charts, with different names leading nearly each day.

Jimmy Vasser and Juan Pablo Montoya were quickly up to speed in the IRL machines, and each managed to lead one day of practice.

Greg Ray pulled his car out of line due to handling issues, and Team Menard announced they would go out later.

The front row of Ray, Montoya, and Salazar was separated by only 0.173 second, the closest such margin in Indy history.

Also into the wall were Jimmy Kite, Scott Harrington, rookie Memo Gidley and veteran Hideshi Matsuda.

Among the drivers who completed attempts were Jimmy Kite, Davey Hamilton, and popular hometown rookie Andy Hillenburg.

Independent driver and co-owner Hillenburg was fielding a "throwback" entry named the Sumar Special, a gesture to the car driven by Pat O'Connor which won the pole position in 1957.

With less than a minute until the 6 o'clock gun, Billy Boat climbed into another Foyt backup, (#11) a car that had not been driven all week.

[6] On Saturday May 27, the day before the Indy 500, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser participated in the CART Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth Speedway.

Jason Leffler, who qualified 17th at Indy, traveled to Charlotte on Saturday to participate in the NASCAR Busch Series Carquest Auto Parts 300.

Track-drying efforts began, and at 2:01 p.m. EST, Mari Hulman George gave the command to start engines, and the field pulled away.

A fast pace over the first 20 laps saw Ray dominate, with Montoya aggressively dicing through traffic, holding a close second place.

On lap 66, however, Greg Ray became caught up in a wind gust, and his car pushed into the outside wall exiting turn two.

Al Unser Jr. hit a piece of debris from Ray's crash and punctured his car's radiator, causing him to drop out 22 laps later.

His return did not last long, as he smacked the outside wall in turn two - close to the same place he crashed earlier - and he was finally out of the race.

After the 2000 CART season, Juan Pablo Montoya signed with the Williams Formula One team, and thus did not return to defend his Indianapolis 500 championship in 2001.

While neither side was prepared to make concessions towards a unification or buyout, it became evident that sponsors in the CART series desired to have their teams participate in the Indianapolis 500 to benefit from the increased exposure.

Ganassi's arrival, and subsequent domination of the event led other CART-based teams to follow suit.

[7] Instead, Roger Penske and Tim Cindric lent support to Jason Leffler's car at Treadway Racing.

Noticeably neither of the team's full-time CART drivers (Bryan Herta and Shinji Nakano), were part of the effort.

The attention for Walker was instead focused on their new driver, rookie Sarah Fisher,[1] who would become a popular fixture in the IRL in the years to come.

Second place finisher Buddy Lazier (the 1996 winner) was the only car towards the end of the race that was in striking distance of Montoya, but a combination of slower pit stops[2][8] and difficulties in traffic,[2] thwarted any chance of victory.

With Goodyear announcing in October 1999 that it was leaving the sport of open wheel racing indefinitely, the Speedway lost one of its fixtures in 2000.

Hourly updates were aired, then the broadcast came back to cover the pre-race ceremonies and race in its entirety.

Mark Jaynes moved from the pits to take over the turn three location vacated by one-year member Kevin O'Neal.

Guests interviewed in the broadcast booth included Secretary of Defense William Cohen, John F. Fielder (BorgWarner), David Seuss (Northern Light), Kevin Forbes (IMS), Mark Miller (Nokia), and Ira Kisver (Pennzoil).