The season points leader entering the race, Gil de Ferran, was awarded the pole position when qualifying was cancelled after a practice session was rained out.

After passing Carpentier for second, Alex Zanardi moved ahead of Kanaan after a series of pit stops between laps 121 to 123.

The rest of the race was run under a caution flag, and Bräck, who had moved into second place before Zanardi's pit stop, secured the victory.

[3] Four days before the race, the September 11 attacks took place, causing most major American sporting events scheduled on the same weekend as the German 500 to be postponed, including National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) games and the New Hampshire 300 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

[4] According to CART vice president Ronald Richards, the series decided to continue with the race prior to the cancellation of that week's NFL games, a decision followed by other American leagues.

"[1] In remembrance of the September 11 attacks' victims, and desirous of avoiding criticism for holding the German 500 so soon afterward, CART changed the race's name to the American Memorial.

[8] Practice was held the following day, and Tony Kanaan of Mo Nunn Racing recorded the fastest lap of 34.624 seconds.

[11] Due to the rainout and the drivers' lack of familiarity with the EuroSpeedway, CART cancelled qualifying for the American Memorial.

Bräck earned second position since he held a tie-breaker over Castroneves, who started third, and Andretti began the race in fourth.

[8] On race day, a 30-minute warm-up session was held before the event began; Kanaan again posted the fastest time (35.288 seconds), followed by Zanardi and Paul Tracy.

[13] Around that time, Bryan Herta and Cristiano da Matta experienced problems with their cars and became the first two drivers to retire from the race.

The first caution flag of the day came out, but not before Carpentier took the lead as Bräck regained control of his car and re-entered the track in second place.

[13] The two contested the lead, and Kanaan was two-tenths of a second behind Zanardi when he made a pit stop for the final time on lap 141.

[16] After Carpentier veered up the track to narrowly miss Zanardi's car, Tagliani drove straight into it at an estimated speed of 200 mph (320 km/h).

[15] There was one further retirement, on lap 153; Christian Fittipaldi made a pit stop due to a fire in the back of his car and dropped out.

[23] On September 17, one of Zanardi's doctors said that his life was not in danger, although he had been placed under an induced coma in an attempt to prevent trauma shock.

"[24] Laz Denes, a spokesman for Zanardi's Mo Nunn Racing team, said the impact was "immense, almost harder than anything I've ever seen.