Max Papis finished second for Team Rahal and Forsythe Racing driver Alex Tagliani came in third.

The race was reduced from its original distance of 250 laps to 220 because of fading daylight and the event was delayed by morning rain.

Da Matta held off Papis at the start-finish line to win after a caution period for a crash involving Scott Dixon ended competitive racing in the event.

Seventh-place finisher Michael Andretti moved in front of Hélio Castroneves to secure third position after the latter retired with an engine failure.

[5] Da Matta felt his team had learnt more from the series previous race on a superspeedway which he believed would help him in California where he wanted to win.

[7][8] Junqueira was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 31.948 seconds; Tora Takagi, Paul Tracy, Kenny Bräck, da Matta, Patrick Carpentier, Papis, Tony Kanaan, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Roberto Moreno rounded out the session's top ten drivers.

Tagliani, Memo Gidley, Shinji Nakano, Carpentier, Bryan Herta, Fernández and da Matta.

[10] The session was temporarily stopped when a track inspection was required after Fernández's right-rear tire blew, and Jourdain's engine failed after exiting turn four.

[8] Bräck was fastest in the third practice session with a lap of 31.219 seconds; Papis, da Matta, Kanaan, Tracy, Junqueira, Christian Fittipaldi, Herta, Tagliani and Gidley completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.

[11] A track inspection stopped the session for eight minutes after several teams reported that their cars had sustained cut tires.

Papis, Jourdain, Junqueira, Jimmy Vasser and Scott Dixon rounded out the top ten fastest qualifiers.

Nakano, Andretti, Kanaan, Maurício Gugelmin, Oriol Servià, Tracy, Alex Barron and Takagi completed the top-20.

Fernández qualified at the back of the grid in 26th position and switched off his engine on the backstretch while on his second warm-up lap and stopped at the bottom of turn three.

It was due to run for 30 minutes but was first delayed by a light rain shower that hit the area in the early morning.

Then the session was prematurely ended when Barron drove into pit road with a large amount of fluid coming out from his car.

[21] Most of the field chose a strategy of running at the front of the pack for as long as they could without driving to the lead because it would consume more fuel than needed and thus they elected to draft behind other cars.

Da Matta reclaimed the lead by lap 10 and held a three-tenths advantage over Papis, who in turn was two-tenths in front of Tracy.

The first caution of the race was prompted on the following lap when Bräck spun and made heavy contact with the turn two outside wall and stopped at the bottom of the corner.

Tracy slowed on the backstraight on lap 64 and drove to pit road to retire with a loss of engine power.

Franchitti lost engine power after leaving turn one and drove down the backstraight to retire, necessitating the second caution.

Da Matta fell to fourth after he was passed by Vasser to his right at turn one and Castroneves moved into second five laps later.

Castroneves pulled off the track at turn four and stopped at the pit road exit to retire with an engine failure on the following lap.

A section of front wing became dislodged from Moreno's car while entering turn three on lap 176, which triggered the fourth caution.

During the caution, CART Chief Steward Chris Kneifel announced the event's distance would be reduced from 250 to 230 laps because of fading sunlight, and the leaders elected to make pit stops.

[19] The fifth caution was shown on lap 188 when Moreno's engine failed on the top of the fourth turn and stopped at the exit of pit road to retire.

Fernández veered right under acceleration on the same lap into the turn three entrance wall which removed his right-front wing section and his wheel.

[19] De Ferran lost third after he was passed by Papis on the 209th lap; his engine went soft and sustained a punctured left-rear tire which increased understeer.

His right-hand side was heavily damaged and his right-rear wheel became detached and the final caution was prompted.

"[23] Da Matta stated he did not want to lead the race with two laps remaining because of the draft and believed there would be a larger battle for the victory.

[28] Tagliani, who finished in third, revealed that he lifted from his accelerator pedal and ran in fifth gear on the backstraight and stated it was about conserving fuel and avoiding being caught in any incidents.