Emerson Indy 250

The Emerson Indy 250 is a former American Open Wheel Racing event held at Gateway International Speedway from 1997 to 2003. It was a part of the CART series from 1997 to 2000, and part of the IRL from 2001-2003.

The first running was a CART series race held on Saturday May 24, 1997, the day before the rival Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500. Rather than scheduling a race directly opposite the Indy 500 (as they had done in 1996 with the U.S. 500), CART scheduled Gateway the day before to serve as their Memorial Day weekend open-wheel alternative without direct conflict. In a couple instances, a handful of drivers actually competed in both events in the same weekend. After a couple years, track management grew increasingly dissatisfied with its apparent use, as seen by some, as a political pawn or statement by CART. This event had poor attendance as fans generally chose to travel to the Indy 500 for the weekend instead. For 2000, the race was moved to the fall.

In 2001, its was dropped from the CART series schedule, and switched alliances to the Indy Racing League. The event suffered from continually declining attendance. The event was dropped altogether after 2003. Rumors have surfaced about a possible return to the now-unified IndyCar schedule, but no official announcements have been made.

Race winners

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
						Laps	Miles (km)
CART World Series History
1997	May 24	Paul Tracy	Penske Racing	Penske	Mercedes-Benz-Ilmor	236	295 (474.756)	2:37:54	113.884
1998	May 23	Alex Zanardi	Chip Ganassi Racing	Reynard	Honda	236	295 (474.756)	2:23:02	125.725
1999	May 29	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Swift	Ford-Cosworth	236	295 (474.756)	2:25:35	123.513
2000	September 17	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	Lola	Toyota	236	295 (474.756)	1:55:38	155.519
IRL IndyCar Series History
2001	August 26	Al Unser Jr.	Kelley Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	200	250 (402.336)	1:49:59	133.379
2002	August 25	Gil de Ferran	Penske Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	200	250 (402.336)	1:44:23	143.711
2003	August 10	Helio Castroneves	Penske Racing	Dallara	Toyota	200	250 (402.336)	1:50:53	135.286

Atlantics & Lights Winners

IPS/Indy Lights	Atlantic Championship
Season Date Winning Driver 1997 May 24 Lee Bentham 1998 May 23 Shigeaki Hattori 1999: Not held 2000 September 17 Townsend Bell 2001 August 26 Dan Wheldon 2002 August 25 Ryan Hampton 2003 August 9 Jeff Simmons	Season Date Winning Driver 1998 May 23 Memo Gidley 1999 May 28 Anthony Lazzaro 2000 September 17 Case Montgomery

External links

• Champ Car Stats: Gateway archive

Template:IndyCar Series races