2003 King Taco 500

Questions over CART's future at California Speedway were first raised in June 2003 when the CART race was left out of the track's 2004 season ticket package. Tickets for any 2004 CART race, the final year of the track's contract with CART, would be sold individually. Speedway President Bill Miller said, "the landscape has changed. We need to see where that is beyond 2004... We're an important market for them. But it needs to make sense. They have a lot on the horizon. They need to determine the direction they're going. Are they going road racing? Are they going international? Are they committed to the superspeedway ovals? There have been comments made (by CART officials) that 'sometimes we don't know that it makes sense to run them on these superspeedways.'"[1]

A major wildfire, which was dubbed the

"Apparently, back in Indianapolis, they don't realize the impact the fires have had, fires that came within five miles of the track at one point, but after talking with the CART people most of the day, we made the decision to call it off this weekend," said Bill Miller, California Speedway president. "We struggled with the decision all day long and finally made it on our own. Our dialogue with the CART management team was very disappointing, but all we had to do was look up in the sky and see ashes falling down and the decision was made easy."^[2]

When attempts to find a date to reschedule the event failed, the race was officially cancelled by CART on October 29. CART officials looked into holding the race a week later, or at fellow International Speedway Corporation track, Phoenix Raceway, on Monday or Tuesday after the NASCAR Winston Cup race on November 9. Ticket holders were given four options: apply the credits towards 2004 tickets, donate the money to the Red Cross wildfire relief fund, trade the tickets for Winston Cup tickets at Phoenix, or get a refund.

When the 2004 CART schedule was released in early November, California Speedway was tentatively on the schedule. However, the speedway filed suit against CART seeking a refund of the $2.5 million sanctioning fee the track had paid the series, minus an agreed amount for expenses CART incurred for the cancelled race.[6] The financially insolvent CART was sold at the end of 2003 and the re-organized Champ Car never returned to California Speedway.

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