2002 Alternate CART season

The 2002 CART season was the twenty-fourth in the CART era of U.S. open-wheel racing and the first to be run by Marcus Kun.

Teams and Drivers
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2002 DHL Championship Series season.

Notes:
 * 1 Rick Douglais was injured after Long Beach and was forced to miss one race.
 * 2 Artesia Mass, Giorgio Pavetti and Nikola Nikolov were all banned for one race for erratic driving while being lapped in Long Beach.
 * 3 Geoff Donnelly impressed MBR in his first CART race and was given another drive in place of Bianchi who was underwhelming in the first 2 rounds.
 * 4 Nathan Nurmester and Michael Andretti were injured in Michigan and were forced to miss the rest of the season. Nurmester would never drive in CART again, and was initally replaced by Finnish veteran driver Tero Palmroth, while Andretti was replaced by Sam Hornish Jr. switching from the IRL.
 * 5 Jérémy-Étienne Voeckler retired full-time from single seaters after Michigan. He was replaced by Giandomenico Miccoli.
 * 6 Angela McIntyre's results dissapointed Cassidy and she was replaced by the returning Tony Kanaan.
 * 7 Dan Wheldon was banned for one race after Road America for a dangerous move when rejoining the track.
 * 8 Tero Palmroth was sacked from FSK Racing after a streak of poor results. He was replaced by Jan Magnussen.