History UsefulNotes / IndyCar

CART, outraged, filed a lawsuit in 1996, which ultimately ended in a settlement and the legality of the new series. In response they created a race called the "US 500" to be run at Michigan International Speedway the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500. The US 500 was touted as the 'real' 500 where CART teams would show their technical superiority to the "CART rejects series". [[BackstabBackfire However, this boast backfired]] when, in the very first US 500 race, the front row drivers collided on the formation lap -- leading to a multi-car pileup before the race even began and a major delay while backup cars were prepared to restart it. Meanwhile at Indianapolis, in addition to Dutch star Arie Luyendyk setting both the track and qualifying records - 237.498mph and 236.986mph, respectively - the race ran smoothly (although qualifying had been tragically marred by the death of veteran driver Scott Brayton) but was severely lacking in star-power and was won by by a relatively unknown driver (Buddy Lazier, who had been a makeweight in previous races)[[note]]The biggest name in the race was Tony Stewart, who later became a 3 time champion... in NASCAR[[/note]]. Most pundits observed that for all intents and purposes neither side had really "won" anything and that some kind of peace deal was urgently needed. The US 500 was never run on Memorial Day Weekend again—it was moved to July for the three following years, taking up Michigan's usual July date on the CART calendar, then the US 500 name was abandoned. (Also, Michigan still kept its July date for 1996, in addition to the U.S. 500, meaning CART raced there twice that year. That wasn't unusual as CART would often hit tracks twice during most of the 80s, though typically the second race was much shorter than the first. But in 1996, both races were 500 miles. The July 1996 race was infamous for Emerson Fittipaldi's [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending crash]].)

In the final twist of the saga, George was voted out of his position at the head of the series by his own sisters, allegedly angry at the amount of family money that had been spent over the years, and a new boss was brought in (Randy Bernard, a former head of Professional Bull Riders). Bernard was however fired after the 2012 season and he was replaced by Mark Miles, a former tennis promoter. [[ShaggyDogStory Now the 'IRL' name is history too, and the series is officially the "NTT IndyCar Series"]], a series [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks contested between US and non-US drivers on oval, street and road courses.]]

However, in 1997, George and IRL announced new technical regulations and commissioned new car and engine designs [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem effectively outlawing CART-spec cars from competing at Indy]]. The impasse remained from 1997 to 1999 as few CART teams were inclined to invest in new cars purely for one race. In 2000 however, CART champions Target Chip Ganassi Racing did purchase cars, entered Indy and CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya, and won the race with him - the first time since 1966 a rookie had won. The following year, the CART Penske juggernaut followed suit and won with another first-timer, Helio Castroneves. Although the crushing superiority of Montoya and Castroneves's wins were somewhat embarrassing for the IRL teams, they were something of a PyrrhicVictory for CART, as the IRL held the one card the CART series couldn't: the Indianapolis 500. The tradition and prestige of Indy completely overshadowed everything else and CART's leading teams, Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti, found it increasingly difficult to justify staying away from the big race to their sponsors. Eventually, they bowed to the pressure and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandoned the series for IRL.]]

Now on the decline, CART began to get desperate. Trying to outdo IRL with a race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001, [[ThreatBackfire they found that the new overwhelming performance of the cars led to many drivers coming close to blacking out under the extreme g-forces imposed.]] Forced by the series doctors to cancel the race for medical reasons, CART took a huge blow in prestige, which was then compounded when a row over engine rules resulted in key engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota defecting to IRL. CART wound up filing for bankruptcy, but instead of throwing in the towel completely, the handful of fiercely anti-IRL CART owners who refused to jump tried to pick up the pieces in 2003 by reirganizing under as the Champ Car World Series, but it never really got much traction, and was overshadowed by the IRL, which benefited from not just the team defections, but also the rise of a new crop of young drivers, most notably the photogenic Danica Patrick.

Finally giving up the ghost, the Champ Car World Series was finally bought out by IRL after the 2007 season, with the ex-Champ Car teams that joined basically given free [=IndyCar=]-spec cars as enticement. The 2008 IndyCar schedule included a pair of races that had been Champ Car races before that (and others would be added later).

This led to a very interesting (and complicated) weekend. One of the races the IRL picked up was the Grand Prix of Long Beach in California, which had basically become CART/Champ Car's flagship event. Being a race on a street course (which involves a lot of prep work and scheduled disruption for the host city) it couldn't be moved off the weekend Champ Car had already scheduled it. However, IndyCar had already scheduled a race that weekend... in Japan (it was the hometown race for Honda, which was the sole engine supplier at the time). Considering the logistics involved of shipping the cars and everything to Japan, it couldn't be rescheduled, either. So they ran both, with teams that had been in the IRL in 2007 going to Japan as originally scheduled, while the ex-Champ Car teams would race at Long Beach, with both races awarding equal points. The Long Beach race was positioned as the last ever Champ Car race, even using the last Champ Car model cars from the year before. It would have been a memorable send-off. Except it was overshadowed by Danica Patrick messing her first win in Japan just hours before.

CART, outraged, filed a lawsuit in 1996, which ultimately ended in a settlement and the legality of the new series. In response they created a race called the "US 500" to be run at Michigan International Speedway the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500. The US 500 was touted as the 'real' 500 where CART teams would show their technical superiority to the "CART rejects series". [[BackstabBackfire However, this boast backfired]] when, in the very first US 500 race, the front row drivers collided on the formation lap -- leading to a multi-car pileup before the race even began and a major delay while backup cars were prepared to restart it. Meanwhile at Indianapolis, in addition to Dutch star Arie Luyendyk setting both the track and qualifying records - 237.498mph and 236.986mph, respectively - the race ran smoothly (although qualifying had been tragically marred by the death of veteran driver Scott Brayton) but was severely lacking in star-power and was won by by a relatively unknown driver (Buddy Lazier, who had been a makeweight in previous races)[[note]]The biggest name in the race was Tony Stewart, who later became a 3 time champion... in NASCAR[[/note]]. Most pundits observed that for all intents and purposes neither side had really "won" anything and that some kind of peace deal was urgently needed. The US 500 was never run on Memorial Day Weekend again. It was moved to July for the three following years, taking up Michigan's usual July date on the CART calendar. Michigan kept its July date for 1996, in addition to the U.S. 500, meaning CART raced there twice that year, which wasn't unusual as CART did so during most of the 70s and 80s, though the second race was always a much shorter distance than the first; in '96, both races were 500 miles; the July '96 race was infamous for Emerson Fittipaldi's [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending crash and subsequent injury]], then the US 500 name was abandoned.

Now on the decline, CART began to get desperate. Trying to outdo IRL with a race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001, [[ThreatBackfire they found that the new overwhelming performance of the cars led to many drivers coming close to blacking out under the extreme g-forces imposed.]] Forced by the series doctors to cancel the race for medical reasons, CART took a huge blow in prestige, which was then compounded when a row over engine rules resulted in key engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota defecting to IRL. CART tried to pick up the pieces in 2003 by reforming under the name [[BrandNamesAreBetter "Bridgestone Presents]] The Champ Car World Series [[{{Dualvertisement}} Powered by Ford]] (Champ Car)." After declaring bankruptcy in 2003 and again in 2008, Champ Car was finally bought out by IRL.

In the final twist of the saga, George was voted out of his position at the head of the series by his own sisters, allegedly angry at the amount of family money that had been spent over the years, and a new boss was brought in (Randy Bernard, a former head of Professional Bull Riders). Bernard was however fired after the 2012 season and he was replaced by Mark Miles, a former tennis promoter. [[ShaggyDogStory Now the 'IRL' name is largely history too, and the series is officially the 'NTT IndyCar Series']], a series [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks contested between US and non-US drivers on oval, street and road courses.]]

CART, outraged, filed a lawsuit in 1996, which ultimately ended in a settlement and the legality of the new series. In response they created a race called the "US 500" to be run at Michigan International Speedway the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500. The US 500 was touted as the 'real' 500 where CART teams would show their technical superiority to the "CART rejects series". [[BackstabBackfire However, this boast backfired]] when, in the very first US 500 race, the front row drivers collided on the formation lap -- leading to a multi-car pileup before the race even began and a major delay while backup cars were prepared to restart it. Meanwhile at Indianapolis, in addition to Dutch star Arie Luyendyk setting both the track and qualifying records - 237.498mph and 236.986mph, respectively - the race ran smoothly (although qualifying had been tragically marred by the death of veteran driver Scott Brayton) but was severely [[TheOtherDarrin lacking in star-power]] and was won by by a relatively unknown driver (Buddy Lazier, who had been a makeweight in previous races)[[note]]The biggest name in the race was Tony Stewart, who later became a 3 time champion... in NASCAR[[/note]]. Most pundits observed that for all intents and purposes neither side had really "won" anything and that some kind of peace deal was urgently needed. The US 500 was never run on Memorial Day Weekend again. It was moved to July for the three following years, taking up Michigan's usual July date on the CART calendar. Michigan kept its July date for 1996, in addition to the U.S. 500, meaning CART raced there twice that year, which wasn't unusual as CART did so during most of the 70s and 80s, though the second race was always a much shorter distance than the first; in '96, both races were 500 miles; the July '96 race was infamous for Emerson Fittipaldi's [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending crash and subsequent injury]], then the US 500 name was abandoned.

* ''Alexander Rossi'' - American. The former F1 driver for Manor came to [=IndyCar=] while being held on as Manor's reserve. After winning the Indy 500 in his first attempt and second oval race ''ever'', he became more well known, and even rejected the offer to return to Manor after Rio Harayanto was removed due to sponsorship troubles. Rossi's career has exploded after his maiden 500 win, contesting for the championship in the years after. He also competed in the 30th season of ''Series/TheAmazingRace''.

* ''Conor Daly '' - American. Mainly drives Carpenter's #21 car on road courses, but with Carlin on ovals. He had bounced around several teams, including Andretti, Coyne and Foyt. He also raced in a few [=GP3=] and [=GP2=] races, winning two races in the former. Son of F1 driver Derek Daly and stepson of IMS president Doug Boles. He competed on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' with Alex Rossi.

The series is named for the annual UsefulNotes/{{Indianapolis}} 500, [[OlderThanRadio which has been hosted every year since 1911]] (with the exception of during World Wars I and II). The cars are open-wheel, open cockpit single seaters, very similar to UsefulNotes/FormulaOne, although the differences between the two are many.[[note]]Specifically, Indycars are much less technologically advanced than F1 cars, lacking assists like power steering and traction control, and they also all share the same chassis.[[/note]][=IndyCar,=] once the pinnacle of American motorsports, has slowly declined in ratings and popularity over the past 25 years as UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} became popular for its wild, down-to-earth appeal. Even today, the Indianapolis 500, the crown jewel in the series schedule, is normally [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed in the ratings by just about any NASCAR race during the year.]][[note]]With special mention to the Coca-Cola 600, which NASCAR runs in primetime on the same day as the 500.[[/note]] The Indy 500 is still, however, the largest single-day sporting event on the planet in terms of live attendance. Yes, even bigger than the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl. Permanent seating capacity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is just over a quarter of a million seats, which alone makes it the highest capacity sports venue in the world, but with extra infield capacity that's put into place for Raceday, attendance of the annual event routinely tops 400,000.

The reason for the decline stems from a split within the series in 1979. Back then, the United States Automobile Club (USAC) had organized and run the Indianapolis 500 as well as other American championship car races since 1956 (when the original sanctioning body, the American Automobile Association - yes, the same stranded-by-the-side-of-the-road AAA today - withdrew from motorsport management). However, many prolific team owners such as Dan Gurney, Roger Penske, and U.E. "Pat" Patrick had long disagreed with USAC due to alleged ineptitude on the organization's part. As a result, they formed Championship Auto Racing Teams, (CART) which was founded as an advocacy group to keep USAC in check. However, such an agreement was flat-out denied by USAC bigwigs, which then led to CART becoming its own breakaway series. After several years of legal battling, USAC finally allowed the Indianapolis 500 to be part of the CART calendar, and all was good. CART enjoyed immense success in America as drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, and Nigel Mansell, coming off of highly successful Formula One drives, touted its competitiveness. The series was once considered to be on par with F1 for that reason along with the fact that it was starting to struggle competitiveness and racing wise, but also because small backmarker teams were starting to drop like flies, and political tensions involving both drivers and series managers were heating up.

* ''Josef Newgarden'' - American. The 2017 Champion didn't have a really strong start to his career with Sarah Fisher Racing having replaced Ed Carpenter, but in his fourth year won his first race. He became teammates with the driver who replaced him at the now-Ed Carpenter Racing before showing that he could be a championship contender in 2016; he was signed by Penske in 2017 to replace the aging Juan Pablo Montoya. In his first season with Penske (in stark contrast to Pagenaud's 2015) he wins the championship in one of the most competitive seasons of the series. In 2019, he managed to fend off Pagenaud and Rossi to win his second championship [[Main/DownToTheLastPlay by less than 50 points]].

* ''Will Power'' - Australian. Mr. AwesomeMcCoolName. His successes on road courses are balanced by his struggles on ovals, usually due to outside circumstances. He's always competing for the title, but his failure to get results on oval tracks means that he kept losing to the more consistent Dario Franchitti, until he finally pulled it off in 2014, beating his own teammate Helio Castroneves, for the championship. Somewhat [[SixthRanger incidentally]] got his ride with Team Penske. Got over his EveryYearTheyFizzleOut reputation at the Indy 500 by winning in 2018 in his 11th attempt, and became NotSoStoic in Victory Lane with one of the more OTT celebratory yells in recent memory.

CART, outraged, filed a lawsuit in 1996, which ultimately ended in a settlement and the legality of the new series. In response they created a race called the "US 500" to be run at Michigan International Speedway the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500. The US 500 was touted as the 'real' 500 where CART teams would show their technical superiority to the "CART rejects series". [[BackstabBackfire However, this boast backfired]] when, in the very first US 500 race, the front row drivers collided on the formation lap -- leading to a multi-car pileup before the race even began and a major delay while backup cars were prepared to restart it. Meanwhile at Indianapolis, in addition to Dutch star Arie Luyendyk setting both the track and qualifying records - 237.498mph and 236.986mph, respectively - the race ran smoothly (although qualifying had been tragically marred by the death of veteran driver Scott Brayton) but was severely [[TheOtherDarrin lacking in star-power]] and was won by by a relatively unknown driver (Buddy Lazier, who had been a makeweight in previous races). Most pundits observed that for all intents and purposes neither side had really "won" anything and that some kind of peace deal was urgently needed. The US 500 was never run on Memorial Day Weekend again. It was moved to July for the three following years, taking up Michigan's usual July date on the CART calendar. Michigan kept its July date for 1996, in addition to the U.S. 500, meaning CART raced there twice that year, which wasn't unusual as CART did so during most of the 70s and 80s, though the second race was always a much shorter distance than the first; in '96, both races were 500 miles; the July '96 race was infamous for Emerson Fittipaldi's [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending crash and subsequent injury]], then the US 500 name was abandoned.

* ''Ryan Hunter-Reay'' - American. Often a midfielder during his early CART/CCWS and [=IndyCar=] career until he won the series championship in 2012, a year after technically failing to qualify for Indianapolis. 2013 started out pretty well too, and in 2014 he won Indy.

* ''James Hinchcliffe'' - Canadian. The "mayor of Hinchtown" is a longtime fan favorite due to his outgoing, friendly nature, although he has struggled to post decent results as of late.

* ''Romain Grosjean'' - Swiss-French. Toiled for several years in F1 with perennial backmarker team Haas; after an ''extremely'' scary-looking crash in November 2020, in which his car broke in half and erupted into a giant fireball (which he miraculously survived with only minor injuries), he decided he'd had enough and made the jump to [=IndyCar=]. Has surpassed most people's expectations, with a pole and several podium finishes to his name thus far.

* ''Marcus Ericsson'' - Swedish. An F1 mainstay for 5 years prior, he left the perpetually struggling Sauber team and took Robert Wickens' seat after his massive accident at Pocono that left him partially paralyzed. Had a jaw-dropping performance at Nashville in which he rear-ended Sebastian Bourdais, launching his car into the air...and still somehow managed to win the race.