IndyCar, known formally and officially as the NTT IndyCar Series as of 2019, is perhaps the greatest racing series in the United States...that everyone forgot.
The series is named for the annual Indianapolis 500, 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 Formula One, although the differences between the two are many.note IndyCar, once the pinnacle of American motorsports, has slowly declined in ratings and popularity over the past 25 years as NASCAR became popular for its wild, down-to-earth appeal. Even today, the Indianapolis 500, the crown jewel in the series schedule, is normally overshadowed in the ratings by just about any NASCAR race during the year.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 Super Bowl. 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 Auto 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.
But then, things changed.
In 1994, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George became dissatisfied with CART's arbitrary rules (CART was often accused of changing rules to benefit certain teams), escalating costs (which squeezed out small teams similar to F1), lack of American driver presence (only 10 Americans raced in 1995), and increasing emphasis on road course racing. In response, he teamed up with USAC and created the Indy Racing League (IRL), using the Indianapolis 500 as leverage to get the series off the ground. IRL was created to be a cheaper, all-oval, all-American alternative to CART, and George enforced it by in 1997 allowing the top 25 drivers in his series a guaranteed spot in the Indianapolis 500, leaving only eight spots on the grid to CART regulars. This so-called "25/8" rule was very controversial as it was the first time since the Indy 500 began that the race would not necessarily start the fastest qualifying cars.
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". 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 . 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 career-ending crash.)
However, in 1997, George and IRL announced new technical regulations and commissioned new car and engine designs 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 Pyrrhic Victory for CART, as the IRL held the one card the CART series never could: 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 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, 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 trio of fiercely anti-IRL CART owners who refused to jump tried to pick up the pieces in 2003 by outbidding the IRL for CART's assets in court and reorganizing 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, formally being sanctioned by Champ Car, and even using the last Champ Car spec vehicles from the year before. (Which many have said were superior cars anyway. Heck, there are those who say they're still better than the cars now in use a decade and a half later.) It would have been a memorable send-off. Except it was overshadowed by Danica Patrick getting her first win in Japan just hours before.
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. The "IRL" name is history too. George had wanted to use the IndyCar name from the start, but CART had trademarked it, and by agreement it didn't become available to George until 2003—the same year that CART went under and Champ Car replaced it. The series is now, that is to sponsorship, officially the "NTT Indy Car Series", a series contested between US and non-US drivers on oval, street and road courses, meaning it looks more like pre-split CART than the all-American oval series George envisioned.
The 2012 season saw the introduction of a newer formula car, tested by double Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon. Tragically, Wheldon was killed in the last race for the car that dated back to 2003 at the finale of 2011. This race saw 34 entries (one more than the Indy 500) and was held on the 1.5 mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A large number of cars bunched together on the relatively short track led quickly to an appalling case of Disaster Dominoes where one car clipped another, which hit another, which hit another, while other cars were hitting each other trying to avoid the earlier ones. Though there had been big pile-ups before (perhaps the worst example of this was in the 1966 Indy 500, where eleven cars were involved in a pileup just before the green flag) this crash left the track looking like a warzone and the race was canceled, making for a tragic coda to the "IRL" age. Fortunately, the DW12 car (named in tribute after Wheldon's initials) has proven to be racier and less prone to pack racing as it's predecessor, though its rather awkward looks drew derision from many fans. In 2018, the car was given an Adrenaline Makeover facelift. The chassis is the same underneath, but there was a raft of bodywork changes designed to improve overtaking by increasing downforce from the underfloor and reducing it from the wings. Removing the manufacturer-specific body kits reduced costs - especially helpful to small teams - and the controversial rear wheel guards were removed, as they were deemed ineffective as safety devices and a needless source of potentially dangerous debris. The car was also made to look sleeker by replacing the airbox with a roll hoop and lengthening the sidepods. The last was also deliberate retro nostalgia Fanservice by recreating the fan-favorite 1990s CART-era car aesthetics.
In late 2019, business tycoon and longtime team owner Roger Penske made a deal to buy the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the Hulman-George family. With his deep pockets and long record of fielding championship-winning race teams, most fans are optimistic that Penske will increase the series' visibility and popularity. The year 2020 also saw the debut of the new "Aeroscreen", designed to protect the drivers better. The aeroscreen initially had a lukewarm reception because of how it looks from the front, but two incidents in a single race
at Iowa Speedway changed all that. The same year, the Indy 500 was run without fans and in August for the first time because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Scott Dixon - New Zealander. A force to be reckoned with on the track. An IndyCar legend with 6 championships (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2020), known for aggressive driving early in his career. Most agree, though, that he is a contender, even with a slower car. After a frustrating title defense in 2019, Dixon came back with a vengeance to dominate an abbreviated 2020 season.
- 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. Won the 2022 Indy 500.
- Alex Palou - Spanish. After an unremarkable rookie season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2020, Palou moved to Ganassi and became the Breakout Character of the 2021 season, notching a win in his very first start with the team, finishing 2nd in the Indy 500, and ultimately winning the championship.
- Jimmie Johnson - American. A seven-time NASCAR champion with 83 victories. The Californian announced his interest in driving in IndyCar for 2021 and had several promising tests in 2020. Johnson stated he planned to only run the road courses in 2021, with Ganassi bringing in veteran Tony Kanaan for the ovals. In 2022, Johnson will run the entire schedule, with Kanaan only racing in the Indy 500.
Team Penske: - Chevrolet
- Will Power - Australian. 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 incidentally got his ride with Team Penske. Got over his Every Year They Fizzle Out reputation at the Indy 500 by winning in 2018 in his 11th attempt, and became Not So Stoic in Victory Lane with one of the more OTT celebratory yells in recent memory.
- 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 by less than 50 points. Finally won the 500 in 2023.
- Scott McLaughlin - New Zealander. A 3-time Australian Supercars champion, all having been won with Penske’s Supercars team, McLaughlin initially joined the IndyCar team as a guest driver during the sport's iRacing events in early 2020 (along with having taken part in IndyCar’s spring training at the beginning of the year), and was announced to be joining the team in real life on a permanent basis for the final event of the 2020 season. Notably, IndyCar is the first high-level open-wheel series he has competed in, having developed his craft in touring cars.
Andretti Autosport/Andretti-Herta Autosport: - Honda
- Marco Andretti - American. Has never won either a championship or an Indy 500, despite his famous name. Of course, following in the footsteps of your legendary father and grandfather must be no easy feat, considering many people believe he's cursed. He tried to lift it by switching his number from 27 to 98 (his old number went to Alexander Rossi, who would become a standout driver) from 2018 on. He won the Indy 500 pole in 2020, 33 years after his grandfather, Mario, last won the pole, but failed to convert it into a win, ultimately finishing 13th. Competed only in the Indy 500 in 2021 to focus on other interests.
- 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. Now retired.
- 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 The Amazing Race with Conor Daly.
- 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. Now retired.
- 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. Took over Hunter-Reay's ride in 2022.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: - Honda
- Graham Rahal - American. The Wild Card. Because his successful father refuses to let him ride on his coattails, Rahal is known for signing with many teams simply so he can race (In 2010, he raced with four different teams). However, when he does race, he is extremely competitive. His first career race was a Second Episode Introduction in 2008 at St. Petersburg and an instant win.
- Takuma Sato - Japanese. The Klutz. After a mildly successful F1 career from 2002-2008 that saw him take one podium, he arrived in IndyCar and at first didn't do much better. 2011 was one accident after another on the track for him, but he has enough raw speed and talent to be as competitive here as when he was in F1. In 2012, he spun out on the final lap of the Indy 500 trying to overtake for the lead. Odd Couple pairing with Foyt has worked well in 2013, giving Sato his first career win and Foyt his first win as an owner in over a decade. Things only got better with his win at the 2017 Indy 500 with Andretti. Joined Rahal due to a risk that Andretti would switch engines for 2018, in which case he wouldn't be allowed to drive (due to being personally backed by Honda). He won another 500 in 2020 after an accident caused it to end under caution.
- Jack Harvey - British. After driving in Formula BMW, British Formula 3, and GP3 (winning a season championship in British F3), he moved across The Pond and finished second overall in Indy Lights in 2014 and 2015. After running part-time in IndyCar starting in 2017, he became a full-timer in 2020, mainly finishing in the mid-pack. Moved from Meyer Shank to RLL Racing in 2022.
- Christian Lundgaard - Danish. Arrived in IndyCar from Formula Two in 2022.
A.J. Foyt Racing: - Chevrolet
- Sébastien Bourdais - French. After winning four straight Champ Car championships, he was Put on a Bus and left for Formula One. His failure there meant that for the 2011 season, he was back. His time with KV Racing saw him get 4 wins, but after 2016 the team folded. His new seat with Coyne in '17 saw him win the season-opening race in St. Pete, and 2nd at Long Beach, and a respectable 8th at Barber before his luck turned on him, with two DNFs and a horrific crash in Indy 500 qualifying (with the fastest time) that took him out for most of the season. With top 10s in his return, there is a feeling of [1] if he didn't have that crash. Left the series after the 2021 season to concentrate on sports car racing, but left the door open to run that year's Indy 500.
- Kyle Kirkwood – American. Arrived in IndyCar in 2022 off enormous success in various developmental series, winning the F4 United States championship in 2017, the F3 Americas and USF2000 series in 2018, the Indy Pro 2000 series in 2019, and Indy Lights in 2021. The last of these made him the first driver to win series titles in all all three series that IndyCar calls the "Road to Indy"—USF2000, Indy Pro, and Indy Lights.
- Dalton Kellett - Canadian. Far from the fastest driver in the field, to say the least, but brings a lucrative sponsorship from his father's company that helps keep the team afloat.
- Tatiana Calderón - Colombian. A karting champion in her homeland as a teenager, she graduated to various developmental series around the world, enjoying moderate success, and also served as a test driver for Alfa Romeo's F1 team from 2019–2021. Arrived in IndyCar in 2022, where she'll race the road and street courses, skipping the ovals. Much like Kellett, she brings solid sponsorship money; her parents run a Kia dealership in Bogotá.
Dale Coyne Racing: - Honda
- Ed Jones - Emirati.note Another journeyman driver, Jones impressed everyone with a third-place finish in the 2017 Indy 500 and continues to seek similar results once again.
Arrow McLaren SP - Honda
- Patricio "Pato" O'Ward - Mexican. 2018 Indy Lights champion. After running a partial schedule in 2019, he signed to race full-time with SP for 2020—a move that ruffled a few feathers, as it left James Hinchcliffe without a full-time ride that season. However, he has shown a lot of promise, finally scoring his first series wins in 2021.
- Felix Rosenqvist - Swedish. Replaced the removed Ed Jones, came from Formula E after finishing 6th in the championship. Very fast and consistent, he's even challenged Scott Dixon for the win. Announced as the replacement for Indy Lights champ Oliver Askew at Arrow McLaren.
Ed Carpenter Racing: - Chevrolet
- Ed Carpenter - American. Currently the only driver/owner in the series. While he's admittedly lackluster on road and street circuits, he's made up for it on ovals, giving Sarah Fisher her first win (as either an owner or driver) at Kentucky in 2011, following it up with a win for his own team at Fontana in 2012, then the Indy 500 pole in 2013. Retired from road and street circuits after 2013, he was joined by Mike Conway until 2015.
- 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 the 30th season of The Amazing Race with Alex Rossi.
Carlin: - Chevrolet
- Max Chilton - British. After leaving F1 following a stint with Marussia, he came to Indy Lights for a season with Carlin in 2015 (which was joining the Lights series at the time and was partially owned by Max's father). He raced with Ganassi for his first two seasons, getting an impressive 4th at the 2017 Indy 500, before moving to Carlin, who was moving up, taking his sponsorship and teammate Kimball with him.
- Conor Daly - American. See his entry under Ed Carpenter Racing.
Harding-Steinbrenner Racing: - Honda
- Colton Herta - American. The best and brightest young star of the series. Finished 2nd in Indy Lights in 2018, and became the youngest ever winner of the series in 2019 at Circuit of the Americas, at just 18 years and 360 days. His team is supported by Andretti, allowing him to consistently be a frontrunner. Has achieved some stellar results throughout the season, and he'll be a championship contender in the years to come.
Meyer Shank Racing: - Honda
- Hélio Castroneves - Brazilian. One of the most decorated IndyCar drivers ever, having claimed pretty much every prize possible in the sport... except a series title. Was a fixture with Team Penske for nearly 20 years, but was shunted off to its sports car program, and then let go completely after winning the 2020 IMSA series title when Roger Penske shut down the sports car program. Signed with Meyer Shank as a part-timer, initially planning to run in the 2021 oval races but ending up only running the Indy 500. He made the most of it, winning his record-tying fourth 500 in 2021. Also a season winner of Dancing with the Stars. Known as Spider-Man for his victory celebration of climbing the catch fence. Yes, he was still capable of doing it at age 46. Returned full-time to the series in 2022.
- Simon Pagenaud - French. A similar case to fellow Frenchman Bourdais, Pagenaud raced in Champ Car with Team Australia before going to the WEC in LMP1. He returned part-time in 2011 before joining Schmidt-Hamilton in 2012. With three championship top 5s, he was picked up by Penske, where he would have his worst season yet(11th). However, he rebounded by winning the Astor Cup in 2016. He would win his first Indy 500 in 2019, with the icing on the cake being winning the Indy Grand Prix on the infield road course before winning the 500 from the pole. Left Team Penske after the 2021 season and joined Meyer Shank.
