User:Rocks with Salt/sandbox

=Notable IndyCar/CART/Champ Car races= 1996-97 season]] with no sponsors on his car and was forced to take out a second mortgage on his house in order to buy a new chassis and keep racing. In a bizarre race filled with crashes and multiple oil leaks, Guthrie was able to conserve his fuel in his unsponsored car and take an improbable underdog win, earning enough money to pay off his debts and gaining enough notoriety to gain a sponsor to keep racing for the rest of the season.
 * 2002 Michigan Indy 400: Team Cheever rookie Tomas Scheckter gets his first IndyCar win after a season full of crashes and poor results. Due to contractual obligations, team boss/driver Eddie Cheever was forced to start Scheckter despite the open secret that he would be replaced by fellow rookie Buddy Rice after the race at Kentucky. After a poor pit stop dropped him to 13th place with twenty five laps to go, Scheckter fought his way back to the lead with Rice behind him in second, while Cheever crashed out near the end of the race.
 * 1997 Phoenix 200: Blueprint Racing owner/driver Jim Guthrie came into the [[1996-97 Indy Racing League|
 * 1997 Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200: Mark Blundell earns his and PacWest Racing's first win in a three-wide sprint to the checkered flag that became the closest finish on a road course in series history, pipping Gil de Ferran by 0.027 seconds and third-place Raul Boesel by 0.055 seconds.
 * 1993 Australian FAI IndyCar Grand Prix: Fresh off of winning the 1992 Formula One world championship, Nigel Mansell wins on debut for Newman/Haas Racing. Mansell would go on to win the CART title later that year.
 * 2008 Indy Japan 300: Danica Patrick becomes the first woman to win in American open-wheel competition.
 * 2003 Firestone Indy 400: In only his second race as a replacement driver at Mo Nunn Racing, Alex Barron edges Sam Hornish Jr. in a climactic finish after a race filled with record numbers of passes and pack racing.
 * 1996 Grand Prix of Monterey: Site of "The Pass" by Alex Zanardi over Bryan Herta.
 * 2015 MAVTV 500: Featuring a record eighty lead changes, blistering speeds, pack racing that resulted in cars going four-wide, and punctuated by a vicious last-lap crash by Ryan Hunter-Reay, many have called this race of one the most entertaining non-Indy 500 races of all time.
 * 2011 Kentucky Indy 300: In a battle of David and Goliath proportions, Ed Carpenter and Dario Franchitti dueled side-by-side lap after lap for a majority of the race while the field bunched up behind them. Although Franchitti, staying on the inside of Carpenter, frequently held the lead in the corners and on the back-straight, Carpenter used the outside lane to score himself as the official leader when the duo crossed the finish line. Through better push-to-pass management, Carpenter was able to inch ahead at the finish line for his first career win.
 * 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships: In a repeat of the previous year at Kentucky, Ed Carpenter and Dario Franchitti once again dueled for the majority of the race in a race filled with championship implications. Despite being the points leader going into the race, Will Power crashed early on, allowing Ryan Hunter-Reay to win the championship.

=Race results for teams w/o articles=

Davis Racing
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)

American Spirit Team Johansson Racing results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Indy Racing League results
(key)


 * 1) The 1999 VisionAire 500K at Charlotte was cancelled after 79 laps due to spectator fatalities.

=CART/IRL Split=

Background

 * By the 1990s, popularity in auto racing in general had been soaring since the 1970s. thanks to television.
 * Television brought sponsorship, including from tobacco companies.
 * Sponsorship and technology development = increasing costs for teams.
 * Increasing costs = decline in the number of privateer teams (common until the earl 80s) and decline in number of total cars.
 * CART and USAC had an uneasy truce since the early 80s. USAC still sanctioned the Indy 500, but for the most part complied to CART rules.
 * Dominance by turbocharged Chevy engines in the late 80s/early 90s plus their cost made racing harder to afford. Less and less teams are formed.

Seeds of break

 * 1991 concerns over CART organizational structure leads to talks between CART and USAC/IMS, with Tony George as the negotiator.
 * Talks break down, George files articles of incorporation in Feb 1992 for IndyCar.
 * Second round of talks in 1992 involving George break down again.
 * Finally a working agreement is announced in July 1992 that extended through 1993 with George as an advisor to the board.
 * November 1993 the working agreement fails and reverts back to the old way.
 * Jan 1994 George resigns.
 * Mar 1994 George announces a new racing series run by USAC/IMS: the IRL.

Prepping for war

 * Jun 1994 George announces engine standards
 * Jul 1994 board for IRL announced.
 * Aug 1994 USAC reduces engine boosts with the goal of getting rid of Mercedes 1994 Indy killer engine.
 * Aug 1994 Brickyard 400 is run for the first time.
 * Aug 1994 contract with ABC to broadcast IRL races and host the first IRL race at Walt Disney World.
 * Mar 1995 the proposed engine specs are put on hold.
 * Mar 1995 Phoenix Raceway brings total number of races to 3, with Las Vegas and New Hampshire in talks.
 * Jun 10 1995 CART releases it 1996 schedule, revealing conflicting dates with IRL races.
 * Jul 1995 George unveils the 25/8 rule, guaranteeing the first 25 slots to IRL cars.
 * Dec 18, 1995 CART announces plans to run U.S. 500 in direct competition to Indy 500.
 * Spring 1996 series of last-ditch meetings held to reunify the sport.
 * Accusations of Roger Penske sabotaging sponsorship deals with IRL.
 * Valvoline steps out, Pennzoil steps in for IRL.
 * March 1996 IMS pulls IndyCar trademark from CART. Lawsuit and countersuit begin.
 * IRL announces Dallara, G-Force and Riley & Scott as chassis designers.
 * David Letterman and Paul Newman explain their feelings on national television.

IRL begins operation; CART begins their 1995 season

 * Jan 1996 first IRL race at Walt Disney World.
 * CART announces sponsorships from multiple corporations.
 * Brief detail about Phoenix IRL race and first pre-U.S. 500 CART races
 * Concerns over the amount of rookie drivers during the month of May.
 * NASCAR feels the benefits of more focused sponsorships who reduce spending on CART/IRL.
 * Note sponsorship spending on NASCAR is higher than CART for the first time, but both dwarf IRL.

The Indy 500 and the U.S. 500

 * Embarrassing crash at Michigan takes out 12 cars and closes the track for an hour.
 * Indy 500 sees some crashes and death of polesitter Scott Brayton.
 * Compared to Vasser's wide margin of victory at Michigan, Lazier wins a tight race at Indy.

Post-Memorial Day

 * NASCAR's viewership numbers continued to climb, while CART/IRL were sinking fast.
 * IRL cuts short 1996 season and tacks on last two 1996 races to 1997 season.
 * Dec 1996 lawsuits over trademark settled; CART drops IndyCar and starts using "Champ Car." Neither side would be allowed to use the IndyCar name for seven years.
 * Feb 1997 Penske signals desire to race at Indy; George receptive to talks.
 * Jeff Krosnoff dies at Toronto.
 * Third race of 1997 season sees new IRL-spec chassis and engines for the first time.
 * 25/8 rule dropped from 1998 onward.
 * 1997 Indy 500 controversy sees 35 starters instead of the usual 33.
 * 1997 Indy 500 sees more controversy over the finish.
 * 1997 Texas race sees scoring mistakes that leads to IRL dropping USAC sanctioning.
 * Late 1997 George announces shortening month of May events.
 * 1998 both series announce new head sponsors.
 * March 1998 CART releases IPO, raking in immediate cash, buying Indy Lights series, and refilling war chest.
 * Include stats about NASCAR dominating viewing/Nielsen ratings.
 * CART realizes that lack of feeder series has resulted in a sport dominated by foreign non-American drivers, in contrast to IRL.
 * Talks between four engine companies and George go nowhere; ownership of engines remains sticking point.
 * 1999 revenue and viewership impacts start to hit hard.
 * Deals with racetracks approaching the end of their leases signed before the split, and many wonder where speedway owners will go.
 * Bad spectator figures lead to IRL dropping Dover and Pikes Peak.
 * Crash at Charlotte in 1999 kills three people. Another crash at Michigan kills more people.
 * 1999 Penske sells majority of his stock in CART. Speedway Corp. buys Michigan and Fontana from Penske, putting CART's future participation at those tracks in jeopardy.

Turn of the Millennium Sees New Challenges

 * Al Unser Jr. defects from CART to IRL.
 * Chip Ganassi races at Indy. Montoya wins the race.
 * Aug 2000 Mercedes announces withdrawing from CART.
 * CART fires CEO, hires Bobby Rahal, who announces he's going to Formula 1 after 2000.
 * IRL increases its advertising power.
 * Penske announces it will run at Indy. Castroneves wins.
 * 2001 CART season sees fiasco at Texas and controversy over popoff valve, sparking anger between Ford, Honda, and Toyota.
 * CART sees lawsuits from marketing corp and Speedway Corp over Texas race.
 * 2001 also sees loss of Indy Lights series and loss of FedEx sponsorship and risk of no TV contract for 2002 onward.
 * New TV contract much weaker than in years past.
 * Multiple teams, Toyota, and Honda defect after 2002.
 * End of 2001, Heitzler out, Pook in.
 * By mid 2002, CART's attempts to keep teams involved means a loss in stock prices and cash.
 * Forsythe swoops in and tries to gain influence over CART.

CART Goes Bankrupt; CCWS Steps In
=2001 Team Championship=

Race
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