 | |
| Sport | Auto Racing |
|---|---|
| Category | Open-wheel cars |
| Jurisdiction |  United States Canada |
| Founded | 1911[1] |
| Affiliation | ACCUS-FIA |
| Affiliation date | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| President | Doug Boles |
| CEO | Mark Miles |
| Official website | |
| indycar | |
IndyCar, LLC (stylized asINDYCAR), is anauto racingsanctioning body forAmerican open-wheel car racing headquartered inIndianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions tworacing series: the premierIndyCar Series with theIndianapolis 500 as its centerpiece, and the developmental seriesIndy NXT. IndyCar is recognized as amember organization of theFIA through theAutomobile Competition Committee for the United States.
The sanctioning body was formed in 1994 under the nameIndy Racing League byHulman & Company, which also owned theIndianapolis Motor Speedway complex, and began competition in1996. The trademark nameINDYCAR was officially adopted on January 1, 2011. The sport of open-wheel car racing, also historically referred to as championship car racing or Indy car racing, traces its roots to as early as 1905. It is the fourth major sanctioning body to govern the sport of Indy car racing, following theAmerican Automobile Association'sAAA Contest Board, theUnited States Auto Club (USAC), andChampionship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and operated alongside theChamp Car World Series before acquiring the latter.
Today, IndyCar is owned byRoger Penske via Penske Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary ofPenske Corporation. Penske purchased IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Hulman & Co. in November 2019.[2]
The term "Indy car" began as a nickname for the cars that competed in the USAC's Championship Division ofopen-wheel racing in the United States, deriving from the sport's most popular competition, theIndianapolis 500. The division's link with Indianapolis soon resulted in the term surpassing the official term "championship car" (or its short form "champ car") in common use and promotions.
The term continued to be used by the USAC's replacement as the dominant governing body for open-wheel racing, CART, which called its main series the "CART PPG Indy Car World Series" despite the body not sanctioning the 500. In 1992, during an attempt by CART to broaden their board membership, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway registered thecamel case trademarkIndyCar with theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office and licensed it to CART as their new trade name.
In 1996, Indianapolis Motor Speedway PresidentTony George launched a new national championship racing series, theIndy Racing League. This resulted in a legal battle over theIndyCar trademark: In March 1996, CART filed alawsuit against the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an effort to protect their license to theIndyCar mark after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had attempted to terminate it.[3] In April, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway filed a separate lawsuit against CART to prevent them from further use of the mark.
Eventually a settlement was reached in which CART agreed to give up the use of theIndyCar mark following the 1996 season and the IRL agreed not to use the name before the end of the 2002 season.[4] CART returned to branding as simply CART for 1997, and resurrected the term "champ car" to describe their vehicles.
Following a six-year hiatus, the Indy Racing League announced it would rename their premier series the IndyCar Series for the 2003 racing season. CART, beset by team departures and other financial issues, filed for bankruptcy that year; a trio of former CART team owners were selected by the bankruptcy court to purchase CART's assets, which they used to reorganize theChamp Car World Series. The two series were unified for the 2008 season, with the unified series using the IndyCar Series name.
Post-unification, a heavy emphasis has been placed on deemphasizing the IRL name and replacing it with "IndyCar". This became official on January 1, 2011, as Indy Racing League LLC adopted as itstrade name INDYCAR. On November 1, 2013, the company's legal name was changed to INDYCAR LLC.[5]
The dispute between CART and IRL centered on the Indianapolis 500, long considered the flagship race of the sport. From 1980 until 1995, USAC continued to sanction the Indy 500, although CART drivers predominantly competed in the race and points that drivers scored during the event counted towards the CART drivers' championship. George felt that his opinions regarding increasing costs and revenue sharing were being ignored, while CART team owners felt George used his influence over USAC to have a disproportionate impact on the general operation of the sport.
After a number of attempts at a compromise board failed, IMS formed the Indy Racing League in1994, with the series being slated to begin racing in1996. CART had primarily sanctioned Indy car racing since1979, when the organization broke away from USAC. George blueprinted the IRL as a lower-cost open-wheel alternative to CART, which in his view had become technology-driven and dominated by a few wealthy multi-car teams. The IRL was designed only to run on oval tracks, in order to promote American drivers from the midget and sprint car ranks to graduate to IndyCar racing, the same way that IndyCar legendsA.J. Foyt,Mario Andretti,Johnny Rutherford, and the Unsers (Al Unser, Sr. andBobby Unser) had in the 1960s.
Starting with the first IRL season, the league proclaimed that 25 of the 33 spots in the Indy 500 starting grid would be reserved for cars from full-time IRL teams.[6] In 1996, CART retaliated by scheduling what was supposed to become its new showcase event, theU.S. 500, atMichigan International Speedway onMemorial Day, the traditional date for the Indy 500.
The new 1997 technical rules featured less expensive chassis and "production-based" engines that were purchased rather than leased, but most importantly, were technically incompatible with CART specifications. The IRL's early seasons consisted of sparse schedules and inexperienced teams, with the degradation in quality especially apparent during the Indianapolis 500, which saw a dramatic decline in prestige.
The IRL began to draw top teams from CART starting in 2002, contributing to the latter'sbankruptcy, replacement by the Champ Car World Series in 2003,[7] and ultimate demise and absorption by the IRL in 2008.
After absorbing Champ Car, the IndyCar Series became what the CART series from which it separated was and its related European open-wheelformula counterparts: former prominent CART teams such asChip Ganassi Racing andTeam Penske are frequent race winners, there is a strong contingent of foreign-born drivers, the cars are increasingly electronic and aero dependent and the schedule includes more road and street courses than oval tracks.
On January 23, 2008,Tony George offered Champ Car management a proposal that included free cars and engine leases to Champ Car teams willing to run the entire 2008 IndyCar Series schedule in exchange for adding Champ Car's dates atLong Beach,Toronto,Edmonton, andAustralia to the IndyCar Series schedule, effectively reunitingAmerican open-wheel car racing.[8] The offer was initially made in November 2007.[8] On February 10, 2008, Tony George, along with IRL representatives Terry Angstadt andBrian Barnhart, plus formerHonda executive Robert Clarke, traveled toJapan to discuss moving theIndy Japan 300 atTwin Ring Motegi.[9] Moving that race, or postponing it, would be required in order to accommodate theLong Beach Grand Prix, which was scheduled for the same weekend.[9] Optimism following the meeting was high.[10]
In February 2008, Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George and owners of the Champ Car World Series completed an agreement to unify the sport for 2008.[11] The result was that the Champ Car World Series was suspended except for theLong Beach Grand Prix. Many of the former Champ Car teams moved to the IndyCar Series using equipment provided by the IRL.
Randy Bernard was announced as the new IRL CEO in February 2010.[12] In 2011, the sanctioning body dropped the Indy Racing League name, becoming IndyCar to reflect the merged series. The newDallara DW12 race car was introduced for the 2012 season. IndyCar collaborated withDreamWorks Animation to launch comedy filmTurbo in 2013. Bernard was fired in October 2012, and replaced byMark Miles.
Driver safety has also been a major point of concern, with a number of drivers seriously injured, particularly in the early years of the series. There have been five fatal crashes in the history of the series. Compared toroad racing venues, the lack of run-offs on oval tracks, coupled with higher speeds due to the long straights and banked turns, means that there is far less margin for error. Car design was attributed as a leading cause of early injuries, and the series made improvements to chassis design to address those safety concerns. Following a series of spectacular high-profile accidents in2003, including American racing legendMario Andretti and former championKenny Bräck, as well as the death ofTony Renna in testing at Indianapolis, the IRL made additional changes to reduce speeds and increase safety.
IndyCar was the first racing series to adopt theSAFER soft wall safety system, which debuted at the Indianapolis 500 and has now been installed at almost all major oval racing circuits. The SAFER system research and design was supported and funded in large part by the Hulman-George family and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.[13][14]
Scott Brayton – (May 17, 1996),1996 Indianapolis 500 practice session.Tony Renna – (October 22, 2003), Firestone private testing session.Paul Dana – (March 26, 2006),2006 Toyota Indy 300 practice session.
Dan Wheldon – (October 16, 2011),2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship.Justin Wilson – (August 24, 2015),2015 ABC Supply 500.[15]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Entertainment | |
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