IndyCar racing after reunification

 

Author's note: This article previously appeared in print in The Classic Racing Times. Subscribe to this fine auto racing history journal at http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com/subscribe

After the final Champ Car World Series (CCWS) event was held at Long Beach in April 2008, the 2008 major league American open-wheel racing season was held under the banner of the Indy Racing League. Big league open-wheel racing achieved peace after twenty-nine years of turmoil which began with the initial CART (Championship Auto Racing teams) split away from the United States Auto Club (USAC) in 1979.

One key factor in the successful reunification was the establishment of the TEAM (Team Enhancement and Allocation Matrix) system which encouraged race team’s full-time series participation.  Aside from the jewel of the series, the Indianapolis 500, individual race purses were eliminated and teams were scheduled to receive a minimum of $1.2 million for each car that completed the full IRL season schedule, supplement by “special cash bonuses” for the top five finishers in each race. 

One immediate improvement with the TEAM program for the reunited series was the increased car count. In 2007, the year prior to reunification, the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) and Indy Racing League (IRL) had averaged 17 cars at each event, but for 2008 the IRL series averaged over 27 cars at each of the fourteen North America venues except for the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

The 2008 IRL schedule was predominantly was dominated by oval track venue, a stark change from the 2007 CCWS schedule which had been comprised entirely of road and street courses. The 2008 IRL champion was Ganassi/Target Racing’s Scott Dixon who had started in the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) series in 2001, but who had competed in the IRL series since 2003.

Dixon was the fastest qualifier at seven races won four of those races from the pole position with a total of six wins on the season including the Indianapolis 500-mile race. The 2008 IRL championship runner-up Helio Castroneves from the other series powerhouse, Team Penske, had a remarkably consistent season with eight second-place finishes and five top-five finishes to go along with two wins.

The April 19-20 2008 “split weekend” occurred as the former CCWS teams raced at Long Beach in order to complete the CCWS series contract with the Long Beach Grand Prix organizers. Meanwhile the IRL teams raced at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan and history was made when a woman, Danica Patrick, won the first ever championship car race for her gender.

The 2009 IRL series schedule was largely unchanged with the loss of one venue, the street course on Belle Isle in Detroit, and Long Beach came into the IRL fold.   During the 2009 season there was final surprising victim of the second open wheel racing sanctioning civil war - Tony George the IRL ‘s founder.   In late June 2009 the Hulman & Company board that controls the IRL and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) largely comprised of his sisters and mother removed Tony George from his leadership roles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy Racing League. 

During the early years of IRL, series sponsorship did not appear to be a pressing priority and there was the public perception that due to the massive income derived from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the deep financial pockets of the family-controlled Hulman & Company provided an income cushion.  During the IRL series’ 1996 and 1997 seasons, the IRL had no presenting sponsor, then for the 1998 and 1999 seasons the series was known as the “Pep Boys Indy Racing League,” with sponsorship from the national auto parts and service chain. For the 2000 season, the series naming rights were sold to Northern Light, an internet search engine.

Although the Northern Light, agreement was set to run for five years, after two years Northern Light discontinued the public side of its business and dropped the sponsorship.  The IRL continued to operate without a presenting sponsor through the 2009 season, but in July 2009 the Hulman & Company board members’ reached the end of their rope regarding the ongoing losses which press reports later claimed totaled $600 million over 13 years. 

"Our board had asked Tony to structure our executive staff to create efficiencies in our business structure and to concentrate his leadership efforts in the Indy Racing League," said Mari Hulman George, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) chairman of the board and Tony’s mother, stated in a press release.  "He (Tony) has decided that with the recent unification of open-wheel racing and the experienced management team IMS has cultivated over the years, now would be the time for him to concentrate on his team ownership of Vision Racing with his family and other personal business interests he and his family share.” 

With Tony George removed from his leadership positions, he was replaced by Jeff G. Belskus as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Speedway while Terry Angstadt was promoted to head the commercial division of the IRL with Brian Barnhardt in charge of the competition division. 

The 2009 IRL racing season was again dominated by the Ganassi and Penske teams as between them the teams won 16 of the series’ 17 races. Ganassi captured the championship with driver Dario Franchitti followed by his teammate Scott Dixon, with Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves.

The 2010 IRL season saw four remarkable changes. First while the Indy Racing League continued as the name of the sanctioning body the series began to be called the IndyCar series.   In November 2009, it was announced that the men’s clothier brand IZOD would be the series' title sponsor for a five-year term beginning in 2010 with the IZOD title sponsorship deal worth $10 million per year according to journalist Robin Miller. The IZOD sponsorship the third title sponsor in the series' history, and the first since the departure of Northern Light in 2001 reportedly included the addition of $100,000 per car, per year for teams on the TEAM revenue-sharing program. 

The 2010 IRL season schedule began to shift away from the oval heavy mix off IRL’s early years, as the traditional post-Indianapolis date at the Milwaukee Mile was dropped along after years of problems with the promoter as well as the ¾-mile Richmond International Raceway date after the loss of SunTrust bank as the sponsor.  In addition to an overall series champion, IRL announced the establishment of the AJ Foyt Oval Championship and the Mario Andretti Road Course Champion. Unfortunately after several years these two championships which provided a connection to our sport’s history, but which the series never properly promoted faded from view.  

In the place of the two short ovals dropped from the 2010 schedule were new dates at the permanent road course at Barber Motorsports Park and a temporary street course in Sao Paulo Brazil.  IRL Commercial division chief Angstadt claimed that each participating team for Sao Paulo would receive a six-figure sum from the event promoters in addition to having all their expenses paid. Unfortunately after three years the Sao Paulo dropped from the schedule, although there were several failed later efforts to resuscitate the promotion. 

A major controversy erupted after the February 2010 hiring of Randy Bernard as the CEO of IndyCar with a five-year contract. Bernard, the former CEO of the Professional Bull Riders Inc. was tasked by the Hulman & Company to lead the series into the future, most notably the selection of a new chassis design, new engine suppliers and possibly new tire manufacturers. The man with no experience in motorsports faced an uphill fight to win over drivers, teams and fans before he could complete his goals.

In the meantime the 2010 IRL series was contested by all drivers in cars which used Dallara Chassis, Honda power and Firestone tires. Franchitti repeated as the series champion, with the top five finishers in the championship members of the Ganassi and Penske teams.

On January 1, 2011, the Indy Racing League LLC officially adopted the trade name INDYCAR while all legal and official documents to this day still list the series operator as “Indy Racing League LLC d/b/a INDYCAR." For 2011 the INDYCAR series again changed up the schedule mix as four tracks owned by the International Speedway Corporation (controlled by the France family) were dropped from the schedule - ovals at Joliet Illinois, Homestead Florida and Kansas City Kansas and the permanent road course at Watkins Glen New York.

In place of those four tracks, INDYCAR added a second 275-mile back-to-back race date at Texas Motor Speedway, with new dates added for the New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, and a street course date at Baltimore Maryland. The 2011 series was scheduled to end with the IZOD IndyCar World Championships presented by Honda at the other schedule addition the high-banked 1-1/2 mile oval Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

One of the advertised features of the World Championship race was Bernard’s offer of a $5,000,000 prize for any  driver “outside of the IZOD IndyCar Series” to start the race from the back of the pack and win the race.  His remarkable offer was intended to attract interest from drivers that regularly competed on the Formula 1 or NASCAR circuits, but responses from drivers in those series came with conditions such as a demand to drive for only either the competitive Ganassi or Penske teams. Faced with a lack of expected responses to his original offer, Bernard later revised the challenge to include drivers who had only competed in IndyCar part-time during the 2011 season and the 2011 Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon accepted the challenge.

The IZOD INDYCAR series during 2011 had again been dominated by the Ganassi and Penske teams as between them they won 12 of the seventeen races before the finale at Las Vegas.  Ganassi’s Dario Franchitti led the points with Penske’s Will Power trailing but still in contention for the championship.  During the season, Benard had overseen the INDYCAR ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-wheel, New, Industry-relevant, Cost-effective) program to select the suppliers for the new chassis/engine packages to replace the 2003 INDYCAR Dallara chassis scheduled to debut with the 2012 season. 

The ICONIC committee requested designs from automobile manufacturers as well as non-automotive companies such as Lockheed Martin and General Electric. In the end Dallara’s chassis design was selected over the radical 'Deltawing' concept, and turbocharged V-6 engine proposals were accepted from Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus.

34 cars qualified for the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race scheduled for 200 laps, and  the first twenty cars in the field posted an average lap speed of over 220 miles per hour (MPH), and the slowest car over 218 MPH. The race’s pole sitter, Brazilian Tony Kanaan led the first ten laps with the field tightly bunched in his wake. As the field entered turn one on the eleventh lap, the car piloted by rookie Wade Cunningham touched wheels with the car of fellow rookie James Hinchcliffe.  

Drivers in the tightly bunched pack of cars behind this initial incident had little time to react and nowhere to escape.  The crash eventually involved fifteen cars, which included Wheldon’s machine which launched into the air, inverted and struck the second turn outer fence on the cockpit side. The remaining cars completed one additional lap before INDYCAR officials stopped the race with the track was littered with debris and the catch fencing badly damaged.    

Wheldon, Power, Hildebrand, and Pippa Mann were all injured in the crash; Wheldon suffered fatal head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival via helicopter at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Mann and Hildebrand were kept overnight for treatment while Power was evaluated and released. Mann later underwent several surgeries to repair her hand injury. Wheldon’s death was the first in INDYCAR since Paul Dana’s accident at Homestead in March 2006

Hours after the accident an emergency drivers' meeting was held which followed by Benard’s brief statement broadcast live on ESPN sports television, Bernard revealed Wheldon's death and stated that the remaining drivers and teams agreed not to continue the race but would  pay tribute to Wheldon with  a five-lap salute.

The IZOD IndyCar World Championships presented by Honda is considered as abandoned or cancelled by INDYCAR after twelve laps and is not recorded as an official race and no points were awarded.  Dario Franchitti received his third straight INDYCAR championship trophy in February 2012 after the planned awards ceremony following the Las Vegas race was cancelled.

INDYCAR completed an investigation of the Las Vegas accident in an attempt to stem criticism that the track was too steeply banked (18 to 20 degrees) for the tightly bunched field of high-speed open wheel cars. Several drivers admitted that they had been uneasy before the event; Oriel Servia stated “we all had a bad feeling about this place.”  Driver Will Power was quoted that the Wheldon tragedy was "an accident waiting to happen," and Dario Franchitti told ABC News that Las Vegas “was not a suitable track” as it offered “nowhere to get away from anybody."

The Las Vegas tragedy resulted in massive changes in INDYCAR.  Benard stated in December 2011 that INDYCAR felt “we need to give our technical team ample time to conduct thorough testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, once we complete our ongoing investigation.” It is widely believed that driver objections are the primary reason for the cancellation and the reason that INDYCAR has never raced again at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

Five drivers that were entered that tragic day- Davey Hamilton, Alex Lloyd, Vitor Meira, Buddy Rice, Tomas Scheckter, and Paul Tracy- never drove in INDYCAR again after the Las Vegas race. The new ICONIC car with many new safety features was renamed the “DW12” in honor of Wheldon who had been intimately involved with the testing and development of the new much safer machine.  

The 2012 season schedule saw the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix return to schedule, and in place of the finale at Las Vegas, the season concluded with a 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The series did not return to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Motegi Twin-Ring in Japan or the Kentucky Speedway.

With much fanfare, the INDYCAR series was scheduled to visit the huge potential market of China for the first time in 2012. The ‘Indy Qingdao 600’ was to be held on a 3.87-mile street circuit in the eastern coastal city of 9 million people on August 20. With little fanfare, the race was cancelled by the promoter on June 13 2012 and was not replaced on the schedule.

The new DW-12 chassis was quite successful in its inaugural season, and the Chevrolet and Honda engines proved reliable and racy. The same could not be said for the ill-fated Lotus engine program, which started late,  arrived at the first race in St. Petersburg with little testing and proved to lack power and reliability. Of the five drivers that began the 2012 season with Lotus power, only one – Simona de Silvestro - completed a trying season with the hapless Lotus engine.  

In April 2012 Honda and Chevrolet engaged in a rules dispute that came to be known as “turbogate.”  Despite that fact that Chevrolet had won all the 2012 INDYCAR races to that point, claimed that Honda had illegally switched turbocharger housing designs after the start of the season. Following the protracted protest and appeal process Honda eventually prevailed in early May as retired Indiana Supreme Court Justice Theodore Boehm denied the Chevrolet claim following the final appeal hearing.  

In the end, it was a moot point as Chevrolet powered driver Ryan Hunter-Reay who drove for Michael Andretti’s team won the 2012 IZOD championship as he edged out fellow Chevrolet driver Will Power. Since the end of the end of the 2012 INDYCAR season, all races have featured only two engine manufacturers- Chevrolet and Honda.

After the 2012 season ended, the INDYCAR world faced another shock, as INDYCAR CEO Randy Benard either quit under pressure or was fired with two years remaining on his contract during an emergency meeting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board of directors.  Benard was thought to have mishandled “turbogate,” and had come under increasing criticism for his proposal to introduce differentiating DW-12 bodywork kits for the competing engine manufacturers. 

The INDYCAR owners group opposed Benard’s idea and also complained that Dallara replacement parts were too expensive. Benard have never escaped the criticisms from members of the INDYCAR community for the Las Vegas tragedy, but in end the unraveling of the China race which meant INDYCAR lost a potential cash source to offset the ongoing series financial deficits appeared to cost Benard his job.

After his departure Benard issued a statement through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that noted that “we created a foundation for IndyCar that positions it to grow over the next several years”.  With the foundation established by Benard and under the steady guidance of Hulman & Company CEO Mark Miles and his leadership team, INDYCAR added a new title sponsor, the telecommunications giant Verizon in 2014 that replaced the departing IZOD sponsorship. 

Through the years since its introduction the DW-12 chassis has proved to be a safe stable predictable race car, despite the ill-fated engine manufacturer body kits in use for the last three seasons. Through recent testing, the new universal 2018 INDYCAR body kit has proven to be very popular with both drivers and teams alike and promises a new era of exciting INDYCAR racing. The DW-12 chassis is scheduled to remain in service through the 2020 season when it will replaced by a new chassis developed and built by the series current chassis supplier, Dallara Automobili, in its Speedway Indiana factory. 

Which is not to say that INDYCAR does not face challenges in the future; namely the aging of the sport’s biggest names, the replacement of Verizon as the title sponsor for 2019, additional engine suppliers, and securing broadcast rights for digital and television platforms in the future, but for now the future appears bright.

Sixteen of the 17 races from the 2017 INDYCAR schedule return in 2018, with the newcomer to the schedule Portland International Raceway, which hosted races under CART and CCWS sanction from 1984 through 2007, with the Portland race set for Labor Day weekend.