The 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series was the 18th season of the PPG Indy Car World Series, a motor racing series recognized by its sanctioning body, IndyCar, as a top-level formula of American open-wheel car racing. It encompassed the 85th national open-wheel championship season with the rival Indy Racing League (IRL)'s 1996 and 1996–97 seasons. Teams and drivers contested 16 races, starting in Homestead on March 3 and ending in Laguna Seca on September 8, as they competed for the Drivers', Nations', Constructors', and Manufacturers' Championships; each were won by Jimmy Vasser, the United States, Reynard, and Honda. Alex Zanardi took the Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year title.
The PPG Indy Car World Series Drivers' Champion was Jimmy Vasser, whose Honda/Reynard won four of the first six races, including the inaugural US 500. Rookie of the Year was Alex Zanardi. The competition soon starting catching up to Vasser, who had to fend off two late challenges from veterans: Al Unser Jr.'s consistent performance saw him come close to tying Vasser late in the season, but his hopes evaporated after a last-lap crash at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and an engine failure while leading on the final turn at Road America. Michael Andretti's resulting victory there and in Vancouver put him in contention at the final race, but a disappointing result at Laguna Seca gave Vasser the championship. Rookie driver Jeff Krosnoff and a course worker died in an accident at the Toronto round, and one week later, Emerson Fittipaldi was in a serious accident at the start of the Marlboro 500 and subsequently retired from IndyCar altogether.
Teams and drivers The following teams and drivers competed in the 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series:
Team Chassis Engine Tires Driver Brahma Sports Team Reynard 96I Ford-Cosworth XD 1 Raul Boesel All Marlboro Team Penske Penske PC-25 Mercedes IC 108C 2 Al Unser Jr. All 3 Paul Tracy 1–12, 14–16 Jan Magnussen 13 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH 4 Alex Zanardi All 12 Jimmy Vasser All Walker Racing Reynard 96I Ford-Cosworth XD 5 Robby Gordon All Reynard 96IFord-Cosworth XB 15 Scott Goodyear 1–2, 11, 15–16 Mike Groff 5 Fredrik Ekblom 6 Newman/Haas Racing Lola T96/00 Ford-Cosworth XD 6 Michael Andretti All 11 Christian Fittipaldi All Team Scandia Lola T96/00 Ford-Cosworth XB 7 Marco Greco 1–2 Eliseo Salazar 7, 9, 12–13 22 Carlos Guerrero 1–3 Michel Jourdain Jr. 4, 7–9, 15–16 Hall Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH 8 Gil de Ferran All Hogan Penske Racing Penske PC-25 Mercedes IC 108C 9 Emerson Fittipaldi 1–12 Jan Magnussen 14–16 Galles Racing International Lola T96/00 Mercedes IC 108C 10 Eddie Lawson 1–11 Davy Jones 12–16 Bettenhausen Motorsports Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C 16 Stefan Johansson All Penske PC-23 Mercedes IC 108C 26 Gary Bettenhausen 6 PacWest Racing Group Reynard 96I Ford-Cosworth XB 17 Maurício Gugelmin All 21 Mark Blundell 1–2, 6–16 Teo Fabi 4–5 Team Rahal Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C 18 Bobby Rahal All 28 Bryan Herta All Payton/Coyne Racing Lola T96/00 Ford-Cosworth XB 19 Hiro Matsushita All 34 Roberto Moreno All Patrick Racing Lola T96/00 Ford-Cosworth XD 20 Scott Pruett All Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard 96I Toyota RV8A 25 Jeff Krosnoff 1–11 Max Papis 13–14, 16 Tasman Motorsports Group Lola T96/00 Honda HRH 31 André Ribeiro All 32 Adrián Fernández All All American Racers Eagle MK-V Toyota RV8A 36 Juan Manuel Fangio II All 98 P. J. Jones 6–16 Della Penna Motorsports Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth XB 44 Richie Hearn 4, 11, 16 Brix Comptech Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH 49 Parker Johnstone All Project Indy Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth XB 64 Dennis Vitolo 4 Player's/Forsythe Racing Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C 99 Greg Moore All Sources: Key Symbol Tire manufacturer Firestone Goodyear Symbol Driver status Eligible for Rookie of the Year
Team changes
By February 1996, a total of 34 cars were initially entered into the series by 21 different teams. Toyota received approval from IndyCar's board of directors to field engines for a minimum of two cars for their entry to the PPG Indy Car World Series in 1996, as opposed to the two-franchise, three-car regulation that had been enacted prior to the 1994 season. They provided engines to Arciero-Wells Racing and All American Racers, the latter of the two teams hadn't competed in the series since 1986 and was supplying their own Eagle chassis. Following the ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix, however, Toyota was required to comply with the mandated three-car rule. Hall Racing switched their engine supplier to Honda for the 1996 season, and Chip Ganassi Racing followed suit after ending their four-year partnership with Ford-Cosworth. The team also switched their tire supplier from Goodyear to Firestone, as did Forsythe Racing, which switched from Ford-Cosworth to Mercedes engines. The Tasman Motorsports Group changed their chassis supplier from Reynard to Lola, while Bettenhausen Racing used Reynard chassis instead of their year-old Penske chassis.
Several teams had been formed, rebranded, or revamped prior to the 1996 season. Trucking magnate Carl Hogan ended his four-year partnership with Team Rahal in favor of a new satellite team associated with Team Penske named Hogan Penske Racing, which received chassis from Penske and engines from Mercedes. However, Team Rahal later found a new partner in late-night talk show host David Letterman. Team Green was rebranded to the Brahma Sports Team in honor of their new sponsorship from Brazilian beer company Brahma. Comptech Racing was renamed to Brix Comptech Racing to reflect their association with IMSA team Brix Racing. Scandia/Simon Racing co-owners Andy Evans and Dick Simon restructured their team in an effort to focus on their individual strengths; Evans bought out the team entirely and formed Team Scandia, while Simon signed a three-year contract as the team's chief engineer and general manager. Project Indy owner Andreas Leberle parted ways with backers Fred Treadway and Jonathan Byrd because their desire to focus exclusively on the Indy Racing League (IRL) conflicted with Leberle's plans to enter races for both premier American open-wheel car racing championships.
A. J. Foyt Enterprises was planning on competing in the IRL and the Indy Car World Series, but withdrew from the latter series after team owner A. J. Foyt filed a $15 million anti-trust suit against IndyCar in January 1996, accusing them of monopolizing the sport and pressuring their teams not to divert to the IRL. Team Scandia fielded cars in both series, while Hemelgarn Racing and Team Menard fully deflected to the IRL because of their extensive experience in the Indianapolis 500.
Driver changes Paul Tracy had signed to drive for Newman/Haas Racing in the 1995 season, but the team agreed to allow Team Penske to rehire him for the 1996 season. Despite requests from Newman/Haas Racing co-owner Carl Haas to break the contract and resign with his team, Tracy refused to do so out of fear of getting sued by Team Penske owner Roger Penske, who eventually decided to employ Tracy. Emerson Fittipaldi moved to the Hogan Penske Racing team to maintain his association with Penske following an underwhelming season that saw him fail to contend for the title. At Newman/Haas Racing, Tracy was replaced by Christian Fittipaldi, whose seat at Walker Racing was then taken by Scott Goodyear in his first starts with the team since 1993 after being let go by the Tasman Motorsports Group in favor of Adrián Fernández. The seat at Galles Racing International that Fernández had vacated was then taken by four-time world motorcycle champion Eddie Lawson.
Raul Boesel was expected to stay with Team Rahal until he suddenly announced his move to the Brahma Sports Team after being approached to do so by Brahma. He took the seat of reigning series champion Jacques Villeneuve, who left the series to race for Formula One's Williams team, and was replaced by Bryan Herta at Team Rahal. Chip Ganassi Racing was thus left without a second driver, so they staged a private test between Japanese Formula 3000 driver Jeff Krosnoff and former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi at the Homestead Motorsports Complex in October 1995. Zanardi's lap times were quicker and more consistent than those of Krosnoff, impressing the team enough to hire him for the season and leaving Krosnoff to race for Arciero-Wells Racing. Hiro Matsushita was resultantly forced to move to Payton/Coyne Racing and teamed with Roberto Moreno, who hadn't regularly competed in the series in a decade.
With Danny Sullivan out of the series after a crash in the previous year's Marlboro 500, Formula One veteran Mark Blundell replaced him at the PacWest Racing Group for his debut Indy Car World Series season. 1995 Indy Lights champion Greg Moore joined the Forsythe Racing team and replaced Teo Fabi, whose loss of sponsorship from Combustion Engineering left him with no ride for the season despite a ninth-place championship result the previous year. Juan Manuel Fangio II, the winningest driver in IMSA GTP history, signed for All American Racers. Fredrik Ekblom was poised to join Brix Comptech Racing, the team with which he won his class in the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona, before he was dropped in favor of Parker Johnstone because the team's sponsor Motorola expressed their preference for an American driver. Because of their relationship with Motorola, the team ran their first full Indy Car World Series season.
Mid-season changes
Two crashes on the weekend of the IndyCar Rio 400 led to the first driver changes of the season. After Goodyear suffered injuries in a practice crash at Rio that kept him out of the series for months, Walker Racing initially had no plans to field their second entry until Goodyear returned, but later hired Mike Groff and Ekblom to take Goodyear's seat in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix and the U.S. 500, respectively. Goodyear came back to compete in the Molson Indy Toronto and the season's final two rounds. Mark Blundell was substituted by Fabi for the Long Beach and Nazareth races because of injuries that he sustained during the Rio event. The PacWest Racing Group did not field a second entry at Surfers Paradise because they felt there was too little time to prepare a car for a different driver.
Neither Marco Greco nor teammate Carlos Guerrero lasted more than three races with Team Scandia. Greco expressed anger at the team's mechanical issues at Rio, having blown three engines throughout the weekend, and threatened to impound their equipment. Although Greco went on to score a championship point, he was fired shortly thereafter and replaced with Eliseo Salazar for four races. After a string of crashes, Guerrero was let go by the team in favor of countryman Michel Jourdain Jr. for six races.
Della Penna Motorsports entered the Indy Car World Series with 1995 Toyota Atlantic champion Richie Hearn for the races at Long Beach, Toronto, and Laguna Seca. Project Indy was unable to secure sponsorship for a full-time campaign in 1996, but fielded a car for Dennis Vitolo at Long Beach after acquiring a year-old Reynard chassis which was converted to fit a Ford-Cosworth engine with assistance from the PacWest Racing Group. Gary Bettenhausen started his first race in three years with Bettenhausen Motorsports at the U.S. 500. P. J. Jones also entered the race, but withdrew and instead made his debut in the Miller Genuine Draft 200 for All American Racers. He went on to complete the rest of the season with the team.