The 1996 Indy Racing League was the first season in the history of the series, which was created and announced on March 11, 1994, by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), as a supplementary series to the established Indy Car World Series sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) since 1979. It consisted of only three races, as the season concluded with the 80th Indianapolis 500 in May. Walt Disney World Speedway was completed in time to host the first ever event of the Indy Racing League, and Phoenix International Raceway switched alliances from CART to the IRL, in order to host the second event of the season. At the conclusion of the three-race schedule, Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins ended up tied for first place in the championship. With no tiebreaker rule in place, the two drivers were declared co-champions. The creation of IRL and the opposition of CART's teams and drivers to take part in it marked the start of 'the Split', a 12-year period of competition between rival series at the top level of American open-wheel car racing that had lasting negative effects on the sport.
Series news The series was the initiative of IMS president Tony George, who had left the CART Board of Directors in January 1994 after disagreements over the direction of Indy car racing, and its potential effect on the Indianapolis 500. The new championship would feature the marquee race, effectively removing it from the CART schedule, and was to be sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, racing exclusively on oval tracks as a response to its perceived decline in recent Indy Car seasons. The Indy Racing League name was revealed on July 8, 1994, and its first set of rules was published later that year, but it encountered criticism and resistance from the established team owners that formed CART and its drivers, who derided the concept as a 'power grab' attempt from George.
On January 23, 1995, the IRL announced that the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway would host the first event of the series on January 27, 1996, on a new oval track at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. On April 3, the IRL announced that Phoenix International Raceway, which would switch alliances from CART to IRL, and the then-under construction Las Vegas Motor Speedway would be on the 1996 schedule, its dates being finalized 10 days later. On May 30, 1995, New Hampshire Motor Speedway also switched alliances from CART to IRL, completing the five races that would be held in 1996. Initially, IRL officials hoped that competitors from the rival CART series would choose to race in some or all of the IRL events, since there were no foreseen conflicts in their respective schedules.
Talks between both series in early 1995 resulted in the former delaying its new rules for 1997, instead adopting frozen regulations with 1995-and-older CART chassis with a fixed limit on how much a team could spend on its combination. However, CART would later adopt a lower-downforce philosophy for their new 1996 chassis that was similar to the delayed IRL rules (except for the initially planned engine downsizing), and announced a 1996 schedule that had multiple conflicts with the previously announced IRL dates. The race at Road America was scheduled for the same day as the IRL event at Loudon, while the races at Rio and Australia were bookended around the IRL race at Phoenix, creating an impossible travel situation.
In a controversial move, on July 3, 1995, it was announced that the top 25 drivers in IRL points would secure guaranteed starting positions for the 1996 Indianapolis 500. The '25/8 rule', intended to encourage participation at Orlando and Phoenix, left only eight positions open for at-large competitors, which was interpreted by most CART teams as a de facto 'lock out' for its 26-car field. As a result, CART would later schedule a second 500-mile race at Michigan International Speedway in direct competition with the Indianapolis 500, and established that teams would be stripped of their voting rights in the Board of Directors if they competed in an IRL event. Therefore, almost all of CART's established drivers and teams stayed away from the upstart series, with Galles and Walker fielding additional cars at the Indy 500 without its regular drivers, in deference to their sponsors.
The IRL, nonetheless, had its sights on becoming a low-cost alternative for American drivers over the influx of foreign drivers attracted by CART's increasing road racing focus, and for short-track open-wheel stars that had found the sport too expensive to compete in previous seasons, or had searched for a more viable option in stock-car racing. Only 11 of the 33 starters from the 1995 Indianapolis 500 were featured in the 1996 event, which had one Indy 500 champion (Arie Luyendyk), two former race winners, and only two full-time teams and drivers from the 1995 season. The rest of the IRL field was composed of new entrants, part-time drivers and a large contingent of rookies, which amounted for half of the starters (17 out of 33) at the Indianapolis 500, while leading detractors and most of the media to describe the event as a 'watered-down' affair.
On August 28, 1995, it was announced that the inaugural 1996 season would end at the Indianapolis 500, the plan being to spread subsequent seasons over two calendar years and award the IRL championships at the conclusion of every Indy 500. As a result, the announced races at New Hampshire and Las Vegas would in fact open the 1996–97 season in late summer. This scheduling format went against the traditional motorsports grain, and the idea was eventually scrapped in October 1996, with the 1996–97 season being expanded in order to bring the schedule back in sync with the rest of the motorsports world for 1998.
The IRL points system was to be staggered to adjust for the number of races each driver entered. The number of points awarded per race would be multiplied by the number of events the driver had participated in. If a driver entered all three events, the points awarded for that third race were multiplied by three. Despite the short season, only fifteen drivers competed in all three events, but all of them had a decent number of entrants due to the pool of older chassis made available by some of the teams with previous Indy 500 experience, as well as spare machinery being acquired from some CART teams. Ford Cosworth supplied most of the field with its V8 engines, with the rest relying on stock-block V6 units, either Buick or Menard-branded.
Confirmed entries
TeamChassisEngineTiresDriver(s)Rounds ABF Motorsports Lola T92/00 Buick 96 Paul Durant 2–3 A. J. Foyt Enterprises Lola T95/00 Ford-Cosworth 11 Scott Sharp All 14 Davey Hamilton All 41 Mike Groff 1–2 Lola T94/00 Marco Greco 3 Beck Motorsports/Zunne Group Beck Motorsports Lola T94/00Reynard 94I Ford-Cosworth 52 Hideshi Matsuda 3 54 Robbie Buhl 1, 3 Blueprint Racing Lola T93/00 Menard 16 Johnny Parsons All 27 Jim Guthrie 2–3 Lola T92/00 Buick 36 Dan Drinan 2 Loop Hole Racing Lola T91/00 3 Bradley Motorsports Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth 12 Buzz Calkins All Brickell RacingLola T93/00Menard77 Danny Ongais3 Tyce Carlson Byrd/Leberle–Treadway Racing Byrd–Treadway Racing Reynard 95IReynard 94I Ford-Cosworth 5 Arie Luyendyk All Cunningham Racing Reynard 95ILola T94/00 Ford-Cosworth 75 Johnny O'Connell All Della Penna Motorsports Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth 4 Richie Hearn All 44 Scott Harrington 3 DeLorto Motorsports Lola T92/00 Buick 81 Rick DeLorto 1 Galles Racing Lola T95/00 Mercedes-Ilmor 70 Davy Jones 3 Hemelgarn Racing Reynard 95IReynard 94I Ford-Cosworth 9 Stéphan Grégoire All 10 Brad Murphey 3 91 Buddy Lazier All Leigh Miller Racing Lola T94/00 Ford-Cosworth 17 Stan Wattles 1–2 Pagan Racing Reynard 94IReynard 95I Ford-Cosworth 21 Roberto Guerrero All 99 Billy Boat 3 PDM/Automatic Sprinkler System PDM Racing Lola T93/00 Menard 18 John Paul Jr. All Project Indy Lola T93/00 Ford-Cosworth 46 Rob Wilson 3 Reynard 94IReynard 95I 64 Johnny Unser 2–3 Scandia/Simon Racing Team Scandia Lola T95/00Lola T94/00Lola T93/00Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth 7 Eliseo Salazar 1, 3 Fermín Vélez 2 8 Alessandro Zampedri 3 22 Michel Jourdain Jr. 2–3 33 Michele Alboreto All 34 Fermín Vélez 3 43 Joe Gosek 3 90 Lyn St. James 1–2 Racin Gardner 3 Team Menard Lola T95/00 Menard 2 Scott Brayton 1–3 3 Eddie Cheever All 20 Tony Stewart All 30 Mark Dismore 3 32 Danny Ongais 3 Tempero–Giuffre Racing Lola T92/00Lola T93/00 Buick 15 Bill Tempero 1 David Kudrave 2 Justin Bell3 Joe Gosek 25 David Kudrave 1 Racin Gardner2 Billy Roe Walker Racing Reynard 95I Ford-Cosworth 60 Mike Groff 3 Zunne Group Racing Lola T93/00 Buick 24 Randy Tolsma 3 Lola T94/00 Ford-Cosworth 45 Robbie Buhl 2 Lyn St. James 3
Team announcements/changes A. J. Foyt Enterprises became the only Indy Car full-time team to join the Indy Racing League ranks for its 1996 inaugural season. The team would fill more than one car at every race for the first time since Roger McCluskey joined Foyt as teammate in the 1969 USAC Champ Car season. Indianapolis business man Fred Treadway formed an alliance with Andreas Leberle, owner of the Project Indy team that had run 15 Indy Car races in two years, and Jonathan Byrd, who had lent support to a number of teams in the Indy 500 since 1985. The one-car team, initially known as Byrd/Leberle–Treadway Racing, acquired a Reynard 95I from Walker Racing, and a 94I that had been used by Team Green as a back-up car for Jacques Villeneuve, which would eventually become the pole-sitting, record-breaking car at Indianapolis. Four teams that had competed in Indy Car in a part-time basis, mainly at the Indianapolis 500, also entered the competition: Team Menard, who had been running an Indy 500 one-off program with stock-block engines for a decade, planned to compete in the Indy Racing League with a two-car program. Since 1985, their only Indy Car race outside Indianapolis was the 1990 Autoworks 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, with Jim Crawford. The team bought two brand-new Lola T95 to complement their effort. Hemelgarn Racing also entered the Indy Racing League, competing outside Indianapolis for the first time since 1990. The team only employed Ford Cosworth powerplants, phasing out entirely the use of Buick engines after 10 years, and purchased two Reynard chassis from Chip Ganassi Racing. Pagan Racing, a team that had run a 3-race program in Indy Car in 1995, entered the series. The team bought a Reynard 95I chassis from Forsythe Racing, and switched to Ford Cosworth powerplants, as Mercedes declined to lease their Ilmor powerplants outside of the Indy 500. Beck Motorsports, a team that had debuted at the 1995 Indianapolis 500 after four years running entries for other teams, partnered with The Zunne Group, a company that tried to promote San Antonio as a racing hub, to compete in the IRL season. Two teams joined the IRL from junior series: Bradley Motorsports, a family-run Indy Lights team created by the owner of Bradley Petroleum, and Della Penna Motorsports, winners of the 1995 Atlantic Championship, who also contested a partial Indy Car schedule. Both teams acquired Reynard 95I machinery; Della Penna from Arciero/Wells and Forsythe, while Bradley bought Christian Fittipaldi's 2nd place machine at the previous year's Indy 500 from Walker. Team Scandia was an IMSA GT outfit led by driver Andy Evans, who entered the IRL in a partnership with Indy Car team Dick Simon Racing, on which both sides would provide a full-time car each. This union was dissolved in January when Evans took full control of the team, although Simon remained as team manager. The team competed as Scandia/Simon Racing in the first race, before switching to its original name.