The biggest story going into the season involved &lt;a href="Newman/Haas%20Racing"&gt;Newman/Haas Racing&lt;/a&gt;. Nigel Mansell, the reigning Formula One World Champion switched from Formula One to the CART IndyCar Series. Mansell joined Newman/Haas Racing as teammate to Mario Andretti, taking the seat formerly held by Michael Andretti, who departed for one year to McLaren. Mansell came to the American open wheel series with considerable fanfare and huge media attention. He won the season-opener at Surfers Paradise, the first CART "rookie" to win his first start. At Phoenix, Mansell crashed during practice and was forced to sit out the race due to a back injury. At Indianapolis, he was leading the race with 16 laps to go when he was passed on a restart by Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk, and wound up third. He still won the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year award. Despite having missed the race at Phoenix, Mansell won five races (four of which were on ovals) en route to the CART championship.