The Open-Wheel Revival

The late 2000s and early 2010s were a dark period for American open-wheel racing. Although IndyCar and Champ Car had reunified in 2008 to form a unified IndyCar series, the damage of the 1996-2008 split had been done. NASCAR had vastly overtaken IndyCar in popularity, and now had enough power to push IndyCar out of tracks that they owned, out of a desire to monopolize motorsports in the United States.
In this timeline, however, IndyCar saw a miraculous revival in the early-2010s, starting with an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, and someone other than Randy Bernard taking the reins.
== History ==
=== Background ===
The 1996 open-wheel split between Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and Indy Racing League (IRL) shook the American motorsports scene to its foundation. The split came about due to factions with CART having two irreconciliable visions for American open-wheel racing; the CART board sought to turn the PPG Indy Car World Series into a direct competitor to Formula One, while Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George wanted to lower costs, add more ovals to the schedule, and create more opportunities for sprint car drivers, as CART had practically no path for sprint car stars to move up to Indy Car, namely generational talent Jeff Gordon, who, instead of racing in CART, was now a top star in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.
These differences, plus Tony George giving the Winston Cup Series a date at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, led to the split in 1996. Both sides had their strengths and weaknesses: CART had the better drivers, better cars, and better venues, while IRL had the Indianapolis 500, lower costs, and no shortage of sprint car drivers. Initially, there was really no difference between the two series, as IRL used surplus Lola and Reynard chassis and Ford, Mercedes, and Buick engines, but in 1997, switched a new formula with chassis built by Dallara, G-Force, and Riley & Scott, and naturally-aspirated engines built by Oldsmobile and Infiniti (CART used expensive and complex turbocharged engines).
The feud between both sides was bitter, and initially, IRL was seen as merely a development series for CART. This changed in 2000 when Target Chip Ganassi Racing crossed the so-called picket line to race in the Indianapolis 500 using IRL equipment, winning the race handily.
By this time, CART was in a state of decline. 2001 saw a series of public relations disasters, including the cancellation of a race in Brazil after track promoters defaulted, a race at Texas Motor Speedway being cancelled due to safety concerns (CART had added TMS to the schedule due to IRL racing here without incident since 1997, but failed to take into account that IRL cars had less powerful naturally-aspirated engines, while CART used turbocharged engines that caused drivers to black out from G-forces brought on by the track's 24-degree banking meant for use by NASCAR), a movie based on CART, Driven, was a critical and commercial bomb, a race was held at EuroSpeedway Lausitz on the first Saturday after the September 11 terrorist attacks, which was not only viewed as insensitive (accusations CART attempted to stave off by renaming the race from the German 500 to the American Memorial), the race was also marred by a major accident, during which two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi lost both of his legs, and controversy over a turbo pop off valve alienated engine manufacturer Toyota.
All of this began coming to a head in 2002, when both Ganassi and Team Penske defected to IRL, mainly due to pressure from their sponsors regarding the Indianapolis 500. That same year, CART lost ABC/ESPN as a broadcaster, who instead signed an exclusive deal with IRL (prior to this, IRL races were mainly broadcast on Speed Channel, CBS, or TNN, with marquee events such as the Indianapolis 500 being on ABC). CART's overall exposure was reduced, signing a deal with Speed Channel and having to buy airtime on CBS just to keep its television presence. Nowhere was the decline of CART more visible than a disastrous race at the Surfer's Paradise Street Circuit in Australia, when the race started amidst incredibly wet conditions, resulting in a large pile-up at the start. After this, the race was largely run under yellow, and CART made questionable officiating calls that caused Michael Andretti to lose the race to rookie Mario Domínguez, who had started the race last.
By 2003, CART's decline had become a freefall. Series sponsor FedEx was lost, engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota had defected to IRL, and chassis constructors Lola and Reynard hadn't developed new chassis for the 2003 season. By the end of the season, CART declared bankruptcy and was liquidated, with a trio of team owners purchasing the assets after a bidding war with IRL (by this time, the Indy Racing League's main series had become the IRL IndyCar Series, after a settlement with CART prohibiting the use of the Indy Car name had expired), forming the Champ Car World Series.
IndyCar, meanwhile, was riding high. Racing was close and exciting, advertising portrayed the drivers as modern-day gladiators, and the Indianapolis 500 was as popular as ever. Not only had they poached teams from CART, they had also poached races, including Michigan, Homestead-Miami, Gateway, and Twin Ring Motegi (IndyCar's first international race). It was clear that Tony George's intent with the formation of the IRL wasn't to create an affordable, all-American open-wheel series, but a transparent power grab from the CART board, and by now, it had worked.
But there was a third faction in the split, that being NASCAR. Bill France Jr. had encouraged Tony George to go through with the formation of IRL, likely to keep open-wheel racing divided while stock car racing took over as the premier form of motorsport in the United States. France Jr. was willing to host IRL races at International Speedway Corporation (ISC) tracks, but this all changed in 2003, when his son, Brian France, succeeded him. Brian saw IndyCar as NASCAR's biggest competitor, and thus sought to push them out of oval racing, reduce them to running only on road courses owned by independent track owners, and ultimately die a quiet death while NASCAR raked in all of the drivers and sponsors.
France's plot began with the purchase of Nazareth Speedway in Pennsylvania in 2004, a longtime fixture of open-wheel racing that also had a NASCAR Busch Series date. France immediately shut down the track, sending its Busch Series date and grandstands to Watkins Glen International, while IndyCar was left out in the cold. For the 2005 season, IndyCar had no choice but to abandon its 100% oval mandate and follow the Busch Series to Watkins Glen, also adding races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, and on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, a former Trans-Am race that had become a CART race in 2003, and cancelled in 2004, before IndyCar picked up the sanctioning. Ostensibly, the race at Infineon was a calculated move to shut Champ Car out of a major Northern California venue after the loss of Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, forcing Champ Car to settle on creating a street course in San Jose, an ill-conceived circuit with few, if any, passing opportunities. It didn't help that Champ Car's television exposure was spread thin over multiple networks, and all teams were running surplus CART equipment, including Lola chassis and Ford-Cosworth engines from 2002 (by this time, Reynard had gone bankrupt, with very few teams using 2002 Reynard chassis in 2004).
The next part of Brian's plot saw the sale of Pikes Peak International Speedway in 2005, with a clause stating that the track could no longer host any races that would attract more than 10,000 spectators, clearly aimed at shutting IndyCar out. Throughout the mid-late 2000s, attendance at IndyCar races held at ISC tracks declined. Many blamed either the markets being more interested in NASCAR, or IndyCar dates being too close to NASCAR dates and thus diluting ticket sales, but in truth, France had ordered these tracks to intentionally under-promote IndyCar races.
IndyCar, meanwhile, was fast becoming a pseudo-spec series. Chevrolet and Toyota both left at the end of 2005 (Toyota wanting to focus on its imminent entry into the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2007), leaving Honda as the sole engine manufacturer. The Panoz chassis, meanwhile, was rapidly being outpaced by the Dallara chassis.
For 2007, Champ Car attempted a refresh, with races in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and the aging Lola chassis being replaced by a new Panoz chassis, the DP01, while still using the same Cosworth turbocharged V8. By this time, however, both IndyCar and Champ Car were seeing smaller field sizes (except for the Indianapolis 500), and following intense talks, it was announced in January 2008 that Indy Racing League and Open-Wheel Racing Series LLC would reunite to form a unified IndyCar Series. Due to a scheduling conflict, however, one last Champ Car race was held in Long Beach, with the race paying IndyCar points. Several Champ Car races, including Mid-Ohio and Detroit, were added to the IndyCar schedule, with the race in Surfer's Paradise run as an exhibition before being removed from the 2009 schedule after negotiations between IndyCar and the Queensland government broke down (Surfer's Paradise is still run by the V8 Supercars).
At long last, the split was over. But all was not well. Panoz, in preparation for a potential merger, mocked up what the DP01 would look like in oval trim, but IndyCar ultimately rejected the car due to being designed for turbocharged engines. Panoz's IndyCar chassis, meanwhile, had been abandoned in favor of the superior Dallara chassis, so Panoz beat a hasty retreat out of open-wheel racing and back to sports car racing.
As for tracks, attendance at ISC-owned tracks continued to decline, until ISC announced it would not be renewing any IndyCar contracts after 2010.
=== The lawsuit ===
Initially, no one thought any of it, until an anonymous whistleblower within NASCAR came forth and exposed Brian France's plot to push IndyCar out of ISC-owned tracks, and then pressure Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith to do the same. IRL immediately filed an antitrust lawsuit, which NASCAR attempted to have dismissed with prejudice, but the amount of evidence presented by the whistleblower was overwhelming. The case went to trial in May 2009, lasting for two weeks.
Brian France pleaded not guilty to all charges, and attempted to gaslight IndyCar by accusing them of conspiring with Bruton Smith to push NASCAR out of all SMI tracks. In the case of Indy Racing League v. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR was found guilty of conspiring to monopolize motorsports in the United States, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. France was also found guilty of perjury and lying under oath, and sentenced to 90 days in prison. Part of the terms of the settlement saw France having to divest almost all of his assets, including NASCAR and ISC, being allowed to keep Grand-Am Road Racing due to having little, if any, connection to NASCAR.
Track 	Type 	New owner 	New name (if applicable)
Auto Club Speedway 	Superspeedway	INDYCAR LLC 	California Speedway
Chicagoland Speedway 	Intermediate 	American Raceways Inc. 	N/A
Darlington Raceway 	Intermediate 	United States Auto Club 	N/A
Daytona International Speedway 	Superspeedway	United States Auto Club 	N/A
Homestead-Miami Speedway 	Intermediate 	City of Homestead 	N/A
Kansas Speedway 	Intermediate 	INDYCAR LLC 	N/A
Martinsville Speedway 	Short Track 	United States Auto Club 	N/A
Michigan International Speedway	Superspeedway	Penske Corporation 	N/A
Nazareth Speedway 	One Mile 	INDYCAR LLC 	Pennsylvania International Speedway
Phoenix International Raceway 	One Mile 	State of Arizona 	Arizona State Raceway
Richmond International Raceway 	Short Track 	American Raceways Inc. 	N/A
Route 66 Raceway 	Drag Strip 	National Hot Rod Association	N/A
Talladega Superspeedway 	Superspeedway	Speedway Motorsports Inc. 	Alabama Motor Speedway
Watkins Glen International 	Road Course 	American Raceways Inc. 	Watkins Glen International Raceway
NASCAR, meanwhile, was sold to the United States Auto Club (USAC), which had previously fielded a stock car division from 1958 to 1984. USAC absorbed the organization and renamed the series accordingly. NASCAR's Canadian and Mexican series, due to falling outside the jurisdiction of USAC, were spun off into independent sanctioning bodies.
2009 name 	2010 name
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 	USAC Grand National Series presented by Sprint
NASCAR Nationwide Series 	USAC Sportsman Series presented by Nationwide
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series	USAC Truck Series presented by Camping World
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 	USAC Modified Series presented by Whelen
NASCAR Camping World Series East 	USAC Late Model Series presented by K&N (unified)
NASCAR Camping World Series West 	USAC Late Model Series presented by K&N (unified)
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series	USAC Weekly Racing Series
The collapse of NASCAR sent shockwaves around the sporting world. The in-progress NASCAR seasons continued, and USAC immediately began work on new cars for the Grand National and Sportsman Series for 2010, mainly aimed at lowering costs and keeping Dodge in the sport, while also hopefully attracting new OEMs.
=== New leadership at IndyCar ===
IRL, meanwhile, was shocked by the verdict, having not expected to win. Immediately, it released its 2010 schedule, featuring a multitude of ex-ISC tracks including Kansas, Michigan, Chicagoland, Homestead-Miami, Phoenix, and the renamed California, with work to be conducted throughout 2010 to rebuild and resurface Nazareth. The terms of the sales contract for Pikes Peak were rendered null and void by the collapse of NASCAR and ISC, and would also return to the IndyCar schedule in 2010.
More changes were to come for IndyCar, however, when Tony George was ousted from his leadership role by his family, due to what they saw as reckless spending, including renovations to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000 to accomodate Formula One (a race that was lost after 2007 owing to disagreements between George and Bernie Ecclestone, especially in the wake of the controversial 2005 race), and funding an IndyCar team, Vision Racing. Family patriarch Mari Hulman George ultimately removed his unchecked power in June 2009, a month after the verdict. By January 2010, George had lost control over Hulman & Company, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and IRL, as the latter had started losing money thanks to his reckless spending, as well as George being portrayed by NASCAR fans as the one who killed their sport and left it in what they viewed as less-capable hands (though USAC's new stock car series ended up being incredibly popular, surpassing NASCAR in many areas).
Following George's ousting, Mari Hulman George made the shocking decision to sell IRL to SCCA Pro Racing, the pro racing division of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). SCCA had previously sanctioned the first season of CART in 1979 following the first open-wheel split between CART and USAC. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was not included in the sale.
SCCA Pro Racing grouped the IndyCar Series and Indy Lights under Formula Racing Promotions. For the 2010 season, the newly-renamed IZOD IndyCar Series continued using the Dallara chassis and Honda engine from the 2009 season, with plans for a new chassis and more engine manufacturers by 2012. 2011 was the final year of the Dallara IR-05 and Honda Indy V8, but the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was marred by a 15-car crash that saw Dan Wheldon killed, the first fatality in IndyCar competition since Paul Dana in 2006. Many were quick to blame the track, stating that IndyCar does not belong on intermediate oval tracks, but FRP blamed the Dallara IR-05 chassis, calling it a "death trap" due to its uneven weight distribution.
=== New cars ===
In 2010, Formula Racing Promotions announced the ICONIC Project (Innovative, Competitive, Open-wheel, New, Industry-relevant, Cost-effective), to create a new chassis divorced from the Dallara IR-05, which was viewed as a product of the CART/IRL split and often given the derogatory nickname "Crapwagon"; after Dan Wheldon's death, it was given the secondary nickname of "Widowmaker". The ICONIC committee was composed of experts and executives from racing and technical fields: Jeff Dahnert (Formula Racing Promotions CEO), William R. Looney III (military), Brian Barnhart (IndyCar president), Gil de Ferran (retired Indy 500 champion), Tony Purnell (motorsport), Eddie Gossage (Texas Motor Speedway), Neil Ressler, Tony Cotman (NZR Track Consulting) and Rick Long (motorsport). FRP accepted proposals from BAT Engineering, Dallara, DeltaWing, Lola and Swift for chassis design. Initially, only one design was to be accepted, before the decision was made to instead implement of a Balance of Performance (BoP) system, similar to those in sports car racing. One of the main goals of the program was to create more equal racing, primarily aimed at ending Penske and Ganassi's dominance.
The DeltaWing chassis was the first to be rejected, as it was viewed as too radical (though it was raced as a Garage 56 entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012), followed by the BAT Engineering design, which was unpopular with fans. The Dallara, Lola, and Swift designs were all selected, bearing the designations Dallara IR-12 (renamed to DW12 after the death of Dan Wheldon, who had been instrumental in the chassis' testing), Lola B12/00, and Swift 012.i. A fourth constructor was announced in April 2011, Panoz, running the Panoz GF12 (the "GF" serving as a tribute to G-Force Technologies).
In terms of engines, IndyCar's engine leasing system was kept in place, but the entire formula was changed. Honda would remain in the series, joined by three other constructors, these being Chevrolet (in partnership with Ilmor), Lotus, and Porsche. The Honda and Chevrolet engines would both be turbocharged V8 engines, while the Lotus would be a twin-turbocharged V6, and Porsche a turbocharged V6. Lotus also prepared its own chassis, the T129, only available to any teams using the Lotus engine.
The first year of the ICONIC chassis was incredibly competitive, thanks to the BoP system. Lotus, however, left the sport at the end of 2012, as their engine was underdeveloped and uncompetitive, taking their equally-uncompetitive chassis with them; their departure saw Cosworth enter with a turbocharged V8 based on the XFE engine used in CART and Champ Car. 2013 saw the first round of changes, with Lola introducing a second chassis option, the B12/01, which was visually distinct from the B12/00, but performed identically. All constructors were also ordered to remove the rear wheel guards, as they had not produced the desired results and in fact had contributed to increased debris in crashes.
Chassis regulations were changed in 2015, with a fifth constructor, Ligier, entering with the Ligier JS48. Teams were also allowed to construct their own chassis within a certain specification; in 2015, Team Penske and A. J. Foyt Enterprises built their own chassis, the Penske PC-28 and Coyote 15. To coincide with the entrance of Ligier, a fifth engine manufacter, Mazda, entered with a twin-turbocharged V6.
As of 2024, the chassis in the NTT IndyCar Series include the Dallara DW18, Lola B18/00, Lola B18/01, Swift 018.i, Panoz GF18, Ligier JS49, Penske PC-37, Coyote 24, McLaren M30, and Rahal RH-008. Engine manufacturers include Chevrolet, Honda, Cosworth, Porsche, Mazda, and Ferrari (the latter of whom plans to open a works team in 2025).
== See also ==
* List of IndyCar seasons (The Open-Wheel Revival)
* List of USAC seasons (The Open-Wheel Revival)
Category:The Open-Wheel Revival