IndyCar Series

The **IndyCar Series**, known as the **NTT IndyCar Series** is the premier level of American open wheel racing. The current series was founded by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George. It began in 1996 as a competitor to CART known as the Indy Racing League (IRL). In 2008, the IndyCar Series merged with the Champ Car World Series (formerly CART). The series continues to be sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, which has taken the name IndyCar. In 2019, the series was purchased by Roger Penske.

## Overview 
### Series name 
The IRL was unable to utilize the name *IndyCar* until the beginning of the 2003 for legal reasons. For 1996-1997, the series was simply called the *USAC Indy Racing League*. For 1998-1999, the series received its first title sponsor, and was known as the *Pep Boys Indy Racing League*. In 2000, the series sponsor became the Internet search engine Northern Light. The series was named the *Indy Racing Northern Light Series*. This only lasted two of the planed five year contract.

The league went back to the *Indy Racing League* name for the 2002 season. The **IndyCar Series** name was adopted in 2003. For the 2008 season, DirecTV served as a presenting sponsor, and the series was briefly advertised as the *IndyCar Series in DIRECTV HD*.

IZOD was announced as the series title sponsor beginning on November 5, 2009. The contrace runs for at least 5 years. The engine rules changed in 2000. The displacement was dropped from 4.0L to 3.5L. The block no longer needed to be production-based. In 2004, the displacement was further reduced to 3.0L to curb top speeds.

When General Motors' ended the Oldsmobile name, the engine label was changed to Chevrolet starting with the 2002 season.  In August 2003, Chevrolet announced its "Gen IV" motor, a rebadged Cosworth motor for competition. At the time, Cosworth was owned by Ford. On November 4, 2004, Chevrolet stated that it would be ending its IRL engine program at the end of the 2005 season.

In 2003, Toyota came to the IRL. In November 2005, Toyota company officials announced the company's withdrawal from American open-wheel racing and the immediate discontinuation of its IRL program. This was the same time they entered into NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series.

Honda also came to the IRL in 2003. By 2005 was clearly the dominant engine manufacturer. Starting in 2006, they became the only engine manufacturer in the IndyCar Series, and will continue in that capacity until 2010. The Honda engine is designed and produced by Ilmor Engineering, which is part owned by Roger Penske.

IndyCar Series engines are rev-limited to 10,300 Revolutions per minute (rpm) and produce approximately 650 hp. The valve train is a dual overhead camshaft configuration with four valves per cylinder. The crankshaft is made of alloy steel, with five main bearing caps. The pistons are forged aluminum alloy, while the connecting rods are machined alloy steel. The electronic engine management system is supplied by Motorola, firing a Capacitor discharge ignition (CDI) ignition system. The engine lubrication is a dry sump type, cooled by a single water pump.

## Seasons 
Following the merger of CART/Champ Car into the Indy Racing League in 2008, the IRL acquired all intellectual property and historic records.

**1996**: Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins were tied in the final standings, and were declared co-champions. Calkins had one win, as opposed to Sharp being winless, but no tiebreakers were in place.
**2006**: Sam Hornish, Jr. and Dan Wheldon tied in the final standings for first place. Hornish clinched the championship based on a tiebreaker of most victories during the season.
**2008**: Although no report was officially released about it in 2008, IndyCar.com confirmed in 2009 that Danica Patrick being named Most Popular Driver was her "fifth consecutive" win of the award.

## Related pages
* Indianapolis 500

## References 
## Other websites 
* Official website
* Official website of the Indianapolis 500 
* IndyCar Series at Facebook