The 2004 Champ Car World Series season was the 26th overall season in the CART/Champ Car genealogy, and the first under the ownership of Open-Wheel Racing Series (OWRS) as the Champ Car World Series. It began on April 18, 2004, and ended on November 7 after 14 races. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais. The Rookie of the Year was A. J. Allmendinger.

The open-wheel racing organization Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. had operated until 2003. After that year's season, CART declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in an Indianapolis courtroom in January 2004. Three team owners who had participated in the CART series, Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, and Paul Gentilozzi, purchased CART's liquidated assets and resurrected it as Open-Wheel Racing Series for the 2004 season.

Champ Car races were broadcast on Spike TV.The First Network For OWRS: Champ Car On Spike TV - Sports Business Daily, 11 March 2004 Also, high-definition live broadcasts were on HDNet. This was the last CART/Champ Car season which would see chassis from more than manufacturer used during the season as the Lola B02/00 chassis (introduced in 2002) would become the sole chassis for the series for the next two seasons before the Panoz DP01 took over as the sole chassis for 2007.

Drivers and teams The Ford-Cosworth XFE, a 2.65 liter turbo V8 engine remained the exclusive power plant for the reorganized Champ Car series. Bridgestone remained the exclusive tire supplier as well. They also continued the marketing agreement that branded the series Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The following teams and drivers competed in the 2004 Champ Car season. The would be the last Champ Car season in which any team would run a Reynard chassis during the season.

TeamChassisNoDriversRacesPrimary Sponsors Forsythe Championship RacingLola B02/001 Paul TracyAllIndeck3 Rodolfo LavínAllCorona7 Patrick CarpentierAllIndeck Newman/Haas RacingLola B02/002 Sébastien BourdaisAllMcDonald's6 Bruno JunqueiraAllPacifiCare Herdez CompetitionLola B02/004 Ryan Hunter-ReayAllHerdez55 Mario DomínguezAll Walker RacingReynard 02I5 Mário HaberfeldAllCummins15 David Besnard13Wright-Patton-Shakespeare Michael Valiante14Wildlife Conservation Network Rocketsports RacingLola B02/008 Alex TaglianiAllJohnson Controls17 Nelson Philippe1–5LeasePlan U.S. Air Force Reserve Rocketsports Racing Microchip Swift Leisure Memo Gidley6–7 Guy Smith8–14 RuSPORTLola B02/009 Michel Jourdain Jr.AllGigante10 A. J. AllmendingerAllBG Products Western Union Lance Armstrong Foundation PKV RacingLola B02/0012 Jimmy VasserAllGulfstream21 Roberto GonzálezAllNII Holdings Mi-Jack Conquest RacingReynard 02I14 Alex Sperafico1–8Mi-Jack TSI Scotiabank Inverlat Nelson Philippe9Lola B02/0010–1434 Justin Wilson1–2, 4–14Mi-JackReynard 02I3 Dale Coyne RacingLola B02/0011 Oriol ServiàAllYokeTV.com19 Tarso Marques1–2, 14American Medical Response Gastón Mazzacane3–12 Jarek Janiš13

From CART to Champ Car On January 28, 2004, the assets of the bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (CART) were awarded to Open-Wheel Racing Series, LLC, over a bid from Indy Racing League owner Tony George as the judge decided that OWRS's bid would allow CART's debt holders a better chance at recouping their money. Despite this victory, the OWRS partners Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe, and Paul Gentilozzi, would still have to work hard to ensure the 18 racecars they promised would be on track for the scheduled Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18. Two CART teams founded in 2003, American Spirit Team Johansson and Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing, would not race in 2004, while U. E. Patrick, one of the original founders of CART, sold off his CART team assets before starting a short-lived IRL effort.

Long Beach Season Premiere and its aftermath On March 9 a "Season Premiere" promotional event was held in Long Beach, California, announcing 12 confirmed drivers and a 16 race schedule. However, just two days later on March 11, Adrián Fernández threw the plans for the season into serious doubt by announcing the one car team he had presented at Long Beach would not compete in the Champ Car series. He instead expanded his Indy Racing League team to two cars (even though the IRL season had already seen its first race). Another blow came a week later on March 18 when Bobby Rahal, onetime CEO of CART and 3 time series champion and who also presented a one car team in Long Beach, announced he would not compete in CART and would also run a two car IRL team like Fernández.

Champ Car makes it to Long Beach Momentum for Champ Car began to turn in the aftermath of Rahal's exit when his driver, Michel Jourdain Jr., announced that he and his sponsor, the Mexican supermarket Gigante would not follow Rahal to the IRL. Jourdain ended up driving for the new RuSPORT team, partnering with rookie A. J. Allmendinger. On March 20, Herdez Competition announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay would race a 2nd car for them. On March 24 Gerald Forsythe expanded his team from two cars to three, providing a seat for Patrick Carpentier. Conquest Racing announced a two car team featuring ex-Formula One driver Justin Wilson on March 25, with Alex Sperafico filling the second seat two days later. Walker Racing's one car team announced on April 8 proved to be the final piece of the puzzle to get to the 18 car field promised by the Champ Car partners in January. Although his participation with two cars was already known, Dale Coyne waited until just before practice began for the Grand Prix of Long Beach to announce that his drivers would be Champ Car veterans Oriol Servià and Tarso Marques.

Mid-season changes

Ex F1 Driver Gastón Mazzacane replaced Tarso Marques at Dale Coyne Racing beginning with the race in Milwaukee. Rocketsports Racing swapped out rookie driver Nelson Philippe for Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley after "contractual issues" at Toronto. Rocketsports changed drivers again for the Road America round, bringing in Indy Lights and sports car veteran Guy Smith to replace Memo Gidley. Mi-Jack Conquest Racing brought in Nelson Philippe to take the place of Alex Sperafico beginning with the Denver round. Mi-Jack Conquest's #14 team began racing a Lola chassis beginning in Montreal. Walker Racing brought out a second car for the final two rounds of the season. Australian David Besnard drove the car at Surfer's Paradise. Toyota Atlantic veteran Michael Valiante took over the drive at Mexico City. Dale Coyne Racing replaced Gastón Mazzacane with Jarek Janiš for the race at Surfer's Paradise. Tarso Marques returned to Dale Coyne Racing for the final race of the season at Mexico City.

Rule changes The mandatory pit window rule from the previous two seasons was eliminated. At early races, teams were given a mandatory number of green flag pit stops but this was also dropped after the first two races of the season. However, the rule was re-instituted for the Las Vegas round to eliminate a possible fuel economy race with no push to pass. For non-oval track races, Bridgestone introduced two types of tires, both of which had to be used unless wet weather tires were used: A primary black-walled tire and a secondary red-walled option tire. The option tire was a softer, faster tire but less durable than the primary tire. For non-oval track races, Ford-Cosworth introduced the "push to pass" button, giving each driver an additional 50 horsepower for 60 seconds per race. The driver activated the function with a green button on the steering wheel, the boost would continue until the driver took his foot off the throttle for 1 second or time ran out.

Schedule Icon Legend Oval/Speedway Road course Street circuit

Rnd Date Race Name Circuit City/Location 1 April 18 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 2 May 23 Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey Fundidora Park Monterrey, Mexico 3 June 5 The Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 250 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 4 June 20 Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon 5 July 3 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio 6 July 11 Molson Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Canada 7 July 25 Molson Indy Vancouver Concord Pacific Place Vancouver, Canada 8 August 8 Grand Prix of Road America Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin 9 August 15 Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver Denver Civic Center Denver, Colorado 10 August 29 Molson Indy Montreal Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal, Canada 11 September 12 Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California 12 September 25 Bridgestone 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada 13 October 24 Lexmark Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Australia 14 November 7 Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico

The initial schedule announced by Champ Car at the Long Beach Season Premiere event included 16 races. One event that didn't make the final schedule was a race on a street circuit in Seoul, South Korea on October 17, a week before the Surfers Paradise race, but the race was cancelled on September 24 because of "environmental issues", two months after reports that government approval for a race near Seoul World Cup Stadium could not be arranged in time. The second was a "TBA" event that was scheduled to take place somewhere in the United States after the Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate in Mexico City and never materialized. A second TBA event on the initial schedule became the Bridgestone 400 on September 25 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which was announced on July 7.

Results

Rnd Race Name Pole positionFastest lap Led most laps Winning driver Winning team Report1 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Bruno Junqueira Sébastien Bourdais Paul Tracy Paul TracyReport2 Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of MonterreyNewman/Haas RacingReport3 The Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 250 Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-ReayHerdez CompetitionReport4 Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Sébastien Bourdais Bruno Junqueira Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport5 U.S. Bank Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Paul Tracy Bruno Junqueira Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport6 Molson Indy Toronto Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport7 Molson Indy Vancouver Paul Tracy Paul Tracy Paul Tracy Paul TracyForsythe Championship RacingReport8 Sébastien Bourdais Bruno Junqueira Paul Tracy Alex Tagliani Alex TaglianiRocketsports RacingReport9 Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Paul Tracy Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport10 Molson Indy Montreal Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Bruno JunqueiraNewman/Haas RacingReport11 Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey Sébastien Bourdais Mario Domínguez Patrick Carpentier Patrick CarpentierForsythe Championship RacingReport12 Bridgestone 400 Presented by Corona Patrick Carpentier Bruno Junqueira Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport13 Lexmark Indy 300 Paul Tracy Bruno Junqueira Paul Tracy Bruno JunqueiraNewman/Haas RacingReport14 Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Presented by Banamex Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport

Final driver standings