A split between Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and the Indy Racing League (IRL), two premier sanctioning bodies in American open-wheel car racing, lasted from 1996 to 2008. Before the split, CART, known as IndyCar from 1992 to 1996, was the sport's premier sanctioning body, although the United States Auto Club (USAC) sanctioned its flagship event, the Indianapolis 500. The split stemmed from ideological differences between CART officials, who prioritized road courses and street circuits, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) president Tony George, who preferred oval track racing. The IRL was formed by George in 1994 and debuted in January 1996 as a cheaper, oval-focused alternative to CART in order to allow American drivers who had experience in dirt track racing to race in the Indianapolis 500. For the 1996 edition of the race, George implemented the 25/8 rule which essentially shunned CART teams from competing. CART responded by hosting their own race on the same day at Michigan International Speedway, named the U.S. 500; however, the race was marred by a major pileup before the start of the race.
Despite the embarrassment of the U.S. 500, CART was still viewed as the more prestigious American open-wheel racing league and initially continued to thrive. In the next few years, however, numerous financial and scheduling missteps led to common infighting and several chief operating officers being ousted. The prestige of the Indianapolis 500 was still too large for teams to overlook, and in 2000, several years after the 25/8 rule had been discontinued, Chip Ganassi Racing became CART's first major team to compete in the race since the split began. The 2001 CART season was particularly disastrous for the series; its first race at Texas Motor Speedway was cancelled because of the dangerously high speeds, and the sudden implementation of a controversial rule regarding turbocharger pop-off valves led two engine manufacturers to leave the series. These incidents also caused a majority of CART's most prominent teams and drivers to defect to the newly renamed IRL IndyCar Series by 2003. In December of that year, CART went bankrupt, and its assets were purchased by a trio of team owners and reorganized into the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) ahead of the 2004 season. The CCWS and IndyCar Series struggled to coexist over the next three years, and members of both series recognized that American open-wheel car racing was at risk of dissipating entirely unless a merger was completed. After years of failed negotiations, Tony George and CCWS co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven announced in February 2008 that the two series had officially merged, with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in April of that year acting as the finale of the CCWS. The IRL, which rebranded to IndyCar in 2011, was thus left as the sole sanctioning body of the sport.
The split between CART and the IRL disillusioned many fans of American open-wheel car racing and is said to have contributed to the popularity boom of NASCAR in the 1990s and 2000s. Ironically, the modern-day IndyCar Series features a combination of ovals, road courses, and street circuits, but it remains less popular than CART. Tony George, who is no longer involved in the series, has largely been criticized by fans and journalists alike for diminishing the sport's star power, although CART team owners have also been blamed for needlessly prolonging the split.
Background Disagreements over the sanctioning of American open-wheel car racing originated from the sport's first split. Since 1956, the United States Auto Club (USAC), formed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) president Tony Hulman, had sanctioned all top-level American open-wheel races, including the prestigious Indianapolis 500, under their National Championship series. In the 1970s, the series shifted away from dirt track races in favor of road course events, causing several affluent motorsports teams to join the series and drive away independent teams. The series' team owners opposed USAC's management of the sport and felt that they had little-to-no say in improving it. Additionally, the deaths of Hulman in October 1977 and eight USAC officials in April 1978 left the organization in disarray. Famed road racer Dan Gurney wrote a white paper with plans to allow team owners to help govern the sport, but after USAC rejected the idea, Gurney and other team owners formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), which hosted its first race in March 1979.
After a failed attempt to ban CART drivers from the 1979 Indianapolis 500 and a short-lived reunification of the sport in 1980, CART's top division — the Indy Car World Series — became the premier American open-wheel championship circuit, while USAC's National Championship (renamed to the Gold Crown Championship in 1981) only sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. The two leagues reached a truce as the Indianapolis 500 awarded points to drivers in the CART Indy Car World Series championship beginning in 1983, thus providing stability to American open-wheel racing. Through the rest of the 1980s, American open-wheel car racing experienced a rise in popularity, as tickets for the Indianapolis 500 were regularly being sold out months in advance and the average attendance rates for the Indy Car World Series surpassed that of international open-wheel series Formula One (F1) by 1989. The series' popularity grew immensely when then-reigning F1 champion Nigel Mansell joined in 1993, to the point that NASCAR chief executive officer (CEO) Bill France Jr. and Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone viewed the series as a legitimate threat.
Behind the scenes, however, tensions began brewing with CART and other members of the sport. Andy Kenopensky, the owner of Machinists Union Racing and a member of CART's board of directors, was among the harshest of CART's early critics, believing that wealthy team owners like Penske Racing's Roger Penske were taking advantage of the lack of spending limits and cultivating an economic environment in which poorer teams could not last. After getting kicked out of the board in 1989, Kenopensky wrote a letter which called for a revolt in CART's membership, which ultimately led to John Frasco being ousted from his position as CART's chairman. John Caponigro, the president of CART, had allegedly criticized the Indy Car World Series' title sponsor, PPG Industries, in an annual meeting with CART team owners on October 30, 1989, stating that the company did not support the series' television package or advertise the series in newspapers. Caponigro's contract with CART was resultantly terminated less than two months later, and he was replaced by Johnny Capels. The ten-man board of directors was also dissolved and replaced with a board that included all 24 car owners of the Indy Car World Series.
Tony Hulman's grandson, Tony George, assumed control of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on January 8, 1990, following the death of Joseph Cloutier the month prior. In October 1990, George conceived a plan to garner further exposure of the Indianapolis 500 by including the race in an international oval-focused series, but it would never be fulfilled as CART feuded with Formula One's sanctioning body Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), which prevented CART from racing in Japan and even threatened to host an oval championship in 1992. George was not told of this championship until the announcement was made and criticized both sanctioning bodies for "not really looking at all the issues."
One of George's top initiatives was to cut costs for American open-wheel racing, as owners struggled to run cars of different specifications for CART races and USAC's Indianapolis 500. Immediately after the 1991 Indianapolis 500, George stated that he and USAC were considering changing the standard specifications to naturally aspirated, engines as soon as 1993, but this rule was never set in motion. It was the same engine size as was common in the Formula One World Championship at the time and proved to costly to run in the World Sportscar Championship, which would have freed up some manufacturer capacity but also have kept costs high for the teams. He then held a meeting with CART officials in Houston, Texas in November 1991 where he laid out his plans to unify CART and USAC under a single American open-wheel racing league, named Indycar Inc. The CART board of directors was to be reduced to 12 members, with George acting as the series CEO and chairman, in order to cut costs. However, William Stokken, CART's new chairman, rejected the idea. George presented an altered version of the plan in a June 1992 board meeting which called for six board members, but it was again turned down by IndyCar, which had rebranded from its original name, CART, four months prior. For the rest of George's time as a non-voting member on the IndyCar board, he was clearly growing displeased with the direction of the sport and even walked out of a meeting in November 1993.
Formation of Indy Racing League
The tension between Tony George and IndyCar finally boiled over when George announced his resignation from the sport's board of directors on January 7, 1994, citing his "continued dissatisfaction with the decision-making process dictated by the organizational structure of CART." George also disliked that sprint and midget car drivers weren't given a chance to race in the Indianapolis 500 because of IndyCar's emphasis on road courses. Andrew Craig was named the new president and CEO of IndyCar that same day. On the weekend of the 1994 Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix, George confirmed that USAC and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were in the process of "establishing a schedule and rules for a new series of automobile races which will include the world-famous Indianapolis 500-Mile Race." The series, named the Indy Racing League (IRL), was officially announced on July 8 with a five-member board of directors and sanctioning from USAC. It was scheduled to debut in 1996, and the Indianapolis 500 would act as its cornerstone event. Many people involved in the sport initially didn't believe that the series would succeed; Ed Hinton of ESPN believed that the IRL was "mainly a bargaining ploy by George, to bring CART back to its senses from extravagance."
The IRL's engine specifications for 1996 would permit turbocharged engines with of engine displacement, down from the engines used in IndyCar. Beginning in 1997, the series would institute a new V8 engine formula. In order to limit ever-increasing speeds at IMS, the maximum inches of boost (inHG) for the 1995 Indianapolis 500 was limited to 52 in June, and again to 48 in August before being outright banned in 1996. Roger Penske, whose driver Al Unser Jr. won the 1994 Indianapolis 500 with a Mercedes-Benz-built pushrod engine that used 55 inHG, was outraged by the rule changes and called them "politically motivated." Penske's two entries, driven by former Indianapolis 500 winners Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi, wound up failing to qualify for the 1995 race. The IRL also allowed IndyCar chassis that were built from 1991 to 1995 for their five races in 1996.