IndyCar name The term "Indy car" began as a nickname for the cars that competed in USAC's Championship Division of
open-wheel racing in the United States, deriving from the sport's most popular competition, the
Indianapolis 500. The division's link with Indianapolis soon resulted in the term surpassing the official term "championship car" (or its short form "champ car") in common use and promotions. The term continued to be used by USAC's replacement as the dominant governing body for open-wheel racing, CART, which called its main series the "CART PPG Indy Car World Series" despite the body not sanctioning the 500. In 1992, during an attempt by CART to broaden their board membership, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway registered the
camel case trademark
IndyCar with the
United States Patent and Trademark Office and licensed it to CART as their new trade name. In 1996, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President
Tony George launched a new national championship racing series, the
Indy Racing League. This resulted in a legal battle over the
IndyCar trademark: In March 1996, CART filed a
lawsuit against the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an effort to protect their license to the
IndyCar mark after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had attempted to terminate it. In April, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway filed a separate lawsuit against CART to prevent them from further use of the mark. Eventually a settlement was reached in which CART agreed to give up the use of the
IndyCar mark following the 1996 season and the IRL agreed not to use the name before the end of the 2002 season.
Split with CART The dispute between CART and IRL centered on the Indianapolis 500, long considered the flagship race of the sport. From 1980 until 1995, USAC continued to sanction the Indy 500, although CART drivers predominantly competed in the race and points that drivers scored during the event counted towards the CART drivers' championship. George felt that his opinions regarding increasing costs and revenue sharing were being ignored, while CART team owners felt George used his influence over USAC to have a disproportionate impact on the general operation of the sport. After a number of attempts at a compromise board failed, IMS formed the Indy Racing League in
1994, with the series being slated to begin racing in
1996. CART had primarily sanctioned Indy car racing since
1979, when the organization broke away from USAC. George blueprinted the IRL as a lower-cost open-wheel alternative to CART, which in his view had become technology-driven and dominated by a few wealthy multi-car teams. The IRL was designed only to run on oval tracks, in order to promote American drivers from the midget and sprint car ranks to graduate to IndyCar racing, the same way that IndyCar legends
A.J. Foyt,
Mario Andretti,
Johnny Rutherford, and the Unsers (
Al Unser, Sr. and
Bobby Unser) had in the 1960s. Starting with the first IRL season, the league proclaimed that 25 of the 33 spots in the Indy 500 starting grid would be reserved for cars from full-time IRL teams. The offer was initially made in November 2007. Moving that race, or postponing it, would be required in order to accommodate the
Long Beach Grand Prix, which was scheduled for the same weekend. In February 2008, Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George and owners of the Champ Car World Series completed an agreement to unify the sport for 2008. The result was that the Champ Car World Series was suspended except for the
Long Beach Grand Prix. Many of the former Champ Car teams moved to the IndyCar Series using equipment provided by the IRL.
Randy Bernard was announced as the new IRL CEO in February 2010. In 2011, the sanctioning body dropped the Indy Racing League name, becoming IndyCar to reflect the merged series. The new
Dallara DW12 race car was introduced for the 2012 season. IndyCar collaborated with
DreamWorks Animation to launch comedy film
Turbo in 2013. Bernard was fired in October 2012, and replaced by
Mark Miles. After absorbing Champ Car, the IndyCar Series became what the CART series from which it separated was and its related European open-wheel
formula counterparts: former prominent CART teams such as
Chip Ganassi Racing and
Team Penske are frequent race winners, there is a strong contingent of foreign-born drivers, the cars are increasingly electronic and aero dependent. The schedule currently includes more road and street courses than oval tracks. The IndyCar Series recently introduced hybrid powertrains.
Driver safety Driver safety has also been a major point of concern, with a number of drivers seriously injured, particularly in the early years of the series. There have been five fatal crashes in the history of the series. Compared to
road racing venues, the lack of run-offs on oval tracks, coupled with higher speeds due to the long straights and banked turns, means that there is far less margin for error. Car design was attributed as a leading cause of early injuries, and the series made improvements to chassis design to address those safety concerns. Following a series of spectacular high-profile accidents in
2003, including American racing legend
Mario Andretti and former champion
Kenny Bräck, as well as the death of
Tony Renna in testing at Indianapolis, the IRL made additional changes to reduce speeds and increase safety. IndyCar was the first racing series to adopt the
SAFER soft wall safety system, which debuted at the Indianapolis 500 and has now been installed at almost all major oval racing circuits. The SAFER system research and design was supported and funded in large part by the Hulman-George family and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. ==Fatalities==