This section contains information on what the IRL is, who the people who run it are, and how it came to be.
A form of racing characterized by cars that have historically raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More specifically, Indy cars are highly aerodynamic, rear-engine, single-seat, open-wheel, open-cockpit cars which historically have been raced at high speeds on paved and dirt ovals (there is no Indy car racing on dirt today).
The Indy Racing League (IRL) sanctions an Indy car racing series in the United States. Specifically, the IRL chooses the tracks, makes up the schedule, guarantees the purse, conducts and administers the races, and makes and enforces the rules for car construction and race conduct. The IRL also maintains a points fund and awards its championship. It is owned by the Hulman family (whose privately-held corporation also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway), and its president is Tony George (whose name is often abbreviated to "TG" in Internet IRL discussions).
Tony is currently the president of Indianopolis Motor Speedway, a racer himself (he's occasionally spotted in a Legends car at Charlotte) and the grandson of Tony Hulman, who purchased the track in 1946 and owned and operated it until his death in 1978. (More specifically, George is the son of Mari Hulman George, who is the daughter of Tony Hulman. Tony's father is Elmer George, who competed at Indy in the early '60s.) Tony George himself doesn't actually own the Speedway; its title is held by Hulman and Co., a privately held corporation controlled by the family. Tony has made a number of changes at IMS over the last few years, both in the operations (such as inviting NASCAR to run a stock car race there), and in the facility itself. Tony is also the president of the Indy Racing League, which like IMS is privately controlled by the Hulman family. He sees the IRL as the logical growth path for American open-wheel racing.
Leo Mehl is executive director of the IRL. Prior to taking this post at the beginning of 1997, Mehl was for over thirty years the person in charge of Goodyear's worldwide racing operations. In that position, he brought Goodyear from an also-ran in the early '60s to one of the world's leading maker of racing tires, and became one of the most respected people in all of motorsports.
Brian Barnhardt is the IRL's chief technical inspector. Prior to this, he was for many years an Indy car crew chief; his resume includes several Indy 500 wins.
From the beginning of the IRL series in 1996 through June 1997, USAC performed most of the technical functions for the IRL: rules enforcement, race direction, and scoring. However, after a scoring fiasco at the Texas race in 1997 resulted in the wrong driver being declared the winner, the IRL dismissed USAC and assumed these functions itself. At that point there was no official relationship between the IRL and USAC. However, about six months later, the IRL and USAC entered into an agreement to cross-promote each other's series; among other things, some USAC events began to be scheduled as support events for IRL races. This is where things stand as of this writing.
There is no official relationship between the IRL and NASCAR as such. One IRL event (Phoenix) is scheduled at a track owned by the International Speedway Corp., which is controlled by the France family which also owns NASCAR. (There are rumors of other IRL events at ISC-owned tracks.) The IRL does interface to NASCAR, as it does to all of the other major U.S. sanctioning bodies, via its membership in the ACCUS coordinating body.
This section answers some questions about the history of the IRL.
Indy car racing has of course been around much longer than the IRL itself has been. The IRL traces its origins back through the races sanctioned by CART prior from 1981-1995, then to the USAC sanction which ran from 1956-1980, and then back to the AAA sanction which ran from the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 through 1955.
The organization was founded in September of 1994. The 1994 and 1995 period was spent organizing the series, establishing rules, signing up teams and suppliers, and scheduling races. The first IRL race took place in 1996.
The Disney World 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway on January 20, 1996, was the first race sanctioned by the IRL. It was won by Buzz Calkins. The Indy 500 of that year was the first Indy 500 sanctioned by the IRL, and it was won by Buddy Lazier.
The IRL started out with the notion that the Indy 500 would be the final event of each season, which meant a season consisting of a June-to-May year. Thus, because the first IRL event was the Disney World 200 in January of 1996, the inaugural 1996 season consisted of only three events: Disney World, the Phoenix race in March, and the Indy 500 in May. The next race, in New Hampshire in July 1996, constituted the beginning of the 1997 season, with the intent being that the final event of that season would be the 1997 Indy 500 the following May.
However, the fans found this schedule confusing, and sponsors complained that it didn't fit into their fiscal years, which made sponsoring agreements more difficult for potential sponsors to sell to their management. So, in September 1996, after the New Hampshire race, the IRL made a decision to change its seasons to align with the calendar year. To reconcile this with the fact that the 1997 season had already begun, a decision was made to extend that season through the final race in calendar year 1997 (which was the Las Vegas race in November), resulting in an abnormal season 17 months long. Starting in 1998, the seasons coincide with the calendar years, beginning in January.
This section deals with the IRL/CART split and the issues surrounding the IRL's formation and continued existence. If you aren't interested in racing politics, feel free to skip to the next section.
If you know a little about Indy car racing but haven't been keeping up with what's been going on since 1995, then you are probably familiar with Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART, which has been sanctioning Indy car racing since 1979. The IRL began sanctioning Indy car racing in 1996.
Historical background: From 1956 through 1980, all of Indy car racing was sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, or USAC. In 1979, many of the Indy car team owners got into a dispute with USAC over various issues and broke away to form their own sanctioning body, known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART. This body, working with the track owners and promoters, quickly took control of every Indycar race except for the Indy 500, which, because the track ownership at the time (the Hulmans) were heavily involved with USAC, remained under USAC control.
After a few years of turmoil, things settled down and there was (more or less) peace in the valley for a while: CART sanctioned and operated Indycar racing and funded its championship points fund, while USAC continued to sanction the most prestigious race on the schedule, the Indy 500. The two bodies got along well enough that USAC encouraged CART drivers and teams to participate in the 500, and CART in turn awarded championship points (in fact, double points) for the 500 despite the fact that it wasn't under their sanction. Rules, while not identical, were kept similar enough that most of the cars were able to participate in both the 500 and the CART races without major alterations. However, this came apart in the mid-1990s when some dissident car owners begin to question the general direction in which CART was going. When several of these dissidents were expelled from CART's board of directors in 1995, the die was cast.
CART has, under license, been using the "Indycar" name (which is a trademark of IMS) as the name of its series for many years. When the IRL was formed, that agreement was terminated, and CART in 1997 agreed to a settlement of an IRL lawsuit in which CART agreed to stop using "Indycar" as the name of its series. This puts fans who want to discuss this form of racing in a bit of a quandry; I've been using "Indy car" (two words) when I mean to refer to either or both generically. As of 1998 CART has begun using the old term "Championship cars" as the name of its cars, to avoid confusion. In my Web pages, when I mean to refer to both car types generally, as well as their common ancestry in USAC and AAA, I use the term "Indy cars" (two words).
The reasons why are many and varied, and depend to a considerable extent on who is telling the story. But since I'm the one telling, you get my version. :-) CART shifted their emphasis more towards a European-type series where the focus of the events was the spectacle of the fast cars and the star attraction of the drivers and other celebrities attending, with the actual racing action being considered less important. A relatively permissive set of rules caused costs to rise rapidly, and they adopted a "franchise" system for controlling the size of their fields. These things made their Indy car series more or less an invitational series, being run to a great extent by wealthy playboys and heirs. Smaller teams charged that their interests weren't being considered by CART.
Many American fans begin to be put off by the star-system model of how the series was being run; gradually, the series began to move away from the more typically American idea of competition between individuals. The emphasis shifted to a contest of team owners, a la Formula 1, and a focus on competition between nationalities. Events were scheduled at overseas ventures, as the series began to go into some of F1's traditional territories. This did wonders for international acceptance, but audience interest and race revenues in the U.S. fell off drastically (aided somewhat by the rise in popularity of NASCAR during this time frame). And there were charges that the series was becoming biased against American drivers, a situation that was polarized by the defection of the nation's top young Sprint-car driver, Jeff Gordon, to Stock car racing and NASCAR in 1991. (The various Sprint car series had from the '50s through the '80s been the primary training ground for Indy car drivers.)
So, in 1995 Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George led a group that broke away from CART and founded the IRL. The new organization originally intended to contest a sub-championship within the context of CART, but the CART board wanted none of that. So the IRL launched a rival Indycar series, intending to restore a more traditionally American style of Indy car racing, with the Indy 500 as its crown jewel. The IRL's Indy car series would consist entirely of ovals (no road races), the franchise system of eligibility was eliminated (it should be noted that CART has also abandoned this system since the split), and drastic steps were planned to cut costs. For the IRL's first two seasons, 25 of the 33 starting positions in the Indy 500 were reserved for IRL regular participants, effectively excluding from the race the CART teams (who, for the most part, had no desire to participate in the IRL's other events besides the 500). CART responded by refusing to award championship points for the 1996 Indy 500, and the die was cast; the two series are now operating as completely separate entities. CART continues to operate as a part-oval, part-road racing series with very fast, expensive cars and increasing international asperations, while the IRL has established itself as an all-oval, lower-cost series with all of its events taking place in North America.
The jury is still out, and may be for some time. Right now, it appears that the worldwide racing audience might support both series very nicely. Likely, CART will continue on pretty much as it currently is, relying heavily on the international audience, while the IRL concentrates its efforts in North America.
There is no way of knowing for sure, since the IRL is a privately held firm and is not required to release its financial records to the public. But very rough estimates made by some knowledgable observers hold that the IRL probably lost money in 1996, but probably broke even (or close to it) in 1997 and 1998, and at its current growth rate should be profitable shortly if it isn't already. The Hulmans make money hand over fist on their other events at IMS (the NASCAR race and the golf tournament) and the IRL itself has good sponsorship, so it is unlikely that it is still losing money as of this writing, and even if it is, the losses are inconsequential compared to the Hulmans' other income.
Two tracks, New Hampshire and Phoenix, have probably posted a net loss on their IRL races through the 1998 season. New Hampshire is no longer on the schedule, but Phoenix has committed for a new three-year agreement as of October 1998. The Speedway Motorsports tracks (Texas, Charlotte, and Atlanta) have posted good profits on all of their IRL races. Results for other tracks have been in between, but no one else is complaining.
It isn't likely. Besides the vitriol on both sides, there is no practical benefit to either side in a merger. There is also little or no possibility of a rules compromise that would allow both CART's and the IRL's cars to compete in the same races; CART's suppliers won't accept a formula that makes the much less expensive IRL cars competitive with them, and the IRL would not agree to an unequal formula where CART's higher-downforce cars and more powerful engines would have a considerable advantage.
There has from time to time been discussion of the two series agreeing to coordinate their schedules so that they would not compete head to head on the same weekend. However, CART is currently expanding its schedule, and it appears that they are striving for a NASCAR-style schedule with racing nearly every weekend between March and November. As a practical matter, that would make any scheduling coordination impossible.
The IRL is one of the seven members of ACCUS, the U.S. auto racing coordination body. (The others are NASCAR, CART, USAC, SCCA, NHRA, and PSCR.) The IRL recognizes licenses from these other bodies and also international licenses issued by the FIA, subject to rookie testing (see question 4.8).
Some of these drivers have for their own reasons (and reasons having to do to committments to their teams) chosen not to compete in the IRL. As of 1998, the IRL has no rules whatsoever to hinder participation of CART teams in any way. Of course, they would have to buy IRL-legal cars and engines, and put together an engine program. (Top CART teams in their series never touch their leased engines. The IRL prohibits engine leasing and requires teams to maintain their own engines.)
Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. are CART drivers, and they and their team owners have chosen to remain loyal to CART and not participate in IRL events. There are both practical and emotional reasons for their doing so. Also, through 1997 there was an official barrier in the form of the IRL's 25 and 8 rule, which reserved starting spots in the Indy 500 for the IRL regulars. However, this rule is no longer in force as of 1998.
As for the other drivers mentioned above, plus a few more that you might occasionally hear of in those "IRL is unfair" stories, a distressing trend in the sports media has been to blame the IRL for the absence of drivers who retired from racing before the IRL was formed. Here's a rundown on some frequently mentioned. Keep in mind as you read this that the CART-IRL split occurred in 1996, and the IRL wasn't even thought of until 1994:
As you can see, all of these "name" drivers left CART (and in several cases, left racing altogether) prior to the split, and for reasons having nothing to do with the IRL. It should be pointed out at this point that most of CART's current crop of drivers had little or no oval track experience prior to entering CART. Because road racing makes up the bulk of their schedule, they tend to recruit road racers from the European feeder series; many of their teams place little or no emphasis on oval racing and oval track drivers are not recruited for CART rides. Of the five former Indy 500 winners who are active in racing today, three are currently competing in the IRL (Arie Luyendyk, Buddy Lazier, and Eddie Cheever), one is in Formula 1 (Jacques Villeneuve), and only one remains in CART (Al Unser Jr.).
There are two answers to that question. The first is that, although some people often attribute NASCAR's recent rise in popularity to the split, the fact is that the rise of NASCAR was already well under way by 1995. NASCAR has been very smart in its marketing and presentation, and some of its popularity today can be attributed to serendipitous factors, such as the population and economic rise of the U.S. South (NASCAR's traditional market) beginning around 1985, and the major league baseball strike of 1994, which NASCAR was very quick to capitalize on. Plus, it should be pointed out that a significant portion of NASCAR's current audience is the direct result of the personal popularity of Jeff Gordon, and that Gordon constitutes Exhibit A of U.S. open-wheel drivers who switched to stock cars only after being unable to obtain a ride in CART.
The second answer is that it shouldn't matter. There seems to be almost an obsession in some corners of the open-wheel community to "get" NASCAR. This is the wrong focus. Both CART and the IRL should be concentrating on developing their audiences by increasing the opportunities for all race fans, as opposed to an attitude of campaigning to get back at NASCAR somehow. There is no need to attack NASCAR either singly or in combination, and any attempt to do so is sure to just further antagonize the stock car fans most of whom are already bitterly cynical towards Indy car racing. Concentrate on giving those fans a reason to check out a new experience without demanding that they give up what they already enjoy. (The IRL has taken some good steps in this direction.)
Like the previous question, there are two possible answers. The first is "maybe, but so what?". For better or for worse (quite possibly for worse, but there appears to be no alternative at this time), the day when the most advanced technology and hence the highest speeds made for the best racing are, at least for the moment, over. Today, higher technology almost inevitably means much higher costs, which reduces opportunities. And speeds have had to be controlled for safety; all major racing series have had rule restrictions for speed control in place since the early '70s, and anyway, it is doubtful that the average fan perceives a difference in the entertainment value of the racing if the lap speeds are 220 MPH rather than 240. The IRL's level of technology is still fairly high; carbon fiber monocoque construction and 800+ horsepower engines aren't found in many racing series.
The second answer is: specifically what technology is the IRL missing out on? It's not like either series has adopted rotary engines or turbine power or mission-adaptive wings or anything really radical. Indy cars today are not all that different from what they were when CART was created in 1979; the only really fundemental advance that has occurred since then was the introduction of ground effects in the early '80s, and even that was based on work done previously by Jim Hall in the Can-Am and F1 series. Don't CART engines have some very advanced technology? Maybe, but the whole point of their engine leasing programs is to keep all of that secret, so how would the average fan ever find out? The cutaway drawings of the IRL Aurora engines that have been distributed by Olds are the first insight that the average fan has had into a recent design Indy car engine in over ten years.
No. A common bit of disinformation spread by the IRL's detractors is that they have rules restricting non-American participation. There are no such rules, and among the non-U.S. born currently driving in the IRL are 1998 IRL champion Kenny Brack, Scott Goodyear, Stephan Gregoire, and two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk. The IRL wants to strongly discourage foreign drivers (and American drivers too, for that matter) from using their own funding to buy their way into rides (a characteristic of Formula 1 and other forms of big-money road racing), but there is no rule against international participation per se. To summarize: internationals are welcome, but the form of racing itself is uniquely American, and no apologies are offered for that.
In the IRL's early days, there were a few incidents where IRL officials, team owners, or drivers made disparaging remarks about international participants. It's a free country, so the owners and drivers can make fools of themselves if they want, but at least one IRL official lost his job for making ill-considered remarks about foreigners. Bitterness and resentment is somewhat understandable (if not excusable), considering that some of these same people were, under the CART regime, for years shut out in part because of their nationality.
It was a rule that reserved 25 of the 33 starting positions in the Indy 500 for the top 25 cars in entrant points at that point in the season. It was part of the IRL's original rules package in 1996 and was put in to reward the series' regular participants and preclude any possibility of cream-skimming teams. In the early days, those guaranteed starting positions were often critical to teams in terms of getting sponsorship, and it did have the effect of excluding most of the CART teams who might have otherwise overwhelmed the field. However, the IRL quickly outgrew the need for the rule, and since it was beginning to cause problems in terms of selling entries, it was dropped after the 1997 race. (That race had two additional starters, admitted to the field after they qualified faster than an exempt car.) At this time there is no rule whatsoever (other than licensing and passing the rookie tests) which prohibits participation by any driver or team in any IRL event.
Most of them no longer care, meaning that they take the attitude that CART can do what it wants and more power to them, but it doesn't make any difference in terms of what the IRL does. Most IRL fans are sick of flame wars and don't care to waste time arguing it. CART and the IRL are seen as two different series doing different things, and only in competition to the extent that all auto racing series are in competition. There is almost no sentiment at all for any kind of merger or cooperation. (In particular, very few IRL fans want to see the IRL change its car and engine rules to accomodate CART's specifications. Such a change would probably greatly increase costs and drive out most of the IRL regulars and grassroots racers.)
The cars are single-seat, open-wheel, open-cockpit, rear-engined cars with aerodynamic aids. Significant features of the car formula:
IRL engines must be dual overhead cam (DOHC) V-8 designs. In the current rules (to be changed in 2000), the engines must be based on the design of a production engine. In particular, the following dimensions and characteristics must be the same as the production engine:
In 2000, the engine specification will change slightly. The most significant changes are that the requirement for the block to be based on a production block will be banned (the IRL will probably tightly control the V-angle, bore spacing, and other block geometry parameters), the displacement will be decreased to 3.5 liters, and the "180-degree" crankshaft which fires the cylinders in a different order will be legalized.
Dallara is an Italian company that may not be a familar name in the U.S., but they have been building chassis for Formula 2 and 3 and other series in Europe for years, and they see IRL as a way to break into the U.S. market. G-Force, a British firm, has been primarily a supplier of parts and subassemblies (particularly specialized composite moldings) to other car makers; the IRL is their first venture into building a design of their own for a major racing series. The USA firm of Riley & Scott does chassis and composites work, as well as designing sports cars; their WSC cars won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1996-97. The Mk. V IRL car is their first open-wheel design.
Any chassis supplier that can build a car meeting the IRL specs can enter the series, but their design must be pre-approved by the IRL. This is done in order to control costs and restrict the use of downforce-producing aerodynamics which would tend to greatly increase speeds. There are deadlines for when a design must be submitted before entering competition; the deadline dates are April 1 and September 1 each year. A design which is submitted by April 1 in a particular year can begin competing in January of the following year; a design submitted by September 1 can begin competing in June of the following year. One other condition is imposed on chassis suppliers, and this is considered one of the most important principles in the IRL: each chassis maker must sign an agreement with the IRL agreeing to sell chassis to any IRL team, at a fixed price ($280,000 as of this writing).
The procedure for approval of engine designs is similar, and has the same deadline dates. Engine makers must also sign an agreement similar to the chassis makers' agreement, agreeing to sell engines to any team that asks, at a set price ($80,000 as of this writing). In practice, however, few teams buy engines directly from the makers; rather, they buy prepared engines from engine shops. These shops must be qualified by, and are monitored by, the IRL. Currently they do not have to sell at a fixed price, although that may be coming in the future.
The term "old car" is used to refer to the cars that were used in calendar year 1996 (including the first two races of the 1997 season; see question 2.6.) These were quot;traditionalquot; Indy cars with ground-effects chassis and turbocharged engines, and were in fact the cars that were legal for competition in the Indianapolis 500 in 1995. (Since CART teams generally acquire new models and discard there old models every year, there was a large supply of the older models for the IRL teams.) These cars were used as an interim measure: the IRL announced the new-car specifications in December 1995, but some time was required to design and produce the new cars and engines. The last race for which the old cars were legal was the Las Vegas race in September 1996. The term "new car" applies to the non-ground-effects chassis and normally aspirated engines which began competition at Disney World in January 1997.
They were banned by the new-car rules in January 1997. There were several reasons for this:
Also, it should be noted that the elimination of the turbochargers was part of a larger strategy of moving away from pure-race engines to engines based on production blocks and heads; see question 4.1. As of the 2000 season, the IRL will be abandoning the requirement for engines to be based on production blocks, but despite this it is very unlikely that the turbos will ever return.
There are body features by which the cars can be identified, but it changes fairly often as the designs are updated. See the How to Tell the Cars Apart page for the latest information.
All but the last have decided, for the time being at least, not to get involved in IRL racing. All of the CART chassis makers (Penske, Reynard, Swift, and Lola) took a pass on the IRL formula, presumably for business reasons. The Ilmor (Mercedes) and Cosworth (Ford) CART engines are no longer legal for the IRL, and so far they haven't felt inclined to attempt an IRL engine. Ilmor never has had much to do with the IRL because they don't sell engines; they only lease them, and that is contrary to IRL rules. Quite a few Ford Cosworths were raced in the IRL in 1996, before the turbo engines were banned, but despite reoccurring rumors Ford has so far not attempted an IRL-legal engine (at least not that they will own up to). As for the Menard (nee Buick) V-6, it is now a museum piece, since it is no longer legal in the IRL and never was competitive anywhere except Indy, where USAC rules gave it a break in the form of extra turbocharger boost. (Some Buick V-6 engines live on in the American Indycar Series.) However, note that the Menard team is still a participant in the IRL, just not with that engine.
The new cars have posted a good safety record since a series of design changes were incorporated prior to the 1998 season. In 1997, there were problems with head injuries being suffered in back-in accidents due to insufficient energy absorbtion capability at the rear of the car, but that problem has been rectified. The IRL cars have performed very well considering that they race only on ovals, and therefore spend more time at very high speeds than any other open wheel series, and are 30-40 MPH faster than NASCAR cars on the same tracks. The cars have very good nose-first and rollover protection, and pit fires have been nearly eliminated.
There has been one fatality to date in the IRL, that being Scott Brayton who died in a practice crash at Indy in May 1996. This accident occurred in an old car (see question 4.4) with safety systems built to pre-IRL specifications. No fatalities have occurred in the new cars.
This section will introduce you to who the IRL participants are.
The IRL is in the process of developing its own stars. Drivers like Billy Boat, Kenny Brack, Greg Ray, and Robby Unser are the Indy car racing heroes of the future. Many of these drivers are people who once dreamed of racing at Indy but had almost given up that dream to switch over to NASCAR, stay on the short tracks their entire careers, or simply given it up. The IRL has exposed a previously untapped (and, among most people, unsuspected) talent pool of excellent Indy car racers. Added to this some veterans who had not been able to obtain good rides for various reasons, such as Arie Luyendyk and Mark Dismore, and the IRL fields become as talented and experienced as any major racing series. See the IRL Dramatis Personae for more info.
IRL drivers have been coming seemingly from everywhere. A few examples: European formula racing (Kenny Brack), sports-car racing (Scott Sharp), Sprint/Midget racing (Billy Boat), Supermodifieds (Davey Hamilton), U.S. formula / Indy Lights series (Robbie Buhl), and even some driver with motorcycle backgrounds (Jeff Ward). One of the fascinating characteristics of the IRL is the huge variety of backgrounds of its drivers.
Right now, none officially. However, the IRL through its involvement with USAC maintains contact with the Midget, Sprint, and Silver Crown series sanctioned by USAC, and there are sponsorship arrangements where drivers from these ranks can get tests in IRL cars. These are of course traditional front-engined cars, and although several of these series' drivers have graduated to the IRL, there is considerable debate about the value of these series as far as training for Indycars. It is recognized that a series of rear-engined cars racing exclusively on pavement would be the best type of feeder series for the IRL. There are two independent "minor league" Indy-type series which could serve the purpose:
In addition to these, there is the American Formula 2000 (formerly Formula Ford) open-wheel series. These are cars based on 2-liter four-cylinder engines that have traditionally raced only on road courses under SCCA sanction. However, an agreement was put in place in 1997 where the F2000 series runs a mix of road courses and ovals; when running the ovals, a dogleg in the front stretch is used to control speeds. The oval races are co-sanctioned by special agreement by the SCCA and USAC (with the IRL as an interested observer), and there is a sub-championship that includes only the oval races on the schedule.
Tony was the IRL's first home-grown star. He was a Sprint car driver who, prior to the IRL's formation, appeared to have no future in Indy car racing despite the fact that he had won the titles of all three of USAC's national divisions in 1995, an unprecedented feat. But he got his break with the Menard team in the IRL, and became the first driver from the "traditional" USAC ranks to achieve major success in Indy car racing since the '70s, winning three IRL races and one championship in three years of competition. He is now a full-time NASCAR driver, but hopefully he will continue to return for the Indy 500 every year.
The IRL wasn't able to retain him for several reasons, only one of them having to do with the IRL per se. Firstly, it is true that currently the money that can be made in the IRL is no match for the NASCAR Winston Cup series, which is the overall highest-paying racing series in the world right now. (Formula 1 pays more to its top drivers, but most other F1 pilots have to buy their rides.) There are at least ten capable drivers for every open Winston Cup seat, so Tony's ability to crack that series says something for his ability. Second, Tony's career plans had targeted NASCAR prior to the IRL's formation. The IRL came along rather late for Tony, after he had already started the wheels turning for his eventual NASCAR ride. Thirdly, Tony is probably the most versatile driver since A.J. Foyt; he has a need to prove himself in every type of racing vehicle he can get his hands on, and stock cars present a significant challenge that he has not (yet) been able to overcome.
It is not true that Tony Stewart left full-time IRL competition because of lack of competition. He did win the championship in 1997, but it was a neck-and-neck affair with Davey Hamilton. And he did not win in 1998 while he was still competing full time. Tony left the IRL as one of its all-time leaders, but he has some significant Indy car goals that he has yet to accomplish (such as winning the Indy 500). So it is incorrect to say that the competition was not a challenge for him.
They buy a car and an engine, put together a crew and a shop, hire a driver, get a sponsor, and enter a race. If that sounds flippant, it's just to illustrate that there is no magic in the process. The IRL is not an invitational series; there is no franchise or buy-in that a team has to pay for to get into the series. Anyone who has the money and can competently operate a team (and get their driver through the rookie tests) is welcome to try their hand. As discussed in question 4.3, all IRL chassis and engine suppliers are required to sell equipment to legitimate teams at a set price, so availability of equipment is not a barrier to new teams.
A conservative estimate is $4 million for a very competitive one-car team with a good (but not top) driver. The best teams and top drivers run somewhat more, but it's hard to say how much, but certainly well under $8 million. It is possible to be competitive for much less. Rumor has it that Marco Greco's Phoenix Racing (with Greco himself as driver and owner) ran the 1998 season (in which they posted two top-5 finishes) on a total budget of less than $1 million, which if true is easily the lowest such figure for a competitive team in any major racing series that year.
One might notice many specialized, regional, or less-well-known companies sponsoring IRL teams. Detractors will say that this represents an inability to attract major sponsors. However, proponents contend that this is a matter of the IRL's lower-cost structure making for a better advertising value for smaller companies. (And if costs can be kept low enough, then it isn't necessary to have a big-name sponsor. After all, there are only so many Fortune 100 companies to go around.) The IRL has very favorable demographics in terms of the average income and education level of its audience compared to many other spectator sports. And anyway, a primary purpose of advertising is to expose the audience to companies and products that they didn't know of or may not have thought of.
And it really isn't true anyway that name companies are not involved in the IRL. In fact, many can be found on cars, but as associate sponsors rather than primary, which means that they aren't as conspicuous. Big names like Xerox, MCI, Valvoline, AMD, and Compaq were all present as IRL team associates in 1998. (Since this paragraph was originally written, MCI has stepped up and is now a primary sponsor.) In addition, some companies choose to participate by sponsoring the IRL itself instead of a specific team; this group includes Pepsico, Coors, and Nortel among others.
For the purposes of rookie testing, a "rookie" is a driver who has never:
However, for the purposes of awarding the Rookie of the Year award, a different standard applies: All drivers are considered rookies (regardless of prior experience in other racing series) up to and including the first season in which they make two IRL starts. After that season, they are considered veterans and are no longer eligible for the Rookie of the Year award.
A driver who is new to the IRL must pass a four-phase rookie test, consisting of ten-lap stages at four progressively higher speeds. During the test the rookie must hold to within a very narrow speed band (except for the last phase) as well as demonstrate smoothness, consistency, aptitude, and knowledge of the car and the racing conditions. This test must be observed by the IRL's veteran driver committee, which is chaired by former Indy great Al Unser Sr., the IRL official in charge of drivers licensing, and includes a rotating cast of other veteran and retired IRL drivers. The test can be taken at any IRL venue, but if it is performed at any venue other than Indianapolis, then the driver will have to also go through the Indy rookie orientation program before being allowed to drive at Indy. The IRL will consider waiving part or all of the rookie test for drivers with previous experience in CART, Formula 1, or NASCAR Winston Cup. (Usual practice is to require such drivers to take only the last phase of the test; this is referred to as a "refresher test".)
How and where IRL races are run.
First principle: All IRL races take place on paved ovals of one mile (1.6 km) or longer. (There are no road courses at all, a level of purity that even NASCAR hasn't achieved.) Currently all races take place in the U.S.; the IRL is willing to schedule races in Canada or Mexico if suitable facilities are built, but the series will not go to any location to which the cars and equipment would have to be shipped overseas (something that adds tremendously to the cost of operating a team). Tracks must meet IRL standards for track condition, pit and garage facilities, and safety. Currently the very largest high-banked ovals, namely Daytona and Talledega, unfortunately cannot be scheduled because of the lack of a suitable method for controlling the speeds of the cars at these extermely fast tracks. (However, rumor as of January 1999 has it that Daytona may be scheduled in the future; the rumor has it that speeds would be kept in check by requiring the cars to run a brief chicane.)
The IRL schedule contains both "short tracks" (tracks of one mile in length) and "superspeedways" (tracks of longer than one mile) in about equal proportion. The IRL is attempting to maintain some variety in the schedule; some tracks are fairly flat (Las Vegas, Indy, Phoenix), while others are NASCAR tracks much higher banked than traditional Indy car venues (Charlotte, Texas, Dover). The IRL attempts to schedule races in all regions of the U.S., to the extent that track availability permits.
The Indy 500 is one of the races on the IRL schedule. It is of course the most prestegious (and best-paying) race on the schedule, but other than the differences in qualifying procedure, it runs under the same rules as every other IRL race, and awards the same points. In the history of Indy car racing, there have been several periods where Indy became so much larger in terms of prestige and public/media attention than the other races that it overwhelmed the importance of the national championship, and this caused a steep dropoff in audience mindshare after the month of May ended. The IRL has made a conscious effort to prevent Indy from becoming too much bigger than the other races on the schedule, so that the IRL championship retains its revelence and the 500's audience carries over into the rest of the schedule. This has hurt the 500 some in the short run, but in the long run it will lead to a more stable series with better year-around audience mindset.
There are both philosophical and practical reasons. The philosophical reasons center around the fact that oval track racing is one major uniquely American contribution to the sport of auto racing, and a guiding principle of the IRL is that while its participants may be from all over the world, the racing itself is an identifiably American form of racing. The practical reasons center around the desire to avoid having teams acquire a completely different set of cars for road racing.
Traditionally Indy car racing has more or less ignored the Southern U.S. market. There were some attempts in the '50s and '60s (races at Darlington, for example), but these did not draw that well at the time for various reasons. In the '70s and early '80s, there were Indy car races at Atlanta, but they failed to outdraw the Winston Cup cars at a time when Indy car racing was far more popular nationwide than the stock cars were. (Part of this may have had to do with the fact that the track was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time; nonetheless, it fails to explain the fact that the stock car races were not as effected.) This pattern began when the race was under USAC sanction but accelerated when CART took over the sanction; at that time there were few Indy car drivers that stock car fans could identify with, and some who were there said that they CART regulars tended to look down their noses at the great unwashed mass of stock car fans. (To be fair to CART, this attitude had its roots in the USAC vs. NASCAR sanctioning body wars of the '50s, and was not by any means a CART invention.)
Suffice it to say that for whatever reasons, CART was willing to concede this market to NASCAR. However, that may have been a huge mistake, because the IRL has been very successful so far at exploiting this market. The connection isn't really as strange as it might seem. For years, there was a tradition of drivers from Indy car and NASCAR trying out one another's series: NASCAR drivers such as Marshall Teague, Paul Goldsmith, the Rathman brothers, and Donnie Allison ran the Indy 500 with good success, while A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti both won the Daytona 500. It wasn't until about 1978 that this interchange ceased, and in the past few years a number of people on both sides have been looking for ways to resume contacts between the two sides. The staging of IRL races at traditional NASCAR venues is a step in this direction. At the present time the NASCAR Winston Cup series is so competitive, in terms of the drivers / open seats ratio, that it's almost impossible for a young stock car driver without connections to break into. The IRL could present a career alternative to this group of drivers.
Many of the new Southern venues are owned by Bruton Smith and his company Speedway Motorsports Inc. Smith is a business rival of the France family which controls NASCAR and also owns the Daytona and Talledega superspeedways. SMI's tracks all have NASCAR events, but it is quite possible that Smith would like to establish a major-racing-series source of revenue that is independent of NASCAR so as to have more leverage in dealing with the Frances. And of course the still-fledgling IRL series needs venues and SMI's tracks need more racing to fill up their available track time. Whatever the explanation, the collaberation between Smith and the IRL has been quite successful so far; in 1997, the Texas and Charlotte races were the best-attended IRL events so far, other than the Indy 500s.
All races except Indy use the following qualifying procedure: Qualifying consists of single-car runs, and each car gets only one run. Teams draw to determine qualifying order. Each car gets three warm-up laps, two timed laps, and one cool-off lap. Of the two timed laps, the faster one is used as the qualifying time and the other is thrown out. A rule instituted at midseason in 1998 states that if a car misses its turn in the qualifying order, it can drop to the back of the line and run later, but there is a penalty; that car will be allowed only one timed lap. There is only one qualifying session. If qualifying is rained out, the starting field is determined by a combination of entrant points and practice times.
Qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 is completely different from every other IRL race (and any other race anywhere). See the Indy 500 Qualifying FAQ for all of the gory details.
The IRL does have a provisional system, but there are not nearly as many reserved positions as in NASCAR. Each IRL field, other than the Indy 500, has two provisional positions. (There are no provisionals at Indy.) A priority system exists for determining who is eligible for provisionals, and it goes like this:
No driver may claim a provisional more than two times per year. There are no additional provisionals for the top teams, and no separate champion's exemption.
The IRL's rules for conducting the race take after traditional oval-track rules, which is to say they're very much like NASCAR. Here are the salient points:
One major deviation from standard oval racing practice is the method of lining up the cars for restarts after a caution. In the IRL, all restarts are single file, and the cars line up in whatever the running order is on the track; if the leaders have made pit stops and lapped cars haven't, then there will be lapped cars ahead of the leader in the line. Negotiating the resulting traffic is considered part of the challenge of Indy car racing.
Most IRL races last between 2 and 2.5 hours. (Weather delays can significantly extend this.) The Indianpolis 500, because of its distance, takes longer; 3 to 3.5 hours is typical.
The IRL's points system is designed with two important points in mind:
In 1997 my wife and I paid about $90 (U.S.) for two good box seats between turn 4 and the quad-oval at Charlotte. We bought our tickets and made our reservations about 9 weeks prior to the event, and the ticket operator told me that there were still good seats available, although they were going fast. (The Charlotte race subsequently sold out all of the front-stretch seats.) I expect that for the next 2-3 years, this will be typical of every IRL race except Indianapolis. (The Indy 500 is a *very* difficult ticket and generally requires planning a year ahead, not only for tickets but also for hotel reservations.)
I have found that the most desirable grandstand seats are usually in the middle rows, in the range of 25-35. Sitting up higher provides a better view, but I personally don't feel like I'm into the race if I sit that far away. Sit closer than row 20 and it's too difficult to follow the race (and it's loud). As far as what location in the grandstands (turn 4, start-finish, turn 1, etc.), it's impossible to give a generic answer; it depends a lot on the track. I have never watched an IRL event from the infield, so I can't comment on that (although in general I dislike the infield). This obviously depends to an extent on seat availability; at Indy, you pretty much have to take what you can get. One thing to note is that at the high-banked tracks, the first 10-15 rows are usually roped off because of concerns about flying debris. Most IRL venues are not selling back stratch seats at this time.
Most IRL events are three-day affairs. Generally, the teams begin practice on Friday, along with practice for the supporting events. Usually the IRL cars will have a morning and an afternoon session. Qualifying is generally on Saturday afternoon, prior to the support events. This is generally followed by a final practice for the qualifiers. The IRL race is then run on Sunday afternoon. Some IRL races are run on Saturday night, and at these qualifying is usually on Friday.
Most IRL events are supported by the Formula 2000 (ex-Formula Ford) series, and when this is the case, the the F2000 event is sometimes run just prior to the IRL event. However, some IRL events have other support series which will run the day before. The ARCA stock cars, the NASCAR truck series, and the USAC Midgets all appear from time to time at IRL events.
If you have been around Sprint cars or dirt Late Models and are concerned about eye-watering alcohol exhaust fumes: be advised that IRL engines are very efficient and that your nose will detect nary an aldehyde all day. In fact, at the races I have attended, it was impossible to tell by smell that the engines were running at all.
The IRL engines, unmuffled by turbochargers, are rather loud. At some tracks, such as Charlotte, the shape of the banking seems to contain and focus the sound to the point where it becomes painfully loud at times. If you're at all concerned about your hearing, or have small children who are bothered by noise, take some ear protection as a precaution. (Foam ear plugs seem to be available at the concessions at most IRL events.) However, the IRL engine exhaust note is a very satisfying sound; not like a Stock car, but not "whiney" like a Formula 1 engine either; it's a sound that is both heard and felt. The nearest analog I can make is a turboprop-engined aircraft.
Family and friends! Pretty much the same things you take to any spectator event: food, drinks (check with the track for cooler and booze limitations), suntan lotion for day events, a plastic bag in case it rains. Check with the track or on the IRL Web site to get the frequency of the local IMS Radio outlet and take a radio (use headphones or it will be difficult to hear). If you are into scanners, take that; the IRL race control and most of the teams transmit in the clear and have published frequencies. (But don't let impressionable young children listen to the scanner, lest they be exposed to blue language. In the U.S., these frequencies are licensed as "utility" which basically means private channels, and the listener has no right to expect the user of the channel to keep the content appropriate for the general public.)
If you have ever watched the old TV show "Mission: Impossible", you know that if you get distracted for just a minute or two you are hopelessly lost. IRL racing is much the same; it demands constant attention in order to keep up with. In an IRL race, it's not uncommon for there to be several position battles happening on different parts of the track at the same time (in fact, the television networks seem to have great difficultly keeping up with it all). There is seldom any "dead time" where cars are just cruising around holding their positions. So, the first rule of watching an IRL race, whether at home or at the track, is: never leave your seat during green flag periods.
IRL cars at the high-banked tracks can generally run anywhere on the track. However, there is a preferred (fastest) line, and it tends to move as the race progresses; this goes particularly for the night races. So watch for drivers trying to feel out the track and find the fast groove.
You can sometimes see drivers making adjustments to their cars as they drive. IRL cars usually have their 6-speed gearbox set up so that the 4th, 5th, and 6th gears are all racing gears; generally 4th will be a maximum-acceleration gear, 6th an economy gear, and 5th in between. The shifter is on the right side of the car, so if you see the driver doing anything with his right hand, that is probably a gear shift. A driver might shift down to 5th or 4th if he is in traffic or needs more speed, or to 6th if he is not under attack, or needs to stretch his fuel. (Your sense of hearing can tell you something here too. If a car's engine is cutting out at the end of the straights, that means that the engine is hitting the IRL-mandated rev limiter. If the driver doesn't shift up to prevent this, either he's really desparate to make up time or something is wrong with the gearbox.) On the other hand, if you see the driver doing something with his left hand, he is probably adjusting the weight jacker mechanisms which change the handling characteristics of the car. Lots of fiddling around on the left probably indicates that the driver is unhappy with the car, or it could be a sign of a tire going down.
Unlike NASCAR or CART where the tendency is for everyone to pit pretty much at the same time, the IRL so far has been noted for wildly divergent pit stop strategies. It is not at all uncommon to see half of the field pit during a caution while the other half stays out, hoping to gain track position. This of course can backfire badly if another caution doesn't come out before those cars have to pit, so when cautions occur, try to keep track of which of the leaders pit and which ones don't. As a rule of thumb, IRL cars can go about 55 laps on a tank of fuel (except for Indy; there it's more like 40 laps). A related aspect is that oftentimes cars which are lapped will stay out during a round of yellow-flag pit stops, which puts them at the front of the pack (more on this in a minute) with an opportunity to get a lap back.
There is plenty to watch for during pit stops too. Although there is no two-tire vs. four-tire strategy as there is in NASCAR, there are occasions late in a race where a team may try a fuel-only stop (taking less than a full tank) to try to gain track position. Keep this in mind concerning refueling: the pit tanks which contain the fuel supply are gravity-fed, and as they drain the remaining fuel flows more slowly, which makes late-race pit stops take longer and often forces teams to take less than a full tank on their final stop. Cars which are on the end of the lead lap frequently wait until late in a caution flag, then make an additional stop to top off fuel. Other things to watch for: If a mechanic sticks a wrench in the car's nose and turns it, what he's doing is adjusting the front wing; it's a pretty drastic handling change. Similarly, if a piece of plastic is inserted into or pulled out of the rear wing, that's a Gurney change and is also a big change in downforce. (You won't see the latter at superspeedways, because they have mandatory Gurney flap sizes.) If the cowl is removed from the engine, that's obviously a sign of trouble, but another sign of trouble is if the sidepod covers are removed -- that usually means a problem with the car's electronics and a lengthy pit stop. On the other hand, a damaged nose can be replaced in only a few laps. If a crew member reaches into the sidepod, he's probably trying to remove debris or change an air damper setting, either of which indicates that the engine is overheating. Finally, watch for engine stalls; when a car stalls during a pit stop it often indicates gearbox or clutch trouble.
Something which is unique to the IRL is the way restarts are done: they are all single file, in running order after pit stops, which means that if lapped cars don't pit the leader can be well back in the pack at the restart. This is in fact pretty common. It means that the leaders will have to pick their way through much traffic right after the restart, and it also means that if another caution occurs shortly a number of lapped cars will get a lap back. IRL races have been won by drivers who had to make up laps during the race.
Yes. I think still cameras are allowed at all IRL races, but call the track to make sure. Camcorders may be a different matter; again, check with the track. I have taken my SLR camera (Minolta Maxxum 7000; yes I know it's old) to the track and had good success photographing the action with Fujicolor 1600, and this was under lights; in the daytime 400 speed film probably would have been sufficient. Use a zoom lens, and get seats farther back so it won't be so difficult to track the cars. Shutter priority is best if your camera has it; with a long lens you will need at least 1/250 for blur-free shots unless your hand is very steady. If you don't have shutter priority, use full manual. Remember when metering that the black track surface is much darker than most of the cars and a light-colored car will overexpose about 1 stop if you don't compensate for it. Don't use flash; it annoys the drivers and won't do any good. Much to my surprise, I have been permitted to take my camera into the garage area at Charlotte and Atlanta. Again, check with the track to make sure. You shouldn't use flash in the garage area, for safety reasons.
One outstanding feature of each IRL event is that at some point in the weekend there is a "fan appreciation" session. During this period the garage area is open and fans are invited to walk in and examine the cars and teams up close. (Long pants, long-sleeve shirts, and closed-toe shoes will usually be required for safety reasons, unless the weather is really hot.) Drivers will be available to sign autographs, and if you find a driver who doesn't have too much of an autograph line, you might be able to chat for a bit. (I can tell you from personal experience that if you catch Buzz Calkins at an un-busy time, he will talk your ear off!) There will be souvenier posters and post cards available, and sometimes exhibits of things like chassis tubs that fans can actually sit in and touch. The IRL people are generally pretty low-key, with little of the prima donna behavior that one finds in some other racing series.
It is a volunteer organization of IRL fans. The Crew is recognized by the IRL but does not depend on it for funding or management; all of the Crew's operations are paid for by membership dues. The Crew operates a fan-interface booth at each IRL event where "hero cards", pictures of drivers, and other souvenirs are given away, votes for the Crew's Most Popular Driver award are taken, and fan questions are answered. (Sometimes a driver will drop in to sign autographs.) The Crew organizes the open garage autograph sessions at each race. It prints a newsletter and operates a Web site to keep members abreast of the latest news. The Crew is also organizing charter trips and block ticket buys for members. It's inexpensive to join and well worth the price just to get to know the people. I highly recommend it.
The best way is to go to the open-garage driver autograph sessions as described in the previous paragraph. If you do this, you might want to swing by the IRL Crew booth first. They often have "hero cards" for many of the drivers which are perfect for autographing (plus they make good souveniers by themselves). Plus, occasionally there might actually be a driver present at the booth. Another way, if you are in town two or three days before the event, is to find out where the drivers are doing sponsor and publicity appearances; these will often be at shopping malls and other such public places. You can often find out about these events by listening to radio or scanning the newspapers the week of the race, or by checking the IRL's Web site or the track Web sites.
Some drivers have fan clubs that distribute driver memorabilia to club members. If you are in the Indy area, during the off-season drivers often make public appearances at fairs and trade shows. (If you join the IRL Crew you can find out about these on their message board.) Finally, often you can mail a request to a team and they will send you an autographed picture. Here are some links to driver and team pages where you can get mailing addresses for teams and fan clubs.
What is not a particularly good method is cruising the garage area (during non-public periods) hunting down drivers. You will find that drivers aren't present that often in the garage except during practice periods (not counting the open garage time), and this is not a particularly good time to be bothering them; remember that they have a job to do and not much time to do it. The media center isn't a very good place either since there are many reporters competing for drivers' attention there.
Most events have garage passes for sale. They usually cost around $75 per day and you must buy a regular ticket in addition to the pass. These passes will generally get you into the garage area where the cars and transporters are, and sometimes into the back lane of the pit areas, but not into the pits themselves, and not into the area where the teams' motor homes are. The passes are good for any time the track is open except for when the cars are on the track; unlike NASCAR, the IRL does not permit spectators in the garage area when the cars are on the track, for safety reasons. If you go into the garage area, remember the dress code (long pants, long sleeve shirt, no sandals or bare feet), and don't try to go into the team's stalls or the inspection area unless invited. Keep in mind that the people there have work to do. Also remember that there is a lot of alcohol around and that it burns with a colorless flame. Note that most tracks do not sell garage passes to anyone under 18.