Key dates in IRL history
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| Tony George |
• March 11, 1994: Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George
announces that he will form the Indy Racing League, starting in 1996. George breaks
away from the established CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) series after failing
to gain a leading role in CART.
• January 1996: The IRL’s first race, the Indy 200 at Walt
Disney World, is won by rookie Buzz Calkins. A sellout crowd of 51,000 watches.
• May 1996: Buddy Lazier wins the Indianapolis 500, but the race
is remembered as the year CART began its boycott of Indy. George reserved 25 of
the 33 Indy 500 spots for IRL drivers, and CART refused to go along. That rule
was lifted for 1998 but CART still stayed away.
• January 1997: Former Indy 500 champion Al Unser Sr. is named
as driver coach and consultant for the IRL.
• May 1997: Arie Luyendyk wins his second career Indy 500, beating
Scott Goodyear to the flag in a controversial finish. Luyendyk got the jump on
Goodyear on a late re-start, with the green flag waving from the flagstand while
yellow caution lights blinked elsewhere on the track.
• June 1997: Car owner A.J. Foyt punches driver Arie Luyendyk in
the winner’s circle at Texas Motor Speedway, after Luyendyk disputed the
electronic scoring that gave Foyt’s driver Billy Boat the victory. A review
showed Luyendyk was right, and he was awarded the victory a day later.
• January 1998: Pep Boys, the nation’s leading automotive
parts and service chain, becomes title sponsor of the IRL.
• May 1998: Eddie Cheever wins his first Indianapolis 500.
• November 1998: The IRL hires two international firms, Wieden
& Kennedy and Golin/Harris International, to assist in advertising and public
relations for the league’s new strategic marketing plan.
• May 1999: Kenny Brack wins his first Indianapolis 500, in a race
that was nearly boycotted by many newspapers. CEO Tony George had revoked the
credentials of Sports Illustrated writer Ed Hinton, after Hinton wrote what George
deemed an unfair story about three IRL spectator deaths at Charlotte, N.C., on
May 1. George reinstated Hinton’s credentials amid a threatened boycott of
the Indy 500 by most of America’s largest newspapers.
• December 1999: Pep Boys and the IRL part ways. A few months later
the IRL becomes the Indy Racing Northern Light Series, sponsored by Internet search
engine Northern Light Technology.
• May 2000: With a thaw in relations between CART and the IRL,
CART’s Target-Ganassi team enters two cars in the Indy 500. Juan Montoya,
one of the CART drivers, wins the race.
• Aug. 27, 2000: This will be the inaugural IRL race at Kentucky
Speedway, the Belterra Indy Resort 300.
