CART's rival to the Indianapolis 500 began with a pace-lap pile-up, a red flag and a long afternoon that Jimmy Vasser won from pole at Michigan.
The 1996 U.S. 500 was a CART race at Michigan International Speedway on 26 May 1996, run on the same day as the Indianapolis 500. Jimmy Vasser won from pole, with Mauricio Gugelmin second and Roberto Moreno third after a pace-lap pile-up and a red flag.
The 1996 U.S. 500 was a CART race staged at Michigan International Speedway on the same afternoon as the Indianapolis 500, a direct result of CART teams boycotting that event. A pile-up on the pace lap brought out a red flag, and the field went on to race for most of the afternoon. Jimmy Vasser of Chip Ganassi Racing won from pole position after a long and difficult afternoon.
Why was the U.S. 500 held on Indianapolis 500 day?
The race was held on Sunday 26 May 1996 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. It was the sixth round of the 1996 CART PPG IndyCar World Series, and it was deliberately scheduled for the same day as the Indianapolis 500, because CART teams had decided not to race at Indianapolis that year.
The CART teams had announced their boycott on 18 December 1995, after the Indy Racing League's new rules for the 500 were introduced. In response, the CART owners and CEO Andrew Craig jointly announced plans for a new race at Michigan, which was owned by Roger Penske, one of the most prominent CART team owners.
A rival event built to outshine Indianapolis ended with one car on the lead lap and a victory lane joke about milk.
How did the split between CART and the IRL begin?
The split began in the early 1990s, when Tony George, the new president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, started to change the sport. He wanted lower costs, more American drivers and an all-oval schedule, and he announced in the summer of 1994 that he would start a new series centred on the Indianapolis 500.
CART had sanctioned Indy car racing since 1979, with the Indianapolis 500 the only exception, which was sanctioned by USAC. Tensions grew over the summer of 1995, and on 3 July 1995 the IRL announced that its top 25 drivers would be guaranteed places in the 1996 Indy 500. That left just eight at-large spots, which became known as the 25/8 rule. CART teams saw this as a way to lock them out, and they responded by boycotting the event.
The IRL also planned a rules freeze and a ban on turbochargers after 1996. CART's 1996 cars and some of its engines would technically be prohibited in the IRL, and from 1997 the two series would race entirely different machines. CART had also licensed the IndyCar trademark from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1992 to 1996, which meant the name was used by both sides in confusing ways.
How did CART build a rival event?
CART marketed the U.S. 500 as the real stars and cars of Indy car racing, implying that the best teams, the top drivers and the best equipment were at Michigan rather than Indianapolis. Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. had all won the 500 before, and all three were entered at Michigan. Only Arie Luyendyk had that kind of record at Indianapolis.
The purse was announced on 18 January 1996 at 3.5 million dollars, with 1 million dollars for the winner, 250,000 dollars for second and 100,000 dollars for third. The historic Vanderbilt Cup trophy was revived for the winner. The race was also given a television deal with ESPN, although the start was moved to 2 p.m. Eastern, about two hours after the Indianapolis 500 began.
All CART-based teams boycotted Indianapolis except Galles and Walker, and neither of those teams fielded its regular full-time CART driver there. A. J. Foyt Racing, Hemelgarn Racing and Team Scandia switched to the IRL during the off-season. Valvoline moved its sponsorship from the Indy 500 to the U.S. 500, and several CART drivers said publicly that they would have liked to race at Indianapolis but would not.
The timeline of the split ran through the year. The IRL held its inaugural race at Walt Disney World Speedway on 27 January 1996, and none of the CART teams entered. The CART season opened at Homestead-Miami Speedway on 3 March, where Vasser won his first CART race. The entry list for Michigan was published on 2 May with 29 cars. On 6 May the IMS and the IRL filed a lawsuit to stop CART using the IndyCar trademark, and the case was heard by Judge David F. Hamilton.
How did practice and qualifying go?
Practice and qualifying were scheduled for 9 to 12 May and 24 and 25 May, so the event followed the same format as the Indy 500, with a separate qualifying weekend. Rookie orientation on Thursday 9 May saw nine drivers take part, and Alex Zanardi set the fastest lap of the day.
On Friday 10 May, 27 drivers took laps in the morning practice, and the afternoon session was cancelled because of rain. Honda-powered cars took the top four spots, and Adrian Fernandez was fastest. Many drivers said the reduction in downforce and turbo boost made the track harder to drive than in previous years.
Pole qualifying was held on Saturday 11 May, with a bonus of 100,000 dollars for the pole winner. Temperatures were in the low 40s Fahrenheit with strong winds, and the grid was formed in rows of three. Bryan Herta was the first driver out, and Penske drivers Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy reported wastegate issues that slowed them. Emerson Fittipaldi had an engine issue on his first attempt and qualified ninth on his second. Gil de Ferran blew an engine and went out in a back-up car.
Jimmy Vasser took pole with a speed of 232.025 mph on his first lap. A total of 26 cars completed runs. Teo Fabi, injured in a bicycle accident the previous weekend, made no attempt and withdrew. P. J. Jones also did not attempt to qualify.
On Sunday 12 May no cars made a second-round qualifying attempt, because the cold weather and snow flurries made the conditions very difficult. Only about 3,000 spectators were present, and Mario Andretti took laps in a 1994 Lola while filming for the IMAX documentary Super Speedway, but he did not attempt to qualify.
The teams returned on Friday 24 May after an 11-day layoff. During practice Paul Tracy hit the outside wall and made contact with Hiro Matsushita, but since it was his back-up car he could still start. Adrian Fernandez was hurt when a piece of carbon fibre lodged in his left eye. In third-round qualifying Gary Bettenhausen took the grid with a lap of 208.607 mph, the slowest car in the field, before his engine failed on the second lap.
What went wrong on the pace lap?
The field lined up in nine rows of three, copying the traditional Indy grid. On the third and final pace lap, Fernandez's left-front wheel clipped the right-rear of Vasser's car as the cars accelerated through turn four, just before the green flag. Vasser's car pivoted to the right, collecting Herta, and both crashed hard into the outside wall, starting a melee behind them.
No fewer than twelve cars were caught up in the pile-up, and some cars spun or ran into the infield grass to avoid contact. Alex Zanardi, Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy and Michael Andretti were among those who escaped. The red flag came out instantly, and the start was aborted. No drivers were seriously hurt, but the track was littered with debris and damaged cars.
Officials ruled that because the green flag had not come out, everyone could repair their cars under the red flag or switch to a back-up. Fittipaldi, de Ferran, Gugelmin, Johnstone and Lawson managed repairs. Vasser, Herta, Ribeiro, Ekblom, Krosnoff and Fangio switched to back-up cars. Fernandez's team could not finish repairs in time and he was the only driver who did not line up for the second attempt.
The red flag lasted an hour and one minute, and 26 cars lined up for a second start. Almost half of the field was running a back-up or a repaired car, and by then the Indianapolis race was around lap 172. The second start was strung out, with Vasser jumping the green flag and holding a sizeable lead.
How did the race unfold after the restart?
Zanardi took the lead from his team-mate Vasser on lap 18, and he was in control for most of the first half of the race. Scott Pruett blew an engine on lap 2, bringing out the first caution, and Ekblom's engine failed three laps after that restart, bringing out another caution.
After a debris caution on lap 23, Gugelmin and Moreno briefly led the field, but Zanardi was back in front by lap 37. Raul Boesel, Michael Andretti and Robby Gordon were all out with mechanical trouble by then. Zanardi led Vasser, Andre Ribeiro, Greg Moore and Mark Blundell, while Unser Jr., Tracy and Fittipaldi slipped down the order with handling problems.
Gary Bettenhausen went into the wall in turn four on lap 84, and a long caution was needed to clear the fluids. At the halfway point Zanardi led Ribeiro by 8.3 seconds, and Bobby Rahal, who had climbed as high as sixth, slipped out of the top ten with a pushing car.
On lap 128 Rahal brushed the outside wall with his car and retired with suspension damage. The restart on lap 132 was waved off, because Ribeiro had been lined up with the lapped cars after pitting just before the caution. Officials waved him around to make up his lap, and Lawson was sent to the rear for a blend-line infraction, and the race restarted on lap 138.
How did the late laps decide the win?
Zanardi and Vasser ran first and second, but de Ferran had been forced into an unscheduled stop for a failed pop-off valve gasket, which cost him five laps. Krosnoff blew an engine and brought out the seventh caution of the race. Eight cars remained on the lead lap when green flag racing resumed with 98 laps to go.
Greg Moore spun on lap 160 but drove back to the pits to change his tyres. Under the yellow, the Ganassi pair had trouble with their pit stops, and Christian Fittipaldi broke his pneumatic jacks and had to revert to manual ones before later falling out with engine failure. After the stops Johnstone moved into the lead, with Ribeiro second and Herta third.
By lap 174 Zanardi and Vasser were charging back to second and third, but one lap later Zanardi's engine blew in a plume of smoke down the front straight. Johnstone stayed in front, with Blundell second and Vasser third. With 50 laps to go Vasser dived high into turn one to take the lead from Johnstone, the first time he had led since the early going.
Vasser made his final stop from the lead, handing it back to Johnstone. Moments later Johnstone's car ran out of fuel on the backstretch. He was towed back, dropped two laps down and later retired with a broken gearbox. Herta and Greg Moore both blew engines, and only three cars were left on the lead lap.
With twenty laps to go Andre Ribeiro led Mauricio Gugelmin and Vasser. Vasser passed Gugelmin for second, and with ten laps left he was nose to tail with Ribeiro. Ribeiro then ducked into the pits with a fuel pickup problem. His back-up car had no working fuel telemetry, because the components had not been moved over from the wrecked primary car, so the crew did not know how much fuel was left. Ribeiro needed a splash-and-go stop to finish, and that handed the lead to Vasser.
Vasser led the final nine laps to win. Gugelmin finished second, the only other car on the lead lap, and Roberto Moreno took third, his first podium in CART competition. Eleven cars were still running at the finish, and in victory lane Vasser joked that nobody needed milk, a pointed jab at the Indianapolis 500 tradition.
Who finished where at Michigan?
Vasser won from pole, with Gugelmin second and Moreno third. The 11 finishers were a small group, after a day that had seen repeated stoppages and a heavy pile-up at the start.
| Finish | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Jimmy Vasser | Pole sitter who led the final nine laps |
| Second | Mauricio Gugelmin | The only other car on the lead lap |
| Third | Roberto Moreno | First CART podium |
| Retired | Alex Zanardi | Led at the halfway point, engine failed |
| Retired | Parker Johnstone | Led after the stops, ran out of fuel |
| Retired | Adrian Fernandez | Did not line up for the second start |
| Retired | Bobby Rahal | Hit the wall and retired with suspension damage |
| Retired | Gary Bettenhausen | Crashed in turn four |
| Retired | Greg Moore | Blown engine late in the race |
What was the legacy of the race?
CART did not run the event opposite the Indianapolis 500 again. Its success was questioned at the time, and many felt it did not become the crown jewel its promoters had hoped for.
Los Angeles Times motorsports writer Shav Glick noted that the race had been promoted as if it were the Super Bowl, but by 1997 it was being run with no more vigour than any other race on the calendar. From 1997 to 1999 CART held the Motorola 300 at Gateway on the day before Indianapolis instead, but that event drew less interest and was eventually moved to August.
The U.S. 500 name survived for a time. From 1997 to 1999 it was attached to the July race at Michigan. The event was renamed the Michigan 500 presented by Toyota in 2000, and in 2001 it ran as the Harrah's 500, its last season in CART. In 2002 the race moved to the IRL as the Firestone Indy 400, and Indy cars stopped racing at Michigan after 2007.
How was the race broadcast?
ESPN carried the race live, with Bob Varsha as host and play-by-play man and Scott Goodyear as colour commentator, because the regular anchor, Paul Page, was working at Indianapolis. ESPN's broadcast achieved a 2.8 rating and 1,904,000 households, a record for the most-watched open-wheel race on cable.
The previous cable record had been held by a 1993 CART race at New Hampshire, with a 2.1 rating and 1,281,000 households. The race was also carried on the CART IndyCar Radio Network, with Lou Palmer as chief announcer, and the race was rerun at night on ESPN2.
