From Scott Goodyear's 1998 Pennzoil car to Sam Hornish Jr.'s two championships and four straight Indianapolis runner-up finishes, the team that closed in 2014.
Panther Racing was an Indianapolis team formed in 1997 that became one of the IndyCar Series' long-running operations. Its Sam Hornish Jr. won two titles, and it closed in 2014 after losing its sponsor.
Panther Racing was an American open-wheel team and one of the oldest continuously operating outfits in the IndyCar Series. It finished second at the Indianapolis 500 in four successive years, from 2008 to 2011. Its drivers included Dan Wheldon, who went on to win the race for another team in 2011. The team won two championships with Sam Hornish Jr. in the early 2000s, and it was declared defunct in September 2014.
When was Panther Racing formed?
The outfit came into being in late 1997 to race in the Pep Boys Indy Racing League, which later became the IndyCar Series. Six owners founded it: John Barnes, Gary Pedigo, Mike Griffin, Terry Lingner, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh and Doug Boles, an Indianapolis director of corporate and government affairs. Mike Kitchel served as its public relations director.
The owners brought a mix of backgrounds to the venture. Barnes managed open-wheel teams, Pedigo was an Indianapolis car dealer, Griffin was a former radio personality, and Lingner was a television production executive.
Four Indianapolis 500 runner-up finishes, two championships and a sponsor's loss that ended the team in 2014.
How did the team start with Scott Goodyear?
For its first season in 1998, the team ran the number 4 Pennzoil G-Force with an Oldsmobile Aurora V8, driven by Scott Goodyear. Pennzoil had moved away from its traditional all-yellow scheme, so the car wore a black and yellow design by the livery artist Sam Bass. The number 4 reflected Harbaugh's Colts jersey.
Goodyear qualified 21st for the opener, the Indy 200 held at Walt Disney World Speedway, after rain disrupted qualifying. He finished 17th after a suspension failure at 132 laps, then took sixth at Phoenix. He reached second at New Hampshire and finished the season seventh in points with 244, after finishing 22nd in the last two races. Dave Steele also drove a second Pennzoil car at Texas and Las Vegas.
Why did 1999 and 2000 matter?
In 1999 Goodyear kept the number 4, now in a G-Force GF01C. He started fourth at the season opener and finished second after leading 36 laps. He then won at Phoenix from third on the grid, leading a race-high 134 laps, and took the points lead.
A 27th-place finish at Indianapolis came from an engine failure after 101 laps, but he won the Longhorn 500 at Texas by leading the final 43. Goodyear finished ninth in the 1999 standings with 217 points. Steele, who crashed in practice and suffered a concussion, failed to qualify his second car at Indianapolis that year. For 2000 the team switched to an all-yellow Pennzoil livery on a Dallara IR00, and Goodyear was rarely outside the top 12.
Goodyear finished second at Phoenix, won the pole at Kentucky and then took second in the Kentucky race after leading 65 laps. After Kentucky he trailed Buddy Lazier by 38 points, and his season-ending win at Texas, where he led 39 laps, left him second in the championship, 18 points behind Lazier.
How did Sam Hornish Jr. win two championships?
Goodyear semi-retired in 2001, and Sam Hornish Jr., in his second year, took over the number 4 Pennzoil Dallara. Hornish won the season opener at Phoenix from second on the grid and then won the Miami race after leading 142 laps. He won the championship with 503 points, 105 ahead of Lazier.
He finished in the top ten at every race except Indianapolis, where he was 14th, and he won his first two pole positions, at Gateway and at the season-ending Texas race, although both grids were set by entrant standings. In 2002 Hornish drove a Chevrolet-powered Dallara IR02. He took pole and the win at Homestead-Miami, and then the race at California after passing Jaques Lazier on the final lap. A battle with the Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran followed, and Hornish won at Chicagoland by only 0.0024 over Al Unser Jr. He clinched the title at Texas with 531 points, after beating Castroneves in the final race.
What went wrong in 2003?
The Chevrolet engines were no match for the Honda and Toyota units used by several Champ Car teams, which joined the IndyCar Series full time in 2003. Hornish started third at Homestead but finished 10th, one lap down, and the Chevrolets struggled to keep pace through the season.
At Indianapolis the team entered two extra cars, but both Billy Boat and Robby McGehee were well down the field. Hornish blew an engine after 195 of the 200 laps while running in the top ten. His results later rebounded, and he strung together six races without finishing worse than sixth. Results improved when Cosworth built a new Chevrolet engine dubbed Chevworth, and Hornish won three races, at Kentucky, Chicagoland and California. He went into the final round at Texas with a chance at a third straight title, but he retired after 176 of 195 laps and finished fifth in the championship with 461 points, 46 behind champion Scott Dixon.
| Year | Indianapolis 500 result | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 15th after an engine failure at 195 laps | Sam Hornish Jr. |
| 2005 | Fifth, after a broken front wing | Buddy Lazier |
| 2006 | Tenth overall | Vitor Meira |
| 2008 | Second, worth more than a million dollars | Vitor Meira |
| 2009 | Second, in the National Guard car | Dan Wheldon |
| 2010 | Second | Dan Wheldon |
| 2011 | Second, after a crash on the final lap | J. R. Hildebrand |
How did the Chevrolet era fade?
The Chevrolet era faded after 2004, when Tomas Scheckter replaced Hornish, who had left for Team Penske. Team Menard merged into the operation, forming Menard-Panther Racing, and Mark Taylor drove the second car until Townsend Bell replaced him after the Richmond round.
Scheckter finished 19th in points, and Bell ended up 21st after missing the first six races. Scheckter had eight top-ten starts in the first nine races, and at Indianapolis he qualified 10th and finished 18th after passing six cars at once.
Scheckter returned in 2005, and Panther's last winning moment came at Texas, where he took pole and led 119 laps in the Bombardier Learjet 500. General Motors withdrew from the IndyCar Series in August 2005, leaving Panther as its only full-time team, and Shell also left the team after that season. Buddy Lazier returned for five races backed by Pennzoil and American Sentry Guard, starting in the top ten at each and taking sixth at both Michigan and Kentucky. Panther cut its operation to a single car from 2006, and the era of Chevrolet power effectively ended.
How did the Honda years go?
In 2006 the team ran one car, a Dallara with an Ilmor-Honda V8, driven by Vitor Meira. He finished 16th at Homestead, took fifth at St. Petersburg and then ran second at Watkins Glen. He qualified sixth at Indianapolis, the highest starter not running for Penske, Ganassi or Andretti Green Racing.
Meira also took second at Richmond and third at Kansas, and he ended the year fifth on 411 points, the top-placed driver outside Penske and Ganassi.
In 2007 Kosuke Matsuura joined as a second driver with Panasonic sponsorship working alongside Autobacs Racing Team Aguri, and both drivers had modest seasons overall. Panasonic's support moved to Andretti Green Racing for the following year. Matsuura took a top-five finish at Michigan. Meira's car carried Delphi sponsorship.
How did the National Guard years end?
In 2009 Dan Wheldon, a former IndyCar champion and Indianapolis winner, replaced Meira in the number 4 car with the U.S. National Guard as primary sponsor. Scott Sharp drove the number 16 Patron car at Indianapolis, and Wheldon finished second behind the winner, while Sharp was off the pace.
Wheldon stayed in 2010 and finished second at Indianapolis again, but the squad was out of contention for much of the year. Ed Carpenter ran a limited schedule and scored a second place at Kentucky. Wheldon left after the season, and Carpenter moved to Sarah Fisher Racing.
In 2011 J. R. Hildebrand, the Firestone Indy Lights champion, drove the National Guard car. He was leading the Indianapolis 500 when he hit the wall in the closing corner of the last lap, and he coasted across the line in second. Wheldon, now driving for Bryan Herta Autosport, won that race. Hildebrand ended the season 11th in the standings. In 2012 Panther formed a strategic alliance with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing before the Indianapolis 500 and obtained a second Chevrolet engine contract. Hildebrand was released after the 2013 Indianapolis 500, and Ryan Briscoe and Oriol Servia then shared the car until Briscoe was hurt in race one at Toronto, when Carlos Munoz drove the number 4 car in race two.
Why did Panther Racing close in 2014?
Panther went into the 2014 season without a car. It had lost its National Guard sponsorship, which the team valued at $17.2 million, and it took legal action against Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and IndyCar, claiming bid rigging. Carlos Huertas tested for the team at Sebring, but no entry appeared at the start of the season.
By April only a skeleton staff remained, and the equipment went to KV Racing Technology, which entered James Davison in the 2014 Indianapolis 500. The remaining assets were put up for auction on 23 July. The team was declared defunct in September 2014. The closure came only a few years after four successive runner-up finishes at Indianapolis.
What role did Indy Lights play?
Panther also ran a successful feeder programme. In 2003 Mark Taylor carried the team to the Infiniti Pro Series title, winning seven of the twelve races before moving up to IndyCar in 2004. Hideki Muto was runner-up in the 2007 Indy Pro Series with Super Aguri Panther.
In 2008 Panther ran two Indy Lights cars. Brent Sherman started every one of the 16 events, while Dillon Battistini won four races before leaving for Team Moore Racing for the final round, and Bobby Wilson replaced him. In 2009 Pippa Mann and Martin Plowman drove for the team, and both ended the season outside the top ten.