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IndyCar Series history
IndyCar Series company history timeline
Financially, the sport is still recovering from the loss of fans during the split; it may never recover to its pre-1994 popularity.
CART returned to branding as simply CART for 1997, and resurrected the term "champ car" to describe their vehicles.
The new 1997 technical rules featured less expensive chassis and "production-based" engines that were purchased rather than leased, but most importantly, were technically incompatible with CART specifications.
In 2002, IndyCar mandated the installation of a SAFER barrier at the Indianapolis 500, and later at all other IndyCar races.
Since 2003, it has been compulsory for helmets to be fitted with a small airbag that allows for safety crews to remove the helmet without neck strain.
Following a six-year hiatus, the Indy Racing League announced it would rename their premier series the IndyCar Series for the 2003 racing season; CART followed suit by renaming their main series the Champ Car World Series.
A year after that, IndyCar returned to Wisconsin’s Road America for the first time since Champ Car raced there in 2007; that race reportedly drew the track’s biggest-ever crowd, some 50,000 people.
Since 2008, the IndyCar has put much of its acrimonious past behind it.
Randy Bernard was announced as the new IRL CEO in February 2010.
IndyCar requires that all drivers wear helmets and head restraints that meet or exceed FIA 8858-2010 certifications.
By 2010, George had been pushed out as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s president and had resigned as the IRL’s chief executive.
In 2011, the sanctioning body dropped the Indy Racing League name, becoming IndyCar to reflect the merged series.
Bernard was fired in October 2012, and replaced by Mark Miles.
George, who stepped down from the Hulman board in 2012, helped lead a failed buyout attempt that reportedly offered just $5 million for the IndyCar series.
When Miles took over in 2012, he was saddled with a TV deal that split races between ABC and NBC; ABC had five races on broadcast spread throughout the season while NBC aired the rest of the season on its cable sports network.
The new Dallara DW12 racecar was introduced for the 2012 season.
The season-opening race in St Petersburg, Florida, drew 495,000 viewers, up 28% from the 388,000 who tuned in the last time the race was on cable, in 2013.
The series is also still waiting to make its return to international racing: Aside from the annual Toronto race, it hasn’t had an overseas presence since it stopped racing in Brazil in 2013.
In 2014, Miles advanced the season’s final race to the last week of August.
In 2014, the series introduced the Indianapolis Grand Prix, a road course in the Brickyard’s infield that serves as a lead-in to the Indy 500, and the following year the Indiana Finance Authority issued $93 million in bonds to improve the speedway facility.
Share of Americans who watched any IndyCar Series event on cable TV in the last 12 months in 2018 (by age)
The TV money hasn’t improved much—NBC’s rights fee is somewhat higher than what IndyCar was receiving under the previous arrangement, but IndyCar has also taken on a bigger role in production and distribution, so on a net basis, the new deal isn’t expected to significantly impact the bottom line. It’s also a short-term deal, running through the 2021 season, so if IndyCar continues ratcheting up its audience, it will be able to increase its rights fee demands during the next round of negotiations.
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IndyCar Series competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NASCAR | 1948 | $100.0M | 1,866 | 128 |
| World Racing Group | - | $9.4M | 125 | - |
| Chip Ganassi Racing Teams | 1990 | $11.2M | 200 | 3 |
| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | - | $77.0M | 409 | 13 |
| Middle East Children's Alliance | 1988 | $2.2M | 11 | - |
| Brown-Forman | 1870 | $4.2B | 4,570 | 64 |
IndyCar Series history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of IndyCar Series, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about IndyCar Series. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at IndyCar Series. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by IndyCar Series. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of IndyCar Series and its employees or that of Zippia.
IndyCar Series may also be known as or be related to INDYCAR LLC, IndyCar, IndyCar Series and Indycar.