The Indianapolis 500 has been one of the greatest spectacles of racing in global motorsports for several decades now. It did not get to this point without beating multiple rivals to the dust. One of the failed events that was created to supersede it in 1996 was the U.S. 500. The creation of this race stems back to a long-running rivalry.
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In 1979, powerful team owners in American open-wheel racing, including Roger Penske and Dan Gurney, combined to form the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). The United States Auto Club (USAC), which was aligned with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), tried banning the teams in this breakaway series from participating in the Indy 500.
It failed in the legal battle that followed and was forced to co-exist with CART. A shallow truce came into effect between the two factions for a period. But when Tony George, the grandson of Tony Hulman, was put in charge of IMS, things began turning dark once again. He founded the Indianapolis Racing League (IRL) and allowed only eight entries from CART to qualify for the Indy 500.
The remaining 25 spots were to go to teams backed by IRL. This is what led CART to announce the creation of a rival race, the U.S. 500, to be held at the Michigan International Speedway.
On December 18, 1995, the organization revealed to the world that the event would go down at the same date and time as the Indianapolis 500 in 1996.
December 18, 1995: Instead of competing in the Indy 500, CART teams announced the creation of the US 500 at Michigan, to be held at the same time pic.twitter.com/Ut5R0hYgl7
— nascarman (@nascarman_rr) December 18, 2024
The tragic fate of the U.S. 500 and CART
The U.S. 500 went down with 27 entries in front of 120,000 people in Michigan. As fate would have it, tragedy struck early. A crash occurred in Turn 4 during the parade before the green flag, and several drivers had to use their backup cars for the race. The day ended with CART driver Jimmy Vasser winning the event and a prize money of $1 million.
The race was televised by ESPN and significantly ate into the Indy 500’s viewership on ABC. However, the show would not go on for long. It was held for another three years, albeit on dates from that of the Indy 500, before being shifted to IRL under a different name. Several drivers including Vasser himself couldn’t believe the tensions that were in the air at the time.
He told Autoweek in 2021, “First of all, I would have rather been in Indianapolis, for sure. It was just amazing that it somehow got to that point. … I just didn’t believe it would actually happen. But lo and behold, it did. And we found ourselves in Michigan on Memorial Day weekend, and nobody really wanted to be there.”
IRL and CART would continue battling each other for people’s attention for 12 more years following the U.S. 500 before merging in 2008. It is, in large part, owing to these dramatic splits that NASCAR became the most popular racing series in North America and remains in that spot to this day.
