Grand Prix of Houston

Grand Prix Of Houston

The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston is an annual auto race on the IndyCar Series circuit. It was held in a street circuit located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States of America for four years, then returned (after a four year hiatus) for two years on a course laid out in the parking lot of the Reliant Park Complex. The last race was held on April 22, 2007 (with the IRL merger canceling the 2008 GPoH just two months prior to the event).

From 1998 to 2001, CART (Champ Car's predecessor series) held a race on Houston's downtown streets, adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center. This event was sponsored by the oil company Texaco, and named the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. However, construction in downtown Houston resulted in the race not being renewed for the 2002 Champ Car season.

In 2005, the Champ Car World Series announced that it would be making a return to Houston in 2006; for some time, series directors had wanted to make a return to the city. The 2006 event was held on May 13 as the second round of the 2006 Champ Car schedule. However, this time the race was held on a 1.7-mile temporary street circuit on the Reliant Park complex instead of the downtown streets and was the first race held on a street course to run at night in the history of Champ Car or its precursor series (in 2003 and 2004, Champ Car ran under the lights at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio). Also, the American Le Mans Series held an event, the Lone Star Grand Prix, on the previous night, marking only the second time Champ Car and American Le Mans promoted their own events in the same city on the same weekend (they joined in 2003 for the Grand Prix Americas in Miami, Florida). For 2007, JAG Flocomponents picked up the naming rights to the previously unnamed street course, naming it JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park.

Mi-Jack Promotions had a handshake deal with IndyCar to revive the event in October 2011, however the required sponsorship was not found by June 2010.

However, IndyCar officials announced the event will return in 2013 sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell and using a tweaked version of the 2006-2007 course. The event has a 5-year race contract through 2017 with IndyCar and Shell, using its Pennzoil brand of motor oil, is signed for 4-years as the event's title sponsor.