Tony George - "The Split"

"The Split"

Shortly after being removed from the CART Board of Directors, George announced the creation of the Indy Racing League, which began racing in 1996. He claimed to create the IRL to challenge the already established CART series, and to encourage a more even playing field in open wheel racing. He claimed he wanted a series to run entirely on oval tracks, making it distinct from CART, which raced on road and street courses in addition to short ovals and superspeedways. George angered many CART participants by requiring 25 of the 33 spots in the Indianapolis 500 to be occupied by drivers in the IRL circuit. This meant that CART could not hold the Indianapolis 500 as a points scoring event on their calendar as not enough teams would be allowed to compete and earn points. CART decided to stage their own race on the same day, the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway. Due to the lack of participation from the established CART teams, most of the biggest names didn't enter the Indianapolis 500 for several years. Tony George became a figure of derision among some racing fans, and he is blamed for open wheel racing losing fans, sponsors and drivers to NASCAR.

George was successful in increasing the visibility of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indy 500 remains one of the highlights of the IRL race season and maintained a strong attendance. George also attracted NASCAR and Formula One (from 2000 to 2007) to Indianapolis. In 2008, the MotoGP series added the oval circuit to its schedule. However the IndyCar series had trouble drawing fans, plus it lost IndyCar drivers to NASCAR such as Sam Hornish, Dario Franchitti, and Danica Patrick. Despite the absorption of the Champ Car World Series (the successor to CART) to IndyCar series, the merged series is nowhere as popular or commercially successful as CART in the early 1990s.