U.S. 500 - Inaugural Event

Inaugural Event

CART scheduled what was billed as a "Special Qualifying Session" for the U.S. 500 on the weekend of May 11-12, 1996, which directly conflicted with the first weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. The move was exclusive in that all other CART events featured qualifying the same weekend of the race. The move effectively prevented teams potentially competing at both events from having hopes of qualifying for the pole position at both races. Cold temperatures and reported snow flurries hampered the session at Michigan, although it was completed as scheduled. Teams would return two weeks later for the race.

Jimmy Vasser won the first such race in 1996, which was notable for its disastrous start. With the cars lined up in rows of three (the traditional starting formation of the Indy 500), Vasser, on pole, was about to take the green flag at the start, when he was struck by Adrian Fernandez. Fernandez then tagged Bryan Herta, and the resulting accident took out a number of cars. Though ten cars had wrecked out, CART allowed teams to bring out backup cars and made repairs to heavily-damaged cars; this hurt the credibility of CART for allowing DNFs to come back out as though nothing had happened; years earlier Roberto Guerrero, the polesitter for the Indianapolis 500, crashed on the pace lap and was ruled a DNF. With the victory, Vasser won over $1 million and had his likeness inscribed onto the Vanderbilt Cup. In addition, an American flag was waved along with the twin checkered flags to end the race.