Indy Car Racing History
History - Facts - Drivers - Winners - Teams - Standings
Prior to 1979 the name IndyCar was a generic term referring to cars raced in USAC-sanctioned races including the Indianapolis 500. IndyCar is most used today for the American Championship Car Racing, a form of open-wheel auto racing. The term comes from the name of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.
Beginning in the 1980s, IndyCar became the name that most car racing fans used in referring to CART, which became the dominant governing entity for open-wheel racing in the United States.
In 1992, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway trademarked the IndyCar name and licensed it to CART, which in turn renamed its championship the IndyCar World Series.
During the 1996 season, the name IndyCar became the subject of a known legal battle in the United States. Mr. Tony George created his own national championship racing series called the Indy Racing League then in March 1996 CART filed a lawsuit against the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in order to protect their license of the IndyCar name which the Indianapolis Motor Speedway attempted to terminate.
Later on a settlement was reached in which CART agreed to give up the use of the IndyCar name and the IRL could not use the name before the end of the 2002 season. Nowadays, the Indy Racing League is the sole owner of the name IndyCar.
The series sold its naming rights to Internet search engine Northern Light for five seasons in 2000, and the series was named the "Indy Racing League Northern Light Series. Then after only two seasons during 2000 and 2001, the sponsorship agreement ended after reevaluation of their business plan and ended all sponsorships.
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