The IndyCar Split: Anger and Division in CART | Part I

[@DTFilmProductions]

1998 CART Championship. 19 Races across the US and Canada including a race in Japan, Brazil and Australia. Comprising of 8 ovals and 11 road and street courses. 16 Teams with 29 drivers from 10 countries competed. With 7 different winners! 5 Chassis manufacturers in Eagle, Swift, Lola, Reynard and Penske! 4 Engine manufacturers in Ford, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota.! 2 Tyre manufacturers in Goodyear and Firestone! Does it get much better than that? EX F1 and Future F1 drivers too

[@wezmarc12]

Well, as a foreign fan of IndyCar history, it's the first time i heard the both sides of the story. And with this, i think the both sides are in some parts right. Tony was right in complain about the lack of new American drivers in the CART, the cost for teams which was rising more and more but i don't agree with the IndyCar being a oval-only series. Particularly, the one of the things what attracted me to IndyCar it was this road-course-oval mix, to see the same car running two types of tracks. But CART leaders was right about the expansion of the CART around the world, the series was gaining more and more exposition with foreign drivers influx in the series, making the series a contender with the Formula One. But after all, when the egos starts to clash, bad things happens. And that's what happened with the American open-wheel universe. CART was starting to being the thing they most complained about USAC, a series which not all teams were fully represented, and worse, believing they're biggest than the Indianapolis 500, the race which was the reason why they were called the IndyCar. But George wasn't too far, believing the IndyCar needed to be more ''American", after all the series was growing up around the world and doing a move, closing more the series more in the America would be a great mistake. In the end, this split was the biggest blow in the IndyCar legacy, a wound i think would never being fully healed.

[@kevincorbat7084]

beautifully put. amazing

[@joshhill5932]

Midnight Driver I disagree with the idea trying to make everything international. People are nationalistic and there is no way Indycar would ever grow big in Europe the same way F1 has never been huge in the USA. There are a small number of race fan. Most people are race series fans. The biggest problem CART/indycar has always had was marketing and developing a story for the series. F1 has done this the best. Look at how many documentaries there are about F1. There is nothing organic about it. F1 is brilliant at selling themselves. Nascar has also done a great job with this too. Indycar has just marketed a race and not a series.

[@TripleAlfafa]

@@joshhill5932 It isn't just F1 selling itself, the teams and broadcasters have done an excellent job of promoting themselves and it. F1 didn't need to devise stories to get people interested since the paddock's got just about everything. It's raced on pretty much every continent except Antarctica. There's somebody for pretty much anyone to root for. That said, Indycar would most certainly have more appeal to the average european fan compared to NASCAR. As for a national series having international appeal, Super GT, DTM, BTCC and V8 Supercars have done a good job of making themselves appealing outside of their home countries so I don't see why Indy in particular would fail on that front.

[@user-gu1hl2kx2k]

why does the series "need" more Americans?

[@maestri09]

@@joshhill5932 remember, this was the 80s. It was the time of limitless business growth; deregulation, internationalization. Indy car couldn’t take advantage of these new economic opportunities under the old USAC. In the early 80s people saw optimism in business, and, like the businesspeople of the 80s, they weren’t in a position to notice how unsustainable CART would end up being.

[@DiegoOspina86]

Finally. The true story of the Indy Split. Good job Brock

[@DiegoOspina86]

@Woobiecrew oh. I didn't know that.

[@leghumper83]

18:48 - And now, nearly 30 years later, Penske owns not only the Indy Car Series, but Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

[@arthuralford]

Because Tony George pissed away so much of the Hulman-George family's money on propping up the IRL that they couldn't afford the investment the track needed

[@kenmorimoto9708]

I wish the speedway was sold to Penske in 96

[@ziggystardust4627]

TG might have had a bit of a legitimate gripe (IMHO, this video is selective in emphasizing that point), but he didn't have the talent/smarts/experience/etc. to create a solution that was better than the status quo (in fact, he caused irreparable harm). He was the proverbial boy who was born on third base who thought he had hit a triple.

[@DoctorAustin]

I think we all wanted that anyway. Penske is doing a superb job.

[@jonathan_tong93]

If only the International Speedway Corporation purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 1989, Tony George could have partnered with Menard Racing as Vision-Menard Racing

[@thesteveruss]

George in 1994: We need more ovals. IRL in 2005: We need road courses.

[@MatheusVieira0118]

1994: need more ovals: 6 oval in 16 race schedule 2021: 4 oval races in a 17 race schedule

[@MathRaven1910]

2021:We need more ovals...again

[@GeoThaDude]

@@MathRaven1910 do we though?

[@epaddon]

@@GeoThaDude Yes.

[@truedarklander]

@@epaddon perhaps what you need is street races 😉 A Baku or a Monaco

[@MrBWhite88]

It just blows my mind how I heard so many things in this video that I hear in NASCAR today. "We need to get out of these markets and go bigger." "This series is filled with nothing but a bunch of rich kids." "They went too far away from their roots." "Costs are way too high." You can't help but be concerned about NASCAR's future after watching this video, but they seem to be catching on to some of these pressing issues. Hopefully they don't meat a similar fate to the one their open-wheel counterparts experienced back in the 90s.

[@PenskePC17]

The thing is Cart was still growing exponentially at this point unlike NASCAR. Tony George just had his xenophobic imaginary problems.

[@racefan7616]

NASCAR has seemed to have already gone through this path, starting in the late 90s/early 00s with cookie cutters and an explosion of cost

[@joechilders205]

The drivers in NASCAR do not have personalities like they used to. I realize the money and nationwide audience has a big impact on this but it has also alienated their core audience. Not only are the tracks cooker cutters but for the most part so are the drivers.

[@jonathan_tong93]

@@PenskePC17 the International Speedway Corporation admitted they never purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while Championship Auto Racing Teams admitted they never sanctioned the Indianapolis 500

[@jonathan_tong93]

@@racefan7616 The 1979 and 1996 IndyCar Splits caused NASCAR to have a larger fanbase that resulted into a shrinking IndyCar fanbase

[@DabDabGoose]

Alot of people believe a big part that wasn't mentioned is the link between Tony George and Bernie Eccelstone to make this happen, CART while flawed was massive pre split and it was at the level to be a Solid F1 Rival, having any kind of split would be massively beneficial from an F1 perspective and it further gets suspicious when F1 started to host the GP a couple years later.

[@siobhangear2866]

Tony George doesn't found the IRL without the support of Bill France & Bernie Ecclestone. He was weak and got played. He had the biggest asset but was short-sighted on the leverage that it actually provided.

[@joelbrooks3198]

The late 90's CART racing was my favorite. It had 4 different chassis and 4 different engines to choose from. And the schedule was fantastic.

[@default123default2]

It's strange how hard it fell. Chip Gnassi won so many titles that he lost interest

[@mikehoncho8572]

Personally I prefer the Indy racing league. It gave drivers with unrecognized talent the chance to race in the Indy 500 and make a name for themselves. That plus the lower costs for cars meant teams without money could still compete for wins. And I just like ovals lol, but I’m not a NASCAR fan

[@joelbrooks3198]

@@mikehoncho8572 The cars were garbage.

[@mikehoncho8572]

@@joelbrooks3198 they weren’t quality, but they were cheaper then a champ car and put up good racing 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@joelbrooks3198]

@@mikehoncho8572 No, it was pack racing. Not good. Get out of the pack and fall back. Just like Nascar restrictor plate races. Sucks.

[@Bubbles23XI]

12:32 I sort of feel bad for the dirt racers because they still believed in taking the “traditional” road to Indy, but then again, it didn’t reflect the type of circuits that CART was competing. Therefore, it made more sense to compete in lower Formula series. We’re sorting of seeing the same thing in NASCAR today. Small teams are easily crushed or being locked out of events because they don’t have a charter. There’s a high influx of pay drivers. Car fields are getting smaller.

[@jamesb_53]

Wow. As someone who “lived the split” and was personally affected by it, it is very refreshing to see a video on this topic that isn’t the same old shallow “CART was great, Tony George ruined it” garbage. Thank you for taking the time to research it at a deeper level.

[@japetrini]

I always felt like it was Tony’s fault but this has given new perspective to that opinion.

[@aperson5062]

CART had some issues, Tony still ruined it with his selfish demands or he would take his ball home. End result, IRL stank and few wanted to watch Tony's "vision". Finally they were both so weak they joined back together and CART ate the IRL from the inside out. Now the series is back on the CART tracks, with foreign drivers and only a couple ovals. Oh, and Penske owns it.

[@jamesb_53]

@@aperson5062 Did you even watch this video series? That’s not at all how it happened. LMAO

[@epaddon]

Agreed. This documentary focuses on what was wrong with CART in the late 80s and early 90s because all these CART smoochers (this means you Rob Mush!) haven't a clue as to WHY Tony George felt there was a problem that needed addressing. The most damning clips are Economaki's spot-on commentaries in 89 and Pat Patrick admitting that he wanted to take CART far away from the US! I laugh at hearing Patrick talk about the need for getting into New York because CART *tried* that for seven years with a joke of a race at the Meadowlands that was boring competition on a parking lot, and they failed to grasp that no one in the New York city market cares about auto racing period. CART only cared about rewarding the Fat Cats and to hell with competition and tradition.

[@epaddon]

PS. Having just gone through Oreovicz's lengthy CART apologia that never once mentions the issue of rising costs in CART and the increased lack of competition my admiration for this multipart series has only increased.

[@AutoRockinRacing94]

The things that were said and ultimately happened. Notably, Pat Patrick's comments. 😬

[@GPLaps]

This video is awesome, great job. Looking forward to the next few parts. This topic in particular angers me so much. I remember it quite well and being mostly confused as to why the Penske's and Andretti's were racing any Indy anymore. My favorite sport was set back 50 years with this!

[@forgonenapster8888]

If it wasn't for the split indycar would be a bigger sport than F1 now.

[@BlocAutosport]

an american racing series shooting itself in the leg? where have i heard that before?

[@TripleAlfafa]

@@forgonenapster8888 I doubt it would be that big but it certainly would be bigger than MotoGP.

[@jebediahgentry7029]

You are way, wayyyy to good at this. Your documentaries could be mistaken for big network, and big budget stuff

[@TheTotallyRealXiJinping]

Imagine Senna vs Earnhardt. That would of been insane!

[@charlespetersonjr1994]

Two legendary wheelmen they would have had some epic battles but sadly, it wasn't meant to be. Although didn't they compete against each other in IROC?

[@luisangeli9208]

@@charlespetersonjr1994 Senna never runned a IROC race, in any country

[@jonathan_tong93]

@@charlespetersonjr1994 Ayrton Senna was sadly killed at Imola

[@jonathan_tong93]

@@luisangeli9208 Ayrton Senna never had a chance to be compete in the CART PPG IndyCar World Series and the Indianapolis 500

[@joeyjohnson4826]

What an absurd notion. Even if they would have run each other in Iroc I'm sure senna would have complained just like the other open-wheel driver...one of the reasons it went bye bye.... senna would be little match in a stock car on an oval... Earnhardt would school him on drafting possible stick him in the wall... senna on a road course would fair better, though, he would have to adjust to the slippery low down force front engine stock car, again placing him at a disadvantge... why the series was always lacking. Though interesting on the outside, the open wheel guys were always at a disadvantage... 😁 now there have been a few open-wheel IndyCar drivers that have done well driving stock cars... that goes without saying... but there have been far more disasters... including Formula 1 drivers... sadly these two legends in thier respective disciplines are gone... and because of both of thier deaths, auto sports has never been the same... I can tell you Dale Earnhardt had great respect for Ayrton Senna... I was fortunate enough to have watch both of these men perform their Mastery of their Art... rip legends never die 😁

[@kangarooswild]

the sad result of the split that for 20 years until recently the IndyCar series has had to recover from...

[@wxx3]

1/2 + 1/2 =3/4

[@ithemeparkOFFICIAL]

This was fantastic!!! Perfect use of the older footage and the commentary was excellent! Getting ready to start part 2.

[@bluemoon95]

Great upload. I started watching IndyCar racing in 1988 and I was in awe. Because the drivers were cool and cars looks good. Plus, they race on different tracks. Like the oval in Phoenix one week and the next week the street circuit at Long Beach. Then the month of May of the Indianapolis 500. When the month May was happening when I was a kid. I used to hustle home from school and read the paper to see who was fastest that day. Also, any incidents happen on track and controversy off track. Especially with the popoff valves between the Chevy Illmor engine & the Buick stock block engine. Then watching qualifying on TV all day with stopwatch at hand to see who ran the fastest. In speaking of the Chevy engine that dominated the CART circuit from 88-92. The only non-Chevy engines that won in that period. Was Bobby Rahal winning with a Judd at Pocono in 1988. Bobby Rahal winning with a Cosworth at the Meadowlands in 1989 & Teo Fabi winning Mid-Ohio with the Porsche engine. I still look back at the era with fondness because I still watch old CART races still on KZbin or from my own collection. When split happen in 1996 I went with CART until the end in 2008. Also, I got to meet drivers from that era who since retire. Like Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittiapldi, & Rick Mears. I wish I got the autograph & picture with Bobby Rahal. I remember I had quick chat with Rahal & told him I remember during his Kraco days. He was kind of shocked anybody remember he drove with the Kraco team. I know the IRL won the battle, but they lost the war at the end. Because now they only race only on two ovals, Texas & Indianapolis. Kind of ironic now Roger Penske owns the speedway & the series. Hell, I went to the Pocono IndyCar races from 2013-2019. Now no IndyCar races on the east coast and that sucks. Another thanks for the upload it brought good memories of CART racing & the bad of the split. Can't wait for part 2.

[@spencerbrayall8678]

That KFC Racing hat is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a minute.

[@SkullCrusher416]

It is on ebay but it priced at $78

[@theman13451]

As a fan, I can tell you when the time came in 1996.. I was watching the U.S. 500 All the big names were there and I was and still am a huge Michael Andretti fan.

[@DoctorAustin]

And they all crashed on the parade lap! Oh, those high paid professional driver were soooooo superior they couldn't even drive around slowly. They shot their mouths off and then stepped on their own peckers. Natural justice.

[@epaddon]

@@DoctorAustin And then they rewarded the guy who caused the crash with the chance for a do-over in a backup car so he could win the race despite causing a crash!

[@DoctorAustin]

@@epaddon All the rich boys had backup cars. It's a wonder they didn't crash those too.

[@kg0173]

1996 Indy 500 was the best Indy 500 ever. Eddie Cheever did 236mph laps in the race! You had to experience that not the bigone before the start.

[@freedom6919741]

And what time does that race start this year ? Oh it doesn’t. Cart drivers didn’t make Indy it was the other way around. That’s why Foyt stayed with the IRL.

[@manopike]

This is worthy of larger distribution. Easily the best explanation of The Split and how it nearly killed major league open-wheel racing in America. I am from Indy, a huge 500 fan and I lamented this split from the first, but was a touch too young (just turned 34) to understand the build and finer details. This filled EVERY gap. EXCELLENT WORK!

[@Jonathan83X]

I'm 95% convinced it was Penske' super engine at Indy in 94 that was in a sense the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't believe it was a coincidence at all Tony George announced the IRL's creation two months later. He no doubt was absolutely livid inside about what Penske had done during the month of May and said to himself, "Never again."

[@danielhenderson8316]

It might be semantics, but I think if Tony/USAC banned the Penske Beast immediately after the 94 Indy 500, things probably could have gone on for a little while longer. However, telling Penske and Illmor that the engine would be legal, then changing the rules to slow it down several times, and then killing it after they'd made most of the engine components for other teams was a douche move.

[@Jonathan83X]

@@danielhenderson8316 No kidding. Tony George was an extremely spiteful person. He didn't create that 25/8 rule for nothing in 1996. He wanted to stick it to CART because he wanted to do things his way.

[@briankearn6991]

Penske engine was a work around allowing pushrod engines, like American manufacturers used, to use more turbo boost. Penske didn’t qualify the following year.

[@stankakol5195]

This is an excellent documentary. Terrific editing, bringing in all of those previous clips from other channels at the time.

[@maxsav007]

This was really well done, a compilation of footage that would probably otherwise be lost to obscurity. Extremely underrated channel

[@BSoBadd87]

Does tony george ever sound awake when he speaks? It's like he spits sleeping pills... also, great video. Part 2 please.👍

[@SwineBrothers]

No. He never sounds awake, and never sounds like talking is his favorite thing to do.

[@antr7493]

or not high lol

[@erikcorredor255]

lol

[@SwineBrothers]

My favorite Tony George quote was when he was describing the NASCAR race. "A 400 mile.............................race." No suspense, he just sounded like he forgot how words worked.

[@tilenbozic9504]

My god, after watching this superb docu and hearing Tony for speak for the first time... Was he like a template for Toby from the Office? Same. Fuckin. Diction.

[@joecephus_3668]

Love your videos. Thank you for letting me relive my younger days. When I was 7 years old, i watched my first nascar race with my dad. It was the 1992 season finale in Atlanta. Gordon's first race, Petty's final race. And a great championship battle. IndyCar never appealed to me too much. But this was a cool video to watch.

[@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X]

Boy your first NASCAR race was a good one!

[@crackerlackingproductions6746]

"Everytime a driver turns right I lose money. So I want American drivers to only be able to turn left."-- Tony George

[@jeffcanyafixiy]

Gordon running a 410 sprint at 13. It still trips me out. Love seeing Jenkins and the beloved Chris Economaki, GENUINE ole school journalists. Tremendous video and honest perspective of "the split"!! 👍🇺🇸👍🏁

[@maestri09]

This is a great video, and I really learned a lot that I didn’t know before. The “split”, like any war, was a series of unavoidable decisions that could only lead to a tragic outcome. As Pat Patrick said, the old USAC way of doing things had no prospects for growth going into the 80s. Indycar would have been a small thing compared to the growth happening in Europe and Asia, but at the same time cutting off the sprint cars meant cutting off indycar’s roots and hollow out its soul. As a CART fan, it would have been really tough to realize this at the time of the split, since the series had been going through a period of incredible international success. They had increased international races, sponsors; they got the defending F1 champion, Honda, Toyota, Bridgestone, Mercedes; they were the envy of Bernie Ecclestone, and yet lots of justified dissent from its grassroots.

[@PimpDaddyStyles]

they were the envy of Bernie Ecclestone? what are you smoking? it must be top notch stuff whatever it is because you are clearly high thinking Bernie was envious of CART. F1 was so far out in front of CART it could not even be seen.

[@alexisborden3191]

They got retiring F1 drivers, Indy was always second fiddle to F1, even today, Rossi, Bourdais, Ericsson, Sato, Chilton. That's not to say the series is 1 to 1 and being good in one means dominance in another, I think the difference in the Indy careers of Fittipaldi and Mansell proves that. But there is a trend that F1 is a higher talent series than Indy, even in the 90s. Also ask an Indy fan today whether they care about sprint cars, I don't know that many do, I think most would probably be more interested in other European and global open wheel racing and American and global sports car racing.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@PimpDaddyStyles They weren't the "envy" of Bernie, but he was concerned. When IndyCar went to Surfer's Paradise, Balestra and the F1 banned any driver who showed up from entering F1. It eventually was recinded, but there was concern.

[@chasefollett4107]

As always; stellar production! Im always blown away with the footage you’re able to put together.

[@EBanton24]

Can’t wait for the next pieces of this series! Excellent job! The Jack Hewitt appearance and King of The Hill clip put the icing on the cake.

[@allthekingshorses7178]

As a motor racing fan from Scotland, I honestly believe this was the beginning of the end for open wheel racing in the US, it's never been the same since. Such a shame

[@Pensfan5919]

Quality topic, and I'm sure an incredible video. Can't wait for Wednesday already, and I'm only a few minutes in!

[@paulo9504]

CART was no joke in the early to mid-nineties. When Mansell showed up in 1993, even Bernie Ecclestone became worried about CART's growing worldwide popularity.

[@xSoccerxCorex]

was expensive as fuck to run which was the main point of contention. as said earlier in the video, why show up and race if you have no chance of winning cause the team owners who also run the series rig the engine runs in their favor?

[@paulo9504]

@@xSoccerxCorex Expensive yes. However, at their height CART had big manufacturers paying big driver salaries and supporting teams. Also, there was big tobacco and beer sponsorship. The series was flush with cash. Marlboro Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi, Team KOOL Green, Newman-Haas, Patrick Racing, Rahal-Letterman, Players Forsythe, PacWest, Walker Racing, All American Racers, Tasman, etc. There weren't just three or four teams. There were several top level teams during the mid to late nineties that were capable of winning at any time. The cars were absolutely fantastic too. Lolas, Penskes, Reynards, and Swift. CART during the nineties was a fabulous series to witness, politics aside. We will never see anything like it again. The product that CART put on the track during the nineties was superior to anything TG's toy series ever put out.

[@zlinedavid]

The 1993 had a total of 7 world driving championships represented: Mario and Mansell with 1 each, Fittipaldi with two and Nelson Piquet with 3.

[@iancooley9848]

@@paulo9504 THANK YOU for that... YES FINALLY someone who gets it!!!!!

[@juniorjohnson9509]

It was both interesting and frustrating to be part of the CART circus at the time of the split.

[@johnnystir9796]

Excellent video. I worked at IMS from 1995-1999. I only worked in concessions, but I remember the vitriol thrown both ways. I've been a lifelong IndyCar fan who supported the IRL over CART, but I was wrong. The whole thing was a cluster, and the series, while certainly strong on track, has suffered from the self-inflicted wounds from the 90's. I was such an idiot.

[@kg0173]

First I was a CART fan then became IRL fan. I love ovals and Indy500. Now its gone, and I'm basically left with watching only NASCAR (the last series I really care about). I still watch IndyCar, just only ovals except 2021 and 2022 when I watched all races because of Jimmie Johnson. IndyCar needs more ovals, the product is good. If I want to watch formula style roadcourse racing I watch F1, IndyCar has no competition in that.

[@SwineBrothers]

I love sprint car racing, to me it's one of the most exciting forms of motorsport. But I grew up with CART on road courses, and that's what I prefer for Indycars.

[@PaperBanjo64]

I love open wheel cars on road courses too, but I think a few more ovals, preferably short ovals are great too, an all oval IndyCar was a bad idea and so is an all road course IndyCar, a good balance of both would be nice.

[@SwineBrothers]

@@PaperBanjo64 Short ovals would be cool to see, provided they got the package right. I did enjoy the last Champ Car season that was all road/street courses, but I did kind of miss Milwaukee.

[@allabouthewaves4354]

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart both showed INDYCAR what they were missing for 2 decades. Both Gordon and Stewart were smoking the rest of the field on road courses.

[@Bitterman5868]

And now Tony Stewart is making his own Racing League due to how nascar went full retarded after the Frances were left out of the board. And Jeff Gordon is now the Vice Chairman of Hendrick.

[@AndyS-kv2jh]

Great video! I remember The Split very well and this background video really gave a great insight into everything that was happening in terms of politics in auto racing at the time. I was 12 when The Split happened and being 12 I only cared about the on track action. The only thing I knew about the 1996 500 was that all the big names like Rahal, Fittipaldi, Unser, and Penske wouldn’t be there and that ticked me off.

[@iancooley9848]

Yeah man, I mean I was 11 years old at the time of 'the split' myself and at that time it felt like it all rush so fast into two separate leagues.

[@BlueAngelPhantoms]

Great recap, thanks for covering this topic.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Tony George killed IndyCar with the split...I love watching the Indy 500 but the old pre split CART was so much better, multiple engines, multiple chassis suppliers and Penske even ran their own cars, a schedule with actual variety and not too many of a specific type of track, it was like a mini Formula 1, now it's just a spec series.

[@Budisgud69]

@Maki 😂😂😂

[@lightningcount123]

@Maki LOOL best comment ever sarcasm aside, new indycar is shit. single chassis, single aero, i'll stick to watching old cart races to get my indycar

[@Mistertbones]

Amazing job Brock. You're looking at it objectively, which is what should be done.

[@evincasey6656]

I'm gonna love this series. Scott Brayton was from my hometown, where open-wheel was big, especially the 500.

[@roryoconnor4989]

FINALLY! a well produced doc about where we are today with indycar. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this, it's an excellent synopsis. Who knows where we'd be today if they hadn't split. So many missed opportunities.

[@roryoconnor4989]

(can't wait for part 2!!)

[@daboiracing3848]

man Senna in NASCAR would have been epic!

[@psychlops924]

Or Senna in the Indy 500

[@jonathan_tong93]

Ayrton Senna could have been competed in the 1990 CART PPG IndyCar World Series

[@daboiracing3848]

@@jonathan_tong93 Senna In any other car then F1 would of been a pure treat. :)

[@Yoshiman2024]

@@daboiracing3848 He raced Group C once at the Nurburgring in the early 80s.

[@leightonsteven7059]

He wouldn’t sink so low

[@Mario_Ramirez]

If Tony George wanted more "good ol' boys" running Indycars, he could have easily created his own team or a junior series, he wanted to be the big guy like the Frances or Ecclestone, when he got to own it all he did nothing, the sport is a joke! The sisters just waited for Mary Hulman to pass and wanted out.

[@hippyjason]

This channel is _criminally_ under-subscribed.

[@HotrodHud]

This was super well edited and voiced. Very good. Also loved to learn about this "war"

[@timford3599]

Thank you Brock Beard for a truly great telling of the fascinating history of the "Civil War" which nearly ended open wheel racing in the United States. This telling is IMO very objective, fair and balanced.

[@hollerandsquall]

Hearing Patrick talk about how INDYCAR should leave Road America gets under my skin. I’ve always felt annoyed by how CART was trying too hard to be Formula 1. Tony George had the right idea but executed it poorly. In the end it was just a battle of egos that ruined racing .

[@scottmiller1531]

I will never say anything about Patrick because none of it would be nice. He was always a more divisive force than Penske ever was, let's not forget that UE is the reason we had/have engine leases, which IMO are horrible for a series.

[@joshuacoombs1955]

as someone who lives in europe (uk) i can assure you that if indycar had events in europe fans would flock to watch, us europeans live our open wheel racing !!

[@BDCMatt]

me and my dad still bring up the split 20 years later to complain about how it ruined open wheeled racing in North America... What a shame...

[@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303]

I mean he's right. Indy is slowly crawling back up but it's gonna be a while before it gets anywhere near as big as it was. I think Penske is gonna do a good job

[@DennisMerwood-xk8wp]

@@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303 Sorry Pete. Indy car racing will NEVER recover. Its done. Even Rodger the Dodger will not revive it. Auto racing will be all done in 5-years time.

[@lightningcount123]

@@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303 i wouldn't say it's crawling back up, it's a glorified spec series now with a 12 year old chassis.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@lightningcount123 A 12 year old chassis with constant improvements. TV ratings are up and Indy is back to being jam packed with people. Will it fully recover? Probably not, but it's far healthier now than it was for the 2008 reunification.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@DennisMerwood-xk8wp Yet F1 is selling tons of tickets, will race in the US 3 times next year, and ratings for all motorsports in North America are up. Things are going to have fall off a cliff in the next 2 years for you to be right.

[@Speeder76]

Hell! How does a channel like this has so few followers? This is very good, a quality job!

[@bluehead_info]

Thank you for not stuffing it with ads. Subscribed to valuable content.

[@maddogmatt5507]

This is where the fun begins

[@dshiznit12a]

As a sprint car fan it was cool to see jack hewitt and steve kinser get to run in the indy 500.

[@kidsea13]

Never knew about those 1990 FIA plans to get involved with oval racing; very interesting and would love to hear more if there's documentation on it.

[@csonkaperdido]

This is a fantastic video.. I was, and still am, a HUGE open wheel racing fan and I remember this vividly. I prefer road courses and I was one of the people who hated Tony George and only watched the Indy 500, purposely avoiding any other IRL races. I still think CART was the high point of open wheel racing in America - those cars were damn near as fast as the contemporary F1 cars and the lots of the drivers were ex F1 drivers.

[@epaddon]

If you prefer road courses why do you bother watching Indy? Maybe if CART had gotten its head out of its rear and realized there were a LOT of fans who remember when real Indy car drivers ran oval tracks and who didn't like seeing it become an F-1 knockoff series and addresses those concerns their never would have been a split.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@epaddon Because the sport was at it's best when it was a mix of ovals and road courses. CART even added more ovals to it's schedule as they ended the 90's. We tried your oval only experiment and everyone got bored and left, even the Indy 500. It's only been the last few years as CART-Lite that the series is starting to regain ground.

[@jonnyspa27]

Thanks for uploading this. A few years out from this split in ‘96 and reunification in ‘08 gives a little perspective. As many here have spoken of the troubles NASCAR is encountering, would Indycar have the same issues if they hadn’t split up?

[@ty50bmg11]

Tony George gets all the blame but in reality both sides were to blame

[@Matthewlaing1395]

I'm happy I found these videos. I was trying to find videos about this split I just found out about yesterday

[@valmuylle3259]

Your series on this topic is first class!

[@FerraristDX]

I'll play devil's advocate here: Tony George wasn't wrong per se. CART badly needed a solid, homegrown base and a strong leadership that could have dealt with the political climate. Unfortunately, in trying to change the sport, George tore down a lot of things, perhaps even irreparably. Can't wait to see the next episodes of this series.

[@ziggystardust4627]

Not "perhaps." He damaged it irreparably. And the best thing to get more Americans would have been to build better domestic feeder series. The idea that sprint-based open wheelers could become the road to Indy was a mirage after the rear engine revolution, and the final nails in the coffin came with ground effects. This video overstates the errors and self-owns in CART management pre-split. There were issues that needed to be corrected, but it did not require the nuclear option, that ultimately led to nuclear winter for American open-wheel racing.

[@matthewlo7868]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 to you, good sir! Hope part two will come ASAP!

[@garyskippracing]

12:50 Yep, that’s racing! Excellent video. Looking forward to Pt 2

[@jarrenSA-ENG]

Fantastic viewing, can't wait for part 2

[@howabouthetruth2157]

Very informative piece. Good job. I really enjoyed this, thank you. Looking forward to part 2.

[@PescaraProductions]

It's a tale as old as Motorsport itself. Management gets lazy or a group decide their way of doing things isn't for them and tries to take people to a new, but almost the same type of series. Then it's just the gamble of sink or swim. If you had a dollar for every time that has happened in UK club Motorsport you could start your own CART/IRL series 1000 times over

[@zerof0rce]

Great trip to my childhood, and production here is top shelf! Great work again! Also, Gordon won nine times on road courses in Cup as well if I recall. Big oops by Indy on that talent...

[@iancooley9848]

Exactly how I feel about this too!

[@assassssasa]

CART was EPIC in the early '90s before Tony George destroyed it

[@ILSRWY4]

You forget or maybe your don't want to remember, or maybe you are just plain stupid... INDYCAR was Epic from 1911 - 1979, until pretty rich boy teams created CART that destroyed Indycar in 1979. Funny how its ok for them to do it. Not ok for TG to do it. TG was getting it BACK to what Indycar had been from the start... when AAA & USAC ran it.

[@STC987]

CART played a big role in their own demise.

[@Mario_Ramirez]

Ultimately, as amazing as CART was, they destroyed themselves, Tony George also paid a big price for his stupidity, he lost the speedway.

[@Clarotus]

And then look at where it is now ILSRWY4. Congratulations. You played yourself.

[@azaz911c]

I agree. Politics and business aside, the on track racing product of 1990s CART was excellent. Racing among the top teams was close and competitive with many talented drivers. It was well sponsored, the races were well attended, and the cars looked attractive. Regardless of who was responsible for it, the split was an unnecessary act of self immolation.

[@chejlr]

I remember the split well, it was covered well in Autoweek magazine. According to what i read, Tony George was not happy over the influx of foreign drivers. He figured by having mostly oval races there would be more American drivers. He was very misguided in his reasoning as foreign drivers brought a lot of international fans.

[@JeremyKShort]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.. oh, sorry. I was listening to Tony George announce something.

[@TheTotallyRealXiJinping]

He’s like Kimi but not high lol

[@Mentally_Will]

Tony George should make all of us feel better about our presentation and public speaking skills.

[@ziggystardust4627]

Maybe this wasn't the guy who should have gone up against a bunch of experienced businesspeople to show them how it was done. He only won because he spent the family treasure into oblivion (to the point where he had to sell out at fire sale prices to Penske ultimately). Of course, this was after TG adopted more or less the business model that he originally rebelled against (turbos, engine leases, mostly road courses, foreign drivers, etc.). The split was a flippin' waste of time, money and public goodwill.

[@emobassist]

Damn Dave Despain has been around forever. And you got to love that Jeff Gordon mustache

[@danesorensen1775]

The thing that never seems to get mentioned in these histories is the significance of Formula 5000 in the 1970s. If you put the USAC and F5000 schedules side-by-side you ended up with something that looked a lot like a latter-day CART schedule. It might have been the demise of that series that gave CART most of its road events, but it still means the U.S. had a tradition of open-wheel road racing well before CART. But it's always put aside and ignored because it was off in a separate series. Anyway, looking forward to Part 2.

[@stevenkilsdonk2046]

That's a good point but I think the actual one to look at is the winding down of the second Can Am, whose grids were comprised partially of fendered F5000 cars. Suddenly Carl Haas, Paul Newman, VDS, Jim Trueman, and Galles (sort of) came into CART at the same time that the shift to more road courses on the CART schedule happened in the early 80s. Also, Mid Ohio and Laguna Seca disappeared off the Can Am schedule right when they appeared on CART's schedule.

[@kevinhuber8723]

Thanks for posting this. Tom Bigelows day in the Sun! What a great car that Wildcat was as it had a very long career and ran well throughout. This was just so cool to watch as it brought back many memories.

[@Blitzkey1]

Very well done. Brings back a lot of memories.

[@bigdrew565]

If there's one constant in any sport, it's that if you got owners making the rules, they'll screw everyone over to get their pockets lined. My favorite stories from racing have to be those lovely lunatics at Hesketh racing in the 1970sand Alan Kulwicki winning the 1992 Winston Cup as an independent. That's what I always thought racing should be.

[@ithemeparkOFFICIAL]

Watching this great series again! :)

[@thomaspowers4952]

Great video! Nice work... looking forward to Part 2.

[@v10mclaren]

Excellent video. I think people tend to look back on the split with bias for one side or the other. This does a good job of portraying the truth... that there were no good guys during the split.

[@lonewolf2513]

Did Paul page ever open his eyes in the 90s? Most clips I see of him back then he almost always seems to have them closed

[@TheEagleXIII]

New sub from the UK! Been interested in IndyCar since I was a kid when Mansell left F1 in 93. Hardly ever got any coverage here, though, and I've never really gone beyond that interest. These videos are what I've been hoping to find for years! Can't wait to check out the rest of your videos and learn me some NASCAR too!

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

Come on in, the water's warm

[@UNHchabo]

Indycar posts half-hour "Fast Forward" replays of all the races to their youtube channel, those will give you most of the action of a race and cut out most of the downtime. I still like watching the full races, but for the seasons that NBC holds the rights to the full races (2019+), those replays are almost good enough, I highly recommend them. :)

[@DTFilmProductions]

1991 Tony George requests no turbos. 2023 still using Turbos

[@TheriusO94]

It happened in 1997

[@Noonecanknow879]

The European Super League may want to watch this.

[@FMecha]

Was going to comment exactly that, haha Also my own country's football/soccer league had an ugly split too - FIFA even suspended us a year or two after the leagues merged because the situation was still unstable to the point our government had to interfere. Things seems to be stable for now, though.

[@RandysRacingPlace633]

LOL!

[@iancooley9848]

@@FMecha Wow I heard about this, but I didn't know to what extent!

[@SwineBrothers]

I'm trying to find the full version of the Bob Jenkins/chris economaki report on late 80s Indycar racing.

[@PYLrulz1984]

All because Tony George thought the USAC roots were still relevant to modern open wheel racing. If CART was competently run, Tony would have been begging for mercy after 1996. All they had to do was enter in IRL races, show outclassed the IRL guys were, and kill ‘em on their first season.

[@kaeso101]

17:28 danggg..that got my imagination going...the thought of senna speeding through the indy 500...that would be mind blowing

[@gothard5]

I liked Indy car racing so much better during the split in the late 90s and early 2000s. I hated it when everything came back together. I haven’t watched Indy car racing ever since except for the Indy 500.

[@davidlestrade9617]

Thank you, can’t wait for part 2

[@BryonLape]

Tony George's ego was the problem. Open wheel racing in the US still hasn't recovered. Every additional bad decision stems from Tony.

[@robertmusgrave9236]

The 25/8 rule brought that out trying to kill CART by 1997 trying to get unity in on terms 100% and for full control of AOWR. Tony George thought he could get an all Oval IndyCar schedule with all the teams by setting them up in a trap if they committed to run the first IRL race at Walt Disney. However Tony forgot there were other big CART races on the schedule. However as what the Indy split book talks about from what I read with the pre forward Online is that the Hulmans used the stature of the speedway and their family money to gain power to form the IRL and don’t forget that the Brickyard 400 was created to bring in the IRL money to just stay afloat to put on an Indy 500. Glad the Hulmans went bankrupt and got out of IndyCar.

[@matthewscott8692]

CART was part of the problem as well. Too much greed on their side. I certainly don't agree with George and how he bankrolled the IRL to kill CART but it takes two to tango. CART was also dumb enough to try to become publicly traded(post split) which backfired big time. They needed Indy as much as Indy needed them.

[@DavidLand91]

Popcorn ready

[@daboiracing3848]

I definitely thought this was your video until I saw the channel

[@kapage74]

As a Brit that's just getting into this era of US open wheel racing, this has come at the perfect time, can't wait for how this develops. Production and voiceover work is great as always, keep up the great work

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

Oh Kieran, it was really heart breaking. You had Andretti, Mears and Fittipaldi competing for the pole, then the following year-> Well Sure, the cars are fast enough & those big v8s sounded great, but so many cars broke And the top drivers were Billy Boat, Tommy Kite and a lot of other folks we had never heard of- in fact, 80% of the field were new names for most of the country. -. .It was also hard to find somebody to 'root for' if that concept is known to Britons I finally settled on... well, I forgot his name too. (Actually I grew to favor Buddy Lazier- but it took a while)

[@kapage74]

@@GregBrownsWorldORacing yeah I get that, I've been really into 1998-2000 CART really, so it's a case if looking at what caused the chaos and the behind the scenes stuff. And I get the rooting for thing, I root for Blaney in NASCAR currently, not got a correct indycar driver right now

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

@@kapage74 I LOVE the Blaney kid, I think he's going to continue to improve. Seems like he'd be fun to hang out with, if not too crazy an idea :) If not for the crud, I'd invite you over... have RV will go racing, from central NC It's really short trips to Richmond, Martinsville, Charlotte, Darlington & Bristol... Also went to North Wilkesboro & Rockingham while they were still operating.

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

@@kapage74 I went to the first Brickyard 400, I thought it would be great for the Cup cars, but they really don't mix that well. I went to Indy for IRL & The new unified field, but actually most of the IRL teams closed up & the Cart Boys came back. It's been a while though I picked two of the best ones though I believe when the passing was insane. Those were the ones won by TK, then by Hunter-Reay..

[@iancooley9848]

@@GregBrownsWorldORacing You know what buddy I do wish that NASCAR would put extra money into North Wilkesboro and Rockingham Speedways. I loved watching those races back in 1990 when I was just 5 years old.

[@robertmusgrave9236]

I will also add that the France family helped the IRL get of the ground as well letting them use the ISC ovals.

[@danielhenderson8316]

Yep. Once that ran out and ISC didn't make you buy IndyCar tickets to see NASCAR like at Kansas Speedway, oval attendance dropped like a stone and then ovals started dropping.

[@javierv.s2201]

Love the late 90's CART, the cars, the teams (Penske, Ganassi, Newman-Haas, Team Green, PacWest, Forsythe...) the drivers (Vasser, Zanardi, De Ferran, Andretti, Franchitti, Tracy, Montoya, Hertha, Moore) they were fantastic. All ruined by Tony George whith the help of Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone did the same thing with the Indy Car he had done with the C class (Le Mans) and the DTM in the first 90's.

[@NotSteveCook]

It's easy to blame the sprint car/short track racers losing their connection to Indy on CART, but this had already become a problem before 1979. By 1971, rear-engine cars made the roadsters obsolete, and the [IndyCar] Championship Trail no longer had any dirt track races (though sprints and midgets still ran dirt). As Robin Miller says, those changes "cut the arms and legs off every short tracker who wanted to get to the Indy 500". Who was in charge of those decisions? USAC, which is still a 4-letter word in racing. USAC also lost Marlboro's title sponsorship after just one year because USAC allowed Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing to display Viceroy (a rival tobacco brand) on their cars. USAC couldn't even grant their title sponsor exclusivity, which isn't much to ask for.

[@Clarotus]

And don't forget, USAC banned the mid-engined midgets and sprint cars in 1974. That completely killed off the road from sprint cars.

[@iancooley9848]

@@Clarotus Exactly right nothing like shooting oneself in their own foot

[@crambo765]

That was really good and really good information. Indycar tried to be American formula 1. While nascar took all the American talent and produced a better product. It’s taken until the last 3-4 years before Indycar is finally starting to understand where they screwed up.

[@dethkillerspiral]

12:25 then came guys like tony stewart

[@cba_2442]

Nice to see the history to why there's only like 12 IndyCar fans left these days.

[@natetracy1745]

This guy is such a great narrator and producer.

[@conrailman]

One thing I wanted to point out, the Ford Cosworth XB engine debuted in 1992, not 1993.

[@rick83083]

Great video, can't wait for part 2.

[@mtfan]

Absolutely fantastic work, guys. Fascinating stuff.