Scandals & Feuds ·
The U.S. 500 crashed before it began
CART’s alternative to the Indianapolis 500 opened with a 13-car pileup. After an hour’s delay, Jimmy Vasser won; Adrián Fernández never completed a racing lap.
CART had promoted its alternative to the Indianapolis 500 as “The Stars and Cars” of IndyCar. On May 26, 1996, those cars were approaching the green flag at Michigan International Speedway when pole-sitter Jimmy Vasser collided with Adrián Fernández in the three-abreast front row. Thirteen cars crashed before the inaugural U.S. 500 could begin. The crowd of 120,000 waited an hour for a restart, while CART allowed drivers to use backup cars and retain their original starting positions.
The race existed because CART’s teams had chosen to stay away from Indianapolis. Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had announced the Indy Racing League in 1994 as an oval-only series intended to lower costs and attract drivers from American grassroots racing. For the 1996 Indianapolis 500, 25 of the 33 starting places were reserved for teams that had competed in the IRL’s first two races, at Orlando and Phoenix. Eight places remained outside that reservation; CART stayed away from both the new league and Indianapolis.
Andrew Craig, CART’s president and chief executive at the time, recalled the practical demands behind staging a rival race. “We’ve got sponsors saying they want something else on that weekend. We’ve got staff and people to pay,” he told NBC Sports in a 2021 oral history. “Not going to the Speedway was a big loss.” Craig approached Roger Penske, then the owner of the Michigan track, and arranged to pay for the right to hold the event on its two-mile oval.
Craig wanted the winner to receive $2 million, making the event a major race. The teams did not want that plan, he recalled; instead, the event had a $1 million prize, with other money distributed farther down the field. The U.S. 500 would run on the same day as Indianapolis, giving CART’s drivers and sponsors a 500-mile race of their own—but not the race Vasser had expected to miss.
“Personally, I thought it would never come to that,” Vasser told NBC Sports in 2021. He remembered hearing in 1994 that a new league might be formed and that the sport might split. “I just couldn’t believe it was coming to that. And there we were.” By the time the field assembled in Michigan, the disagreement had become two separate races.
After the pileup and restart, Vasser led the opening 18 laps. His teammate Alex Zanardi led 134 laps in all, but an engine failure ended his race after 175. Vasser’s own lead came and went; André Ribeiro was in front from lap 208 through lap 240.
Vasser took over on lap 241 and led the final 10 laps to win. Mauricio Gugelmin finished just under 11 seconds behind him; they were the only drivers to complete all 250 laps. Fernández, who had started alongside Vasser before their collision, was listed in the results as having wrecked on the pace lap.