INDIANAPOLIS, May 4 (UPI) -- The Indianapolis 500 remains the world's biggest race, so when practice for the 86th running begins Sunday, the most competitive field since the Indy Racing League began in 1996 will battle for spots in the 33-car lineup.
When the IRL went into operation in 1996, it was met with bitter resistance by the rival CART series. Although the Indy 500 never was part of the CART schedule and never was sanctioned by that series, most of the fields were comprised of CART drivers and teams.
Many of those drivers and teams said they never would return to the Brickyard as the Indianapolis 500 was part of the IRL schedule. But as the IRL continued to grow into a viable racing series and CART began a slide that nearly put it on the brink of extinction last year, many of the most vocal critics have come back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Few CART members were more critical of the IRL than Bobby Rahal. As an owner-driver, he took part in the ill-fated 1996 U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway that competed directly with the Indy 500 that year.
When Rahal retired as a driver and concentrated on his role as a team owner, he continued to stay away from Indy, hoping the IRL eventually would fade away. Rahal even served as CART's interim CEO in 2000 after Andrew Craig was fired.
After CART team owner Chip Ganassi returned to Indy in 2000 and was joined a year later by Roger Penske and Barry Green, it was inevitable that even the IRL's harshest critics would have to make it back to the world's biggest race.
"We've worked on coming back to the Speedway probably since the split happened in 1996," said Rahal, who won this race in 1986. "But the rules were different, and that was a major challenge for us."
Rahal returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with co-owner David Letterman, who grew up in Indianapolis. Jimmy Vasser will drive Rahal's Dallara/Chevrolet.
Letterman attended Broad Ripple High School and worked as a stock boy at Atlas Supermarket on College Street. In those years before Indianapolis had NFL and NBA teams, the Indianapolis 500 put the city on the sports map.
This will not be Vasser's first race at Indy since the CART split. He returned each of the last two years for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, finishing seventh and fourth, respectively.
Another outspoken IRL critic who has softened his tone considerably is Michael Andretti, who finished third last year in his first Indy 500 since 1995. Andretti's father, Mario, continues to hammer away at the IRL, but his son is glad to be back at the one race he really wants to win.
Andretti is part of a three-driver effort for Team Green that includes Paul Tracy, a veteran of four Indy 500s with Penske Racing and Newman/Haas, and Dario Franchitti, who will be making his first Indy 500 appearance.
Kenny Brack began his American racing career in the IRL, where he won the 1998 championship and the 1999 Indianapolis 500. He departed for CART in 2000 but returns this year with Target/Chip Ganassi Racing along with teammate Bruno Junqueira and IRL regular Jeff Ward.
CART teams have won the past two Indianapolis 500s, but with the emergence of defending IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. and Marlboro Team Penske's decision to leave CART and join the IRL full-time, that task may be more difficult this year.
