INDIANAPOLIS – The formerly frosty schism between the two biggest racing series in the United States has finally thawed, and the result is a blockbuster event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – even without fans.
NASCAR’s top-tier Cup Series is about to share a venue with IndyCar on the same weekend for the first time, a doubleheader conveniently forced by the frantic rescheduling required by the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, it is an important step in putting forth a united front for the sake of motorsports.
“We’re all racers. We want racing to be successful,” said Kevin Harvick, the current Cup Series points leader and a winner at the Brickyard last year. “I know it’s kind of had that stigma for a number of years there’s the IndyCar guys and there’s the NASCAR guys … racers are racers. Everybody wants to see a good race and be part of a cool event.”
The fracture between the two leagues dates to at least 1954, when NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. was allegedly told by IMS security he’d been ordered to leave the speedway. France was already working on his own big race track, Daytona International Speedway, and he vowed it would give Indianapolis a run for its money.
The battle was on, and neither side had any desire to build a working relationship. IndyCar, called CART in its heyday, dwarfed the Southern-based stock car series. But the American open-wheel racing split in the mid-1990s in which Tony George created his own series gave NASCAR an opening to capitalize as CART and the Indy Racing League fractured its fan base.