Auto News 5

A giddy air of defiance pervaded ceremonies before the United States 500 on Memorial Day weekend in 1996, a race that challenged open-wheel racing's doctrine of papal infallibility. Tony George had formed the Indy Racing League and excluded the unfaithful, who rejected his new formula, from participating in the sacred ritual of the Indianapolis 500. The disfellowshipped directors of Championship Auto Racing Teams sent their star drivers to the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway and revived the Vanderbilt Cup as a simulacrum of Indy's Borg-Warner. For his "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," George was left with a scab workforce.