IZOD IndyCar World Championships

The IZOD IndyCar World Championship Presented by Honda was an IndyCar Series race on the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) Las Vegas Motor Speedway, held from 1996–2000, and again in 2011. It was first known as the Las Vegas 500k. The Champ Car World Series held a race at the track during the 2004 and 2005 seasons as doubleheaders with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and a street race was held in Las Vegas at the Fremont Street Experience in 2007.

This article is about IndyCar race at Las Vegas. For the series, see IndyCar Series. For other races in Las Vegas, see Las Vegas Grand Prix.

IZOD IndyCar World Championship

IndyCar Series
Venue	Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Corporate sponsor	Izod, Honda
First race	1996
Last race	2011
Distance	300 miles
Laps	200
Previous names	Silver State Century (1954) Las Vegas 500K (1996-1998) Vegas.com 500 (1999) Vegas Indy 300 (2000) Bridgestone 400 Presented by Corona "Double Down in the Desert" (2004) Champ Car Hurricane Relief 400 "Double Down in the Desert" (2005) Vegas Grand Prix (2007) IZOD IndyCar World Championship Presented by Honda (2011)

Race history

AAA Championship Car

The Silver State Century was a 100-lap/100-mile race at Las Vegas Park, a dirt track in Las Vegas. Jimmy Bryan was the winner of the race's lone running.

Stardust Raceway

Main article: Stardust International Raceway

The USAC Championship Car series held a race on the short-lived Stardust International Raceway in 1968. Bobby Unser won the Stardust 150 ahead of Mario Andretti and Joe Leonard.

Caesars Palace

Main article: Caesars Palace Grand Prix

Starting in 1981, Formula One scheduled a race on laid out in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel. Following mediocre crowds, Formula One left after only two years. In 1983, CART picked up where Formula One left off, and started holding a race on the same course (albeit the layout was modified). After two editions under CART sanctioning, the race ended.

Indy Racing League

In 1996, Las Vegas Motor Speedway was announced as a venue for the newly formed Indy Racing League. The facility was still under construction when it was added to the 1996-97 season.

For the first four runnings, the race was advertised as a 500 km race. Starting in 1997, the race was moved to a night race. In 2000, it was moved from the fall to the spring, and returned to a day race. After 2000, the race was removed from the IndyCar Series for a decade.

Champ Car

In 2004–2005, the Champ Car series held a 400-kilometre (250 mi) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Both editions were held under the lights on a Saturday night as part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series weekend in the fall. After only two years, however, the race was considered unpopular and was removed from the schedule.

For 2005, the name of the race was changed to the Hurricane Relief 400, and it served as a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina recovery.

Fremont Street

In July 2006, the Las Vegas City Council approved a 2.44-mile (3.93 km), 14-turn, counterclockwise street circuit in Downtown Las Vegas area near the Fremont Street Experience. Champ Car held their first event on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007. The race was titled the Vegas Grand Prix. The course was generally liked by competitors and fans. With the dissolution of the Champ Car World Series in 2008, the event was cancelled after only one running.

IZOD IndyCar World Championships

The fiery crash in the 2011 race that killed Dan Wheldon

On February 22, 2011, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard announced the IZOD IndyCar World Championships to be held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, reviving the 200-lap, 300-mile race format on the new variable banking. The race was adopted as a tripleheader, with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Smith's 350 on Saturday and for the first time, a 100.5-mile Firestone Indy Lights race on Sunday morning.[1]

The first INDYCAR race since 2000 started with a hard-charging Indy Lights race where Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammates Josef Newgarden, Esteban Guerrieri, and Victor Carbone battled each other on the final lap, but Carbone cut the new Indy Lights champion Newgarden's tire on the Nellis Straightaway, leading Guerrieri and Carbone to fight for the win in a side-by-side finish, with Carbone willing by .0229 seconds.

The 200-lap IndyCar feature ended on lap 12 after a 15-car crash that claimed the life of fellow Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Dan Wheldon. IndyCar decided that the race would not continue, and spectators were offered refunds of all Sunday tickets that were used, and partial refunds of multiple-day tickets (Qualifying and NASCAR tickets could not be refunded, as Friday qualifying and Saturday NASCAR events finished without incident, so only the portion relating with the Sunday race could be processed).[2]

As a result of the incident, on December 8, 2011, Bernard announced that the IndyCar World Championships would not return to Las Vegas in 2012. The Smith's 350, which had been set for the IndyCar weekend, was moved up two weeks.

Past winners

Las Vegas Park (dirt oval)

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Car	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
					Laps	Miles (km)
1954	November 14	Jimmy Bryan	Dean Van Lines	Kuzma-Offy	100	100 (160.934)	1:10:44	84.818

Fremont Street circuit

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Car	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Report
					Laps	Miles (km)
2007	April 8	Will Power	Walker Racing	Panoz-Cosworth	68	165.92 (267.022)	1:45:13	93.056	Report

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Report
						Laps	Miles (km)
Indy Racing League history
1996-97	Sept 15, 1996	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	Reynard	Ford-Cosworth	200	300 (482.803)	2:36:17	115.171	Report
	Oct 11, 1997	Eliseo Salazar	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:11:07	142.757	Report
1998	October 11	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:18:19	135.338	Report
1999	September 25	Sam Schmidt	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:29:50	124.196	Report
2000	March 22	Al Unser, Jr.	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:16:57	136.691	Report
Champ Car World Series history
2004	September 25	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	166	249 (400.726)	1:29:01	167.832	Report
2005	September 24	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	166	249 (400.726)	1:26:22	172.962	Report
IndyCar Series history
2011	October 16	Race abandoned after 12 laps -- 15-car crash on lap 11 and death of Dan Wheldon								Report

Firestone Indy Lights

In 2011, the Firestone Indy Lights support race was added to the World Championships.

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Ref
						Laps	Miles (km)
2011	October 16	Victor Carbone	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Dallara	Infiniti	67	100.5 (161.739)	0:35:26	175.153	[3]

References

1. Lewandowski, Dave. "Place your bets on championship round". IndyCar.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
2. Dan Wheldon dies in crash at Las Vegas Indy 300
3. "Report". Archived from the original on 2011-10-24. Retrieved 2011-11-07.

External links

• IndyCar.com race page