1996 CART IndyCar season
PPG Indy Car World Series
Season
Races	16
Start date	March 3
End date	September 8
Awards
Drivers' champion	Jimmy Vasser
Constructors' Cup	Reynard
Manufacturers' Cup	Honda
Nations' Cup	United States
Rookie of the Year	Alex Zanardi
← 1995 1997 (CART) →

The 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series season was the eighteenth in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing. It consisted of 16 races, beginning in Homestead, Florida on March 3 and concluding in Monterey, California on September 8. This was the first season after the split with the Indy Racing League and the last year that CART operated under the name "IndyCar", with the trademark reverting to Indianapolis Motor Speedway at season's end. The Indianapolis 500 was replaced by the U.S. 500, held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

The PPG Indy Car World Series Drivers' Champion was Jimmy Vasser, whose Honda/Reynard won four of the first six races, including the inaugural US 500. Rookie of the Year was Alex Zanardi. The competition soon starting catching up to Vasser, who had to fend off two late challenges from veterans: Al Unser Jr.'s consistent performance saw him come close to tying Vasser late in the season, but his hopes evaporated after a last-lap crash at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and an engine failure while leading on the final turn at Road America. Michael Andretti's resulting victory there and in Vancouver put him in contention at the final race, but a disappointing result at Laguna Seca gave Vasser the championship. Rookie driver Jeff Krosnoff and a course worker died in an accident at the Toronto round, and one week later, Emerson Fittipaldi was in a serious accident at the start of the Marlboro 500 and had to retire.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1996 Indy Car World Series season.

Team	Chassis	Engine	Tires	No	Drivers	Rounds	Primary Sponsor
Brahma Sports Team	Reynard 96I	Ford Cosworth XD	G	1	Raul Boesel	All	Brahma
Marlboro Team Penske	Penske PC-25	Mercedes IC 108C	G	2	Al Unser Jr.	All	Marlboro
				3	Paul Tracy	1–12, 14–16
					Jan Magnussen	13
Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda HRH	F	4	Alex Zanardi  R	All	Target
				12	Jimmy Vasser	All
Walker Racing	Reynard 96I	Ford Cosworth XD	G	5	Robby Gordon	All	Valvoline
	Reynard 96I	Ford Cosworth XB	G	15	Scott Goodyear	1–2, 11, 15–16	Valvoline DuraBlend
					Mike Groff	5
					Fredrik Ekblom	6
Newman/Haas Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford Cosworth XD	G	6	Michael Andretti	All	Texaco-Havoline
				11	Christian Fittipaldi	All	Budweiser
Team Scandia	Lola T96/00	Ford Cosworth XB	G	7	Marco Greco	1–2	Int. Sports/Perry Ellis
					Eliseo Salazar	7, 9, 12–13	Cristal
				22	Carlos Guerrero	1–3	Herdez
					Michel Jourdain Jr.  R	4, 7–9, 15–16
Hall Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda HRH	G	8	Gil de Ferran	All	Pennzoil
Hogan Penske Racing	Penske PC-25	Mercedes IC 108C	G	9	Emerson Fittipaldi	1–12	Mobil 1
					Jan Magnussen  R	14–16
Galles Racing International	Lola T96/00	Mercedes IC 108C	G	10	Eddie Lawson  R	1–11	Delco Electronics
					Davy Jones	12–16
Bettenhausen Motorsports	Reynard 96I	Mercedes IC 108C	G	16	Stefan Johansson	All	Alumax
	Penske PC-23	Mercedes IC 108C	G	26	Gary Bettenhausen	6	Alumax
PacWest Racing Group	Reynard 96I	Ford Cosworth XB	G	17	Maurício Gugelmin	All	Hollywood Cigarettes
				21	Mark Blundell  R	1–2, 6–16	Visa
					Teo Fabi	4–5
Team Rahal	Reynard 96I	Mercedes IC 108C	G	18	Bobby Rahal	All	Miller
				28	Bryan Herta	All	Shell
Payton/Coyne Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford Cosworth XB	F	19	Hiro Matsushita	All	Panasonic
				34	Roberto Moreno	All	Data Control
Patrick Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford Cosworth XD	F	20	Scott Pruett	All	Firestone
Arciero-Wells Racing	Reynard 96I	Toyota RV8A	F	25	Jeff Krosnoff  R	1–11	Arciero-Wells Racing 6 MCI 8
					Max Papis  R	13–14, 16
Tasman Motorsports Group	Lola T96/00	Honda HRH	F	31	André Ribeiro	All	LCI International
				32	Adrián Fernández	All	Tecate
All American Racers	Eagle MK-V	Toyota RV8A	G	36	Juan Manuel Fangio II  R	All	Castrol
				98	P. J. Jones  R	6–16
Della Penna Motorsports	Reynard 95I	Ford Cosworth XB	G	44	Richie Hearn  R	4, 11, 16	Ralphs
Brix Comptech Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda HRH	F	49	Parker Johnstone	All	Motorola
Project Indy	Reynard 95I	Ford Cosworth XB	G	64	Dennis Vitolo	4	SmithKline Beecham
Player's/Forsythe Racing	Reynard 96I	Mercedes IC 108C	F	99	Greg Moore  R	All	Player's

Season Summary

Schedule

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Circuit	Location
1	March 3	Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Presented by Toyota	O  Homestead Motorsports Complex	Homestead, Florida
2	March 17	IndyCar Rio 400	O  Autódromo de Jacarepaguá	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3	March 31	Indy Carnival	R  Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia
4	April 14	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	R  Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California
5	April 28	Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix	O  Nazareth Speedway	Nazareth, Pennsylvania
6	May 26	U.S. 500	O  Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan
7	June 2	Miller 200	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin
8	June 9	ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix	R  The Raceway on Belle Isle Park	Detroit, Michigan
9	June 23	Budweiser/G. I. Joe's 200	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
10	June 30	Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland	R  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio
11	July 14	Molson Indy Toronto	R  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario
12	July 28	Marlboro 500	O  Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan
13	August 11	Miller 200	R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio
14	August 18	The Chicago Tribune Presents the Texaco/Havoline 200	R  Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
15	September 1	Molson Indy Vancouver	R  Concord Pacific Place	Vancouver, British Columbia
16	September 8	Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey Featuring the Bank of America 300	R  Laguna Seca Raceway	Monterey, California

– Toronto was scheduled to run 170 miles, but was shortened due to the fatal accident of Jeff Krosnoff.
 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road/Street course

Race results