2006 Indy Car Series Season - Off Season Changes

Off Season Changes

2006 for the Indy Racing League was much different from 2005. The biggest change being the withdrawal of Chevrolet- and Toyota-powered cars from the series, leaving Honda as the only engine manufacturer. There was much speculation after this announcement that because there would not be nearly as much money provided to teams by engine providers as in previous years, many of them would scale back. To some extent, this was true: Ganassi Racing pared its team from three to two cars and Panther Racing and Cheever Racing from two to one. However, Tony George and Patrick Dempsey's Vision Racing added a car for displaced Tomas Scheckter. Honda also reduced the costs of both year-long and Indy-only engine leases, promised that all teams would be provided with identical engines and technical support, and that engines would last two races between scheduled rebuilds—all significant cost-cutting measures compared to previous years.

The chassis situation is little changed from 2005, the largest change being Ganassi Racing's switch from Panoz to Dallara. The full-season runners using the Panoz in 2006 are Rahal Letterman Racing's three cars and Delphi Fernandez Racing's Scott Sharp.

2006 also sees the elimination of three rounds of the championship from the 2005 season. The Phoenix International Raceway race was cancelled because of scheduling conflicts. The California Speedway round was not retained because the IRL wanted to move its date earlier in the season so as to not conflict with the NFL season, but a date that was available for both the speedway and the league could not be found. Both the IRL and California Speedway hope that a race there will return for 2007. The Pikes Peak International Raceway was eliminated from the 2006 schedule as the track was sold by its owners and subsequently closed. Further explanation for this new schedule was given by the league as being more "compact" and "exciting" and as a method of avoiding lost television ratings and race attendance by finishing their race season before the NFL season. Many critics viewed this shortened schedule as a definite setback for the series, not an improvement.

There were also a handful of significant driver moves, most important of which was 2005 series champion Dan Wheldon moving to Ganassi Racing from Andretti Green Racing, where he was replaced by Marco Andretti. Additionally, Tomas Scheckter moved from Panther Racing to a new car at Vision Racing and Vitor Meira moved from Rahal Letterman to Scheckter's seat at Panther. Paul Dana and his personal sponsor filled Meira's spot at Rahal Letterman. Eddie Cheever announced that he would return to the role of owner-driver of his single car team for the first four races, including the Indianapolis 500, and Michael Andretti announced he would return to the cockpit to drive alongside his son in the "500". A. J. Foyt IV, who left for NASCAR, was replaced by Felipe Giaffone in Foyt Enterprises' car, while Buddy Lazier returned to a full-time ride in the series by replacing the struggling Roger Yasukawa at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Hemelgarn Racing signed P. J. Chesson late in the offseason with backing from Carmelo Anthony to replace the outgoing Paul Dana.

There were also ongoing rumors during the offseason that Tony George and Champ Car principal Kevin Kalkhoven had been meeting and discussing a potential merger, or a new series that would re-unite open wheel racing in America. The two men have admitted to meeting and enjoying each other's company in skiing and golf, and in separate March 2006 interviews with the Los Angeles Times admitted that they were in fact discussing the prospects of combining the two series .