1996 Indy Racing League

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1996 Indy Racing League season
Indy Racing League
Season
Races	3
Start date	January 27
End date	May 26
Awards
Drivers' champion	Buzz Calkins Scott Sharp
Indianapolis 500 winner	Buddy Lazier
← 1995 (ICWS) 1996–97 →

Buzz Calkins won his first Drivers' Championship while Scott Sharp became co-champion in the championship despite Calkins having one victory.

The 1996 Indy Racing League was the first season in the history of the series, which was created and announced on March 11, 1994 by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a supplementary series to the established Indy Car World Series sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) since 1979. It consisted of only three races, as the season concluded with the 80th Indianapolis 500 in May. Walt Disney World Speedway was completed in time to host the first ever event of the Indy Racing League (IRL), and Phoenix International Raceway switched alliances from CART to the IRL, in order to host the second event of the season. At the conclusion of the three-race schedule, Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins ended up tied for first place in the season championship. With no tiebreaker rule in place, the two drivers were declared co-champions. Its creation, and the opposition of CART's teams and drivers to take part in it, marked the start of 'the Split', a 12-year period of competition between rival series at the top level of American open-wheel racing that had lasting negative effects in the sport.