1996–1997 in IRL
| 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season | |
|---|---|
| Indy Racing League | |
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|
| Season | |
| Races | 10 |
| Start date | August 18, 1996 |
| End date | October 11, 1997 |
| Awards | |
| Drivers' champion |
 Tony Stewart
|
| Indianapolis 500 winner |
 Arie Luyendyk
|
The 1996–97 Indy Racing League was a result of the league abandoning the concept of ending each season with the Indianapolis 500. The 1996–97 season would ultimately comprise the events following the Indy 500 in 1996, and all events contested in the calendar year of 1997.
The 1996–97 season was originally scheduled to begin at New Hampshire in August 1996 and end with the Indianapolis 500 in May 1997. At some point in 1996, the consensus regarding the unusual split-calendar season was decidedly unfavorable. Omitting the normal winter offseason caused potential difficulty with driver contracts, sponsor contracts, and equipment purchasing, which all traditionally followed a calendar-based schedule. In addition, the months of November, December, and the remainder of January were not expected to be filled with race dates, since few suitable venues, outside of Orlando, were available for the IRL in warm-weather locations.
Following the 1996 races at New Hampshire and Las Vegas, on October 9, 1996, the Indy Racing League announced that the league would revert to a calendar-based schedule for 1998. To prevent from awarding four championships in less than two and a half years, all events contested in the calendar year of 1997 were added to the last two races in 1996. Now combined, a single seventeen-month 1996–1997 championship would be awarded in October 1997.
The two remaining races in 1996 (New Hampshire and Las Vegas) were contested with the same equipment as the 1996 season. All races that took place in 1997, starting with the race at Orlando, were contested with all new purpose-built oval chassis from G-Force and Dallara with stock block naturally aspirated 4.0 liter V8's from Oldsmobile and Infiniti. Only seven drivers competed in all ten races of this seventeen-month-long marathon schedule.
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