1995 CART IndyCar season | |
---|---|
PPG Indy Car World Series | |
Season | |
Races | 17 |
Start date | March 5 |
End date | September 10 |
Awards | |
Drivers' champion | ![]() |
Constructors' Cup | ![]() |
Manufacturers' Cup | ![]() |
Nations' Cup | ![]() |
Rookie of the Year | ![]() |
Indianapolis 500 winner | ![]() |
The 1995 PPG Indy Car World Series season was the seventeenth in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of U.S. American open-wheel car racing. It consisted of 17 races, beginning in Miami, Florida on March 5 and concluding in Monterey, California on September 10. The PPG Indy Car World Series Drivers' Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was Jacques Villeneuve, and the Rookie of the Year was Gil de Ferran. This was the last season before the formation of the Indy Racing League (IRL) by Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George and the last time the United States Auto Club-sanctioned Indianapolis 500 would appear in the Series, while Villeneuve became the last driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar drivers' championship in the same season until Dan Wheldon in 2005.
Villeneuve, the 1994 IndyCar Rookie of the Year, won the season opener at Miami, a foreshadowing of things to come for the French-Canadian driver. After Scott Goodyear was penalized, Villeneuve won the 1995 Indianapolis 500, despite also receiving a penalty in the race that put him down two laps. He also won at Road America and Cleveland en route to the 1995 IndyCar Championship and an offer from Frank Williams to drive in Formula One for 1996. Though Team Penske scored five wins (four by 1994 IndyCar champion Al Unser Jr.), they were nowhere near the juggernaut they were in 1994, with a low point being that both their drivers (Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi) failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. The Honda engine that was abandoned at Indianapolis the previous year led most of the Indy 500 in 1995. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company returned to the series and Indianapolis for the first time since 1974. Danny Sullivan's racing career came to an end after a hard crash at Michigan International Speedway.