Open-wheel racing, and its signature event the Indianapolis 500, has had as much of its history dominated by greed, money and power as it has innovation, technology and competition.

This is the first in a three-part series about the now infamous “split” that affected open-wheel racing forever. Part one will examine the business climate that led up to the creation of a separate open-wheel series, part two will examine the years where both series were competing against each other and part three will examine the years following unification and the state of open-wheel racing as it exists today, and how that compares to the state of open-wheel racing from decades ago.

It has been 20 years since two open-wheel series first operated separate schedules, so we felt the “time will tell” adage was appropriate to see what place in history the events of yesterday now command. We also felt it appropriate that as the month of May is about to begin, which will feature the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29, to chronicle these events for those newer fans who might not be familiar with what transpired to give us what we see today.

Also, many readers might be surprised to learn that the “split” to which we refer was not the first one in open-wheel racing. Many believe that the formation of the Indy Racing League (IRL) in 1994 was the first rival series to forge out on its own. Those folks might be surprised to learn that they are wrong. The animosities were decades in the making….