2008 IndyCar Series season
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2008 IndyCar Series season
Season
Races	19
Start date	March 29
End date	October 26
Drivers
Drivers' champion	Scott Dixon
Teams' champion	Chip Ganassi Racing
Rookie of the year	Hideki Mutoh
Most popular driver	Season in progress
Indy 500 winner	Scott Dixon
Chronology
Previous season	Next season
2007	2009

The 2008 IndyCar Series ¹ season was the 13th season of the series. Its premier event was the 92nd Indianapolis 500 on May 25. The first race was held March 29 at Homestead. It was the 97th recognized season of top-level American open wheel racing.

All races were televised on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN Classic. All IndyCar Series broadcasts continued to utilize the popular Side-By-Side format in their first year of HD broadcasts. Races were also broadcast on the IMS Radio Network and XM.

On February 26, 2008, the managements of IRL and Champ Car came to an agreement to become one entity. The move effectively ended a twelve-year split and reunited American Open Wheel racing.²³

2008 IndyCar Series schedule

Date	Race Name	Track	Location	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Most Laps Led	Winner
March 29	GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300	Homestead-Miami Speedway	Homestead	Scott Dixon	Ryan Briscoe	Marco Andretti	Scott Dixon
April 6	Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Graham Rahal	Graham Rahal
April 20	Indy Japan 300 (see below)	Twin Ring Motegi	Motegi	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Scott Dixon	Danica Patrick
April 20	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (see below)	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach	Justin Wilson	Antonio Pizzonia	Will Power	Will Power
April 27	RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300	Kansas Speedway	Kansas City	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon	Dan Wheldon
May 25	92nd Indianapolis 500	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway	Scott Dixon	Marco Andretti	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon
June 1	ABC Supply Company A.J. Foyt 225	The Milwaukee Mile	West Allis	Marco Andretti	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon	Ryan Briscoe
June 7	Bombardier Learjet 550	Texas Motor Speedway	Fort Worth	Scott Dixon	Dan Wheldon	Hélio Castroneves	Scott Dixon
June 22	Iowa Corn Indy 250	Iowa Speedway	Newton	Scott Dixon	Ryan Briscoe	Hélio Castroneves	Dan Wheldon
June 28	SunTrust Indy Challenge	Richmond International Raceway	Richmond	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan
July 6	Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Hunter-Reay
July 12	Firestone Indy 200	Nashville Superspeedway	Lebanon	Hélio Castroneves	Tony Kanaan	Tony Kanaan	Scott Dixon
July 20	Honda 200	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington	Hélio Castroneves	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Briscoe
July 26	Rexall Edmonton Indy	Edmonton Street Circuit	Edmonton	Ryan Briscoe	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Scott Dixon
August 9	Meijer Indy 300	Kentucky Speedway	Sparta	Scott Dixon	Ed Carpenter	Scott Dixon	Scott Dixon
August 24	Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County	Infineon Raceway	Sonoma	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves
August 31	Detroit Indy Grand Prix presented by Firestone	The Raceway on Belle Isle	Detroit	Scott Dixon	Justin Wilson4	Hélio Castroneves	Justin Wilson
September 7	Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300	Chicagoland Speedway	Joliet	Ryan Briscoe	Justin Wilson5	Hélio Castroneves	Hélio Castroneves
October 26	Nikon Indy 300	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Queensland	Will Power	Dario Franchitti	Ryan Briscoe	Ryan Briscoe

     Non-championship race

Schedule details

• The original official 16-race schedule was announced September 19, 2007.⁶ On February 26, 2008, it was announced that former Champ Car events at Long Beach, Edmonton, and Australia would be added to the 2008 schedule⁷.
• An unresolvable scheduling conflict occurred between Motegi and Long Beach. Existing IndyCar teams competed in the Indy Japan 300, while some of the former Champ Car teams raced at Long Beach using their 2007 Panoz DP01 chassis. Both races counted toward the 2008 title.
• All times are EDT and are subject to change.⁸
• Race names and sponsors are subject to change
• The Indy Japan 300 was scheduled for 12:00 a.m. EDT, but was delayed to 10:00 p.m. EDT. Persistent "weepers" due to earlier rain delayed the race a day in Japan.
• The Edmonton race was moved to Saturday instead of Sunday to avoid conflict with the NASCAR Allstate 400 at the Brickyard; the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has an agreement not to hold IRL races directly against the NASCAR race at their circuit.
• The Richmond race has been extended by 50 laps (37.5 miles), turning it from a 250-lap race to 300 laps.

Team and Driver Chart

Team	Chassis	Engine	No	Drivers	Sponsor(s)	Notes
Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	3	Helio Castroneves	Kodak/Mobil 1	Both cars appear with unbranded Marlboro colors and logos in accordance with the MSA. #77 car was also entered for the Indy 500 but did not appear.
			6	Ryan Briscoe	Kodak/Mobil 1
Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	9	Scott Dixon	Target/Fujifilm/Polaroid
			10	Dan Wheldon	Target/Fujifilm/Polaroid
				Dario Franchitti	Target/Fujifilm/Polaroid	Nikon Indy 300 only9
Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	7	Danica Patrick	Motorola/XM
			11	Tony Kanaan	7-Eleven
			26	Marco Andretti	NYSE/Meijer/Gillette/Blockbuster	The car was painted with Indiana Jones livery at Indianapolis and Milwaukee. It was painted with Star Wars: The Clone Wars livery at Infineon.
			27	Hideki Mutoh (R)	Panasonic/Formula Dream
Rahal Letterman Racing	Dallara	Honda	16	Alex Lloyd	Wii Fit	Indy 500 only; run in conjunction with Chip Ganassi Racing
			17	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ethanol Promotion and Information Council
Panther Racing	Dallara	Honda	4	Vitor Meira	National Guard/Delphi	The #83 car was also entered for the Indy 500 but did not appear
				Dan Wheldon	National Guard/Delphi	Nikon Indy 300 only10
A.J. Foyt Racing	Dallara	Honda	14	Darren Manning	ABC Supply Company
				Vitor Meira	ABC Supply Company	Nikon Indy 300 only
			41	Jeff Simmons	ABC Supply Company	Indy 500 only
				Franck Perera (R)	ABC Supply Company	Chicagoland only11
Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	2	A. J. Foyt IV	Eli Lilly
			20	Ed Carpenter	Menards
			22	Davey Hamilton	HP	Indy 500 only12
			22	Paul Tracy	Subway/Edmonton.com	Edmonton only; run in conjunction with Walker Racing13
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	15	Buddy Rice	Jordache/Operation Homefront/Express Auto Delivery/Roll Coater
			23	Milka Duno	Citgo	Duno (11 races), Bell (6 races)14
				Townsend Bell	William Rast/Emu Australia/Rigid Building Systems
			99	Townsend Bell	William Rast	In addition to Bell's six races in the #23, he will run the Indy 500 in a third car, #99.
Roth Racing	Dallara	Honda	24	Jay Howard (R)		Ran first 4 races and Watkins Glen, unclear if #24 team will return
				John Andretti	1-800-LAS-VEGAS	Drove at Indy, Milwaukee, Texas, Iowa, and Richmond
			25	Marty Roth	LIDS/Men's Warehouse
KV Racing Technology	Dallara	Honda	5	Oriol Servià	Plantronics/CDW/Wall Street Journal/Angie's List	Will work with Target Chip Ganassi Racing this season. Servià declared veteran driver by the IRL.
			8	Will Power (R)	Aussie Vineyards/Smart & Final
Conquest Racing	Dallara	Honda	34	Jaime Camara (R)	Sangari	Perera raced first 3 races, replaced by Camara for rest of season 15
				Franck Perera (R)	Opes Prime Group/Ares
			36	Enrique Bernoldi (R)	Sangari	Tagliani replaces Bernoldi at final three races due to injury 16
				Alex Tagliani	Ubisoft/Sennheiser/Sangari
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Dallara	Honda	02	Justin Wilson (R)	McDonald's17	Will work with Rahal Letterman Racing this season
			06	Graham Rahal (R)	Rexall/Hole in the Wall Camps
Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara	Honda	18	Bruno Junqueira	Z-Line Designs	Will work with Andretti Green Racing this season
			19	Mario Moraes (R)	Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q
HVM Racing	Dallara	Honda	33	E. J. Viso (R)	PDVSA	Former Minardi Team USA in CCWS. Will run in all races with the exception of Nashville (illness).
Pacific Coast Motorsports	Dallara	Honda	96	Mario Dominguez (R)	Mexico City Tourism Board	Ran at Long Beach and planned to run full-time starting at Indy18 (DNQ), but a team re-evaluation after Texas prompted a road/street course focus. Absent from Detroit and Chicago, but they plan the full 2009 season.
Part time entries
Luczo Dragon Racing	Dallara	Honda	12	Tomas Scheckter	Symantec	Kansas, Indy 500, Texas, Infineon, Detroit, and Chicagoland only.
Rubicon Race Team	Dallara	Honda	44	Max Papis	LifeLock	Indy 500 Only - Failed to qualify
Sarah Fisher Racing	Dallara	Honda	67	Sarah Fisher	Dollar General/text4cars.com	Indy 500, Kentucky, and Chicagoland only 19
CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports/Wellman Racing	Dallara	Honda	77	Roger Yasukawa	Interush	Motegi Only20
			98		Curb Records/hhgregg/Real Power	Indy 500 only20 - Failed to qualify
American Dream Motorsports	Dallara	Honda	88	Philip Giebler	Gardner Trucking	Indy 500 only - practiced for Indy but wrecked and failed to make a qualifying attempt; formerly Playa Del Racing.
Hemelgarn Johnson Racing	Dallara	Honda	91	Buddy Lazier	LifeLock, MDA	Indy 500 only
PDM Racing	Panoz	Honda	TBA	TBA	TBA	Indy 500 only - did not appear
Long Beach only entries21
Forsythe/Pettit Racing	Panoz	Cosworth	3	Paul Tracy	INDECK
			7	Franck Montagny	INDECK
			37	David Martínez	INDECK	22
Minardi Team USA/HVM Racing	Panoz	Cosworth	4	Nelson Philippe	Muermans Group
			14