U.S. 500

Michigan was given a second date in 1973 and chose to do it as twin 125 mile races. The twin race format was axed in 1974 and it dropped USAC for CART in 1979. Michigan kept its second date till 1986.

The logo of the inaugural U.S. 500

For the 1996 CART season, the U.S. 500 was the first of two events at Michigan, the second being the traditional Marlboro 500 in July.

In 1996, Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, formed the IRL as a competitor to CART. While the United States Auto Club (USAC) had continued to sanction the Indianapolis 500 after CART's formation in 1979, CART teams and drivers represented the vast majority of the Indy field, and USAC had taken steps to ensure that the technical specifications for Indy did not preclude CART teams from participating. In 1996, however, following his creation of the IRL, George stipulated that 25 of the 33 starting positions at Indy would be reserved for the top 25 cars which ran events in his series. This move created potential scheduling conflicts with CART-sanctioned events. Interpreting this policy as a lockout of CART teams, the CART board agreed to stage the U.S. 500 at an alternative venue on Memorial Day weekend, the traditional date for the Indianapolis 500. George, on the other hand, viewed the refusal of CART teams to compete for the remaining eight positions on the Indy grid as a walkout/boycott.

While the Indianapolis 500 has a history of one-off participants (teams and drivers who only participate in the Indy 500 and not other series events), the field for the U.S. 500 was comprised almost exclusively of teams and drivers who participated in the full CART season, as CART was formed of franchises owned by the various team owners, who had formed the organization in 1979. CART franchise owners were required to field teams for all races.

CART scheduled what was billed as a "Special Qualifying Session" for the U.S. 500 on the weekend of May 11–12, 1996. Cold temperatures and reported snow flurries hampered the session at Michigan, although it was completed as scheduled.

The move was exclusive in that all other CART events featured qualifying the same weekend of the race. Qualifying directly conflicted with the first weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. The move effectively prevented teams potentially competing at both events from having hopes of qualifying for the pole position at both races. Teams would return two weeks later for the race.

Jimmy Vasser won the first such race in 1996, which was notable for its disastrous start. With the cars lined up in rows of three (the traditional starting formation of the Indy 500), Vasser, on pole, was about to take the green flag at the start, when he was struck by Adrian Fernandez. Fernandez then tagged Bryan Herta, and the resulting accident took out a number of cars. Though ten cars had wrecked out, CART allowed teams to bring out backup cars and make repairs to heavily-damaged cars; this hurt the credibility of CART for allowing what normally would have been DNFs to come back out as though nothing had happened; years earlier Roberto Guerrero, the polesitter for the 1992 Indianapolis 500, crashed on the pace lap and was ruled a DNF.

With the victory, Vasser won over $1 million and had his likeness inscribed onto the Vanderbilt Cup. In addition, an American flag was waved along with the twin checkered flags to end the race.

• 1996: The open wheel "split" led the CART-based teams to hold an alternative race to the Indy 500, the U.S. 500 at Michigan on Memorial Day weekend. At the start, Jimmy Vasser, Adrián Fernández, and Bryan Herta touched wheels, and triggered a huge pileup, collecting more than half the field. The race was restarted with many teams electing to use backup cars. Several cars, including front-runners Alex Zanardi and Greg Moore suffered blown engines. Parker Johnstone also dropped out late running out of fuel. With 9 laps to go, leader André Ribeiro's car ran out of fuel, and he was forced to duck into the pits for a splash-and-go. Ribeiro's car - one of the backup cars rolled out - did not have proper working fuel telemetry, leaving the crew unsure of their fuel situation. Jimmy Vasser led the final 9 laps to victory.