2007 IndyCar Series

2007 IndyCar season
IndyCar Series
Season
Races	17
Start date	March 24
End date	September 9
Awards
Drivers' champion	Dario Franchitti
Rookie of the Year	Ryan Hunter-Reay
Indianapolis 500 winner	Dario Franchitti
← 2006 2008 →

Dario Franchitti (left) won his first Drivers' Championship while Scott Dixon (right) finished second in the championship.

The 2007 IRL IndyCar Series began with a night race on Saturday March 24 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The season's premiere event, the 91st Indianapolis 500 was held on May 27. The season finale was held at Chicagoland Speedway on September 9. Dario Franchitti won four races during the season, including the Indy 500, clinched the 2007 IndyCar Series championship after he won the final race of the season at Chicagoland Speedway, after points leader Scott Dixon ran out of fuel in turn 3 of the final lap.

At the conclusion of the season, Danica Patrick was voted Most Popular Driver for the third consecutive year.^[1]

All races were televised on the ESPN family of networks. In addition, all races were broadcast live on the IMS Radio Network, and XM IndyCar Channel 145 and simulcast on XM Sports Nation.

The 2007 schedule was the twelfth season of the IRL IndyCar Series, and part of the 96th recognized season of top-level American open wheel racing. It was the final season that IndyCar Series ran independently before the IRL merged with Champ Car in 2008. It also marked A. J. Foyt's 50th anniversary of participation in IndyCar racing.

It was also the final season that all IndyCar Series cars ran with the sequential manual gearbox shifters before all IndyCar Series cars switched to sequential semi-automatic paddle-shifters for the following season.

2007 was also the first season that all IndyCar Series entrants utilized Dallara spec-chassis all-season long although Panoz chassis were still only used by part-time underfunded entrants for Indianapolis 500 event only, but without factory support from Panoz.