1996 Grand Prix of Miami

1996 Homestead

Race details
Race 1 of 16 in the 1996 IndyCar season
Date	March 3, 1996
Official name	Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami
Location	Homestead, Florida, United States
Course	Oval 1.527 mi / 2.457 km
Distance	133 laps 203.091 mi / 326.843 km
Pole position
Driver	Paul Tracy (Penske Racing)
Time	27.681
Fastest lap
Driver	Greg Moore (Forsythe Racing)
Time	28.385 (on lap 131 of 133)
Podium
First	Jimmy Vasser (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Gil de Ferran (Hall Racing)
Third	Robby Gordon (Walker Racing)

The 1996 Toyota Grand Prix of Miami was a CART race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was the first round of the 1996 IndyCar season, and occurred on March 3, 1996.

Qualifying

Canadian driver Paul Tracy, from Penske Racing set the pole.

Race

The start happened, but Mark Blundell and Roberto Moreno had a contact. Moreno crashed at turn 4 and retired. Then, the start was aborted for the second time, as Tracy jumped the start. At the end of lap 1, another caution came out as Michael Andretti hit Maurício Gugelmin and lost his front wing. After his pit stop, his car had stalled. Despite this, Andretti did not retire. After the restart, the rain began to fall down, and the red flag came out. After 17 laps of green flag, as the restart came out at lap 36, another caution came out as Gugelmin spun and brushed the wall. He retired. The restart came out four laps later. At the same lap, Al Unser, Jr. hit Carlos Guerrero, and lost his front wing. Another caution came out. Restart came out at lap 61. With 69 laps to go, Tracy was the leader, Gil de Ferran was in second and Jimmy Vasser was in third. After some infractions, Guerrero and Greg Moore went to the pits for the stop-go penalty. On lap 82, the caution came out after some debris on the track. Then, Alex Zanardi crashed under caution; he lost a wheel and crashed very hard at turn 4. He was OK. On the same lap, Tracy retired due to transmission problems. The restart came out with 30 laps to go. Vasser won the race, de Ferran finished in 2nd, Robby Gordon finished 3rd, Scott Pruett finished 4th, Bobby Rahal finished in 5th, Christian Fittipaldi finished in 6th, Moore finished in 7th, Unser, Jr. finished in 8th, Andretti finished in 9th, Bryan Herta finished 10th, Adrian Fernández 11th, Scott Goodyear 12th, Emerson Fittipaldi 13th, Raul Boesel 14th, Eddie Lawson 15th, André Ribeiro 16th, Blundell 17th and Matsushita 18th, 9 laps behind the leader. Parker Johnstone did not start the race due to a practice crash.