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27 April 2010

The Indy Racing League has announced plans to introduce two new titles to the IndyCar Series to reward the top driver on road and oval courses.

Using the current championship points system, the highest-scoring oval and road/street drivers will be crowned champion of their respective racing discipline.

The road title will culminate on 22 August at Infineon Raceway, while the oval contest will conclude at Twin Ring Motegi in September.

The season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be reserved to honor the overall IZOD IndyCar Series champion.

Drivers will compete for bonuses presented to both category champions, with the purse to be announced at a later date.

"The IZOD IndyCar Series offers one of the most challenging and diverse schedules in all of motorsports," said Randy Bernard, chief executive officer of the Indy Racing League. "We want to recognise the drivers that master the disciplines that make up this sport as they pursue the ultimate prize - the IZOD IndyCar Series championship. We feel this platform will give added value to events on our schedule and creates more momentum behind the drivers and teams that excel at ovals and road races."

Fans will have an opportunity to select the name of the trophies awarded to both the oval and road champion, which will honor legends of the sport. Media representatives will be asked to nominate the greatest oval and road racers of all time. From those nominations, the top-five nominees from each discipline will be posted to a fan vote on the official IndyCar website.

The oval trophy honoree will be announced during the IZOD IndyCar Series event weekend at Texas Motor Speedway while the road trophy honoree will be revealed at Watkins Glen International.

"The sport of Indy car racing has such a long and storied legacy of so many accomplished legends that we feel this is a great way to honour their accomplishments," Bernard added. "Many of our current drivers admire these legends, so why not have them vie for a trophy named in honor of the drivers they strive to emulate."

Will Power leads the road course standings following his strong start to the 2010 season.