1995 Indianapolis 500 it allowed him to complete the full 500 miles, becoming the second and final driver to complete 500 miles in a Buick/Menard powered car. Luyendyk's 7th-place finish was the second-highest for the Buick/Menard V6, surpassed only by the third-place finish of Al Unser, Sr. in 1992. Jacques Villeneuve went on to win the 1995 CART championship, and subsequently signed with Williams in the offseason. With a growing cloud of controversy and uncertainty over a potential and looming open wheel "split," the 1995 Indianapolis 500 marked a turning point in the sport. Within months, and by the 1996 race, the landscape
Indianapolis 500 and engines were European, with the only American-based chassis to win during the CART era being the Wildcat and Galmer (which was actually built in Bicester, England) in 1982 and 1992, respectively. Ford and Chevrolet engines were built in the UK by Cosworth and Ilmor, respectively. Fernando Alonso was the most recent active Formula One driver to race at the Indy 500-mile race, in 2017. Prior to that, no active F1 driver had competed in the Indy 500 since 1984. After foreign cars became the norm, foreign drivers began competing in the Indianapolis 500 on a regular basis, choosing the