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. 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.

Confirmed entries

All entries utilize Honda engines and Firestone Firehawk tires.

Driver changes

Schedule

The schedule consisted of 12 oval races, 3 road course races, and 2 street track races. Oval/Speedway Road/Street course BOLD indicates Superspeedways.

Schedule announcements

The full schedule was ratified on October 13, 2006. Instead of a single schedule announcement, the venues for the 2007 season were announced separately between August and October 2006. Before that, the only race beyond the Indianapolis 500 that had been confirmed was the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 1, 2006. On December 14, 2006, it was announced that Marquis Sports Marketing, a Dallas-based company, was in coordination to add another race to the 2007 schedule. A non-points, exhibition race in the streets of Biloxi, Mississippi was in the planning stages for September or October 2007 as an effort to revitalize the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. The race would be the first step in what were plans to build an oval track in the area by 2009. However, none of these efforts eventually came to fruition.

Rule changes for 2007

Television

IndyCar Series testing

Race summaries

Round 1 of 17: XM Satellite Radio Indy 300

Round 2 of 17: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Round 3 of 17: Indy Japan 300

Round 4 of 17: Kansas Lottery Indy 300

Round 5 of 17: 91st Indianapolis 500

Round 6 of 17: ABC Supply Company A. J. Foyt 225

Round 7 of 17: Bombardier Learjet 550

Round 8 of 17: Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Ethanol

Round 9 of 17: SunTrust Indy Challenge presented by XM Satellite Radio

Round 10 of 17: Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix

Round 11 of 17: Firestone Indy 200

Round 12 of 17: The Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance

Round 13 of 17: Firestone Indy 400

Round 14 of 17: Meijer Indy 300 presented by Coca-Cola and Edy's

Round 15 of 17: Motorola Indy 300

Round 16 of 17: Detroit Indy Grand Prix presented by Firestone

Round 17 of 17: Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 presented by Mr. Clean

Season summary

Race results

Final driver standings