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1989 CART season
PPG Indy Car World Series
Emerson Fittipaldi
Season
Races	16
Start date	April 9
End date	October 15
Awards
Drivers' champion	Emerson Fittipaldi
Constructors' Cup	Penske
Manufacturers' Cup	Chevrolet
Nations' Cup	United States
Rookie of the Year	Bernard Jourdain
Indianapolis 500 winner	Emerson Fittipaldi
← 1988 1990 →

The 1989 CART PPG Indy Car World Series season was the 11th national championship season of American open wheel racing sanctioned by CART. The season consisted of 15 races, and one non-points exhibition event. Emerson Fittipaldi was the national champion, and the rookie of the year was Bernard Jourdain. Fittipaldi became the second driver after Mario Andretti to win the Formula One World Championship and the CART championship.

The 1989 Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned by USAC, but counted towards the CART points championship. Emerson Fittipaldi won the Indy 500, and would later become the first driver since Bobby Rahal in 1986 to win Indy and the CART championship in the same season.

Emerson Fittipaldi won a total of five races, four pole positions, and had a total of eight podium finishes en route to the championship. Rick Mears won three races, and had a total of 14 top ten finishes, more consistent than Fittipaldi. The championship battle came down to those two drivers. In the second-to-last race of the season at Nazareth, Fittipaldi and Mears finished 1st-2nd. Fittipaldi effectively clinched the championship by virtue of a now 22-point lead over Mears. If Mears were to win the season finale at Laguna Seca, win the pole, and lead the most laps, he could tie Fittipaldi in points if Fittipaldi finished 13th or worse. However, Fittipaldi held the tiebreaker with 5 wins versus Mears with 3. Mears did all three at Laguna Seca (won the pole, won the race and led the most laps), but the tiebreaker scenario was moot as Fittipaldi managed a 5th place in the race. It was Mears' first road course victory since Riverside in 1982, and the first since he suffered serious leg injuries in 1984. It was also the last road course win of his career.

At Mid-Ohio, Teo Fabi scored the first and only win of the Porsche Indy Car team. Fabi had eleven top tens, and finished 4th in points. Cosworth unveiled a new engine, the "short-stroke" DFS to some fanfare, but little success. Bobby Rahal won one race in 1989 with the Cosworth DFS in July at the Meadowlands. It would stand as the only race victory for the DFS powerplant.

The following teams and drivers competed for the 1989 Indy Car World Series. All entries utilized Goodyear tires.

Team	Chassis	Engine	Car #	Drivers	Rounds
Full-time
Newman/Haas Racing	Lola	Chevrolet	5	Mario Andretti	All
			6	Michael Andretti	All
Patrick Racing	Penske	Chevrolet	20	Emerson Fittipaldi	All
Galles Racing	Lola	Chevrolet	2	Al Unser Jr.	All
Team Penske	Penske	Chevrolet	1	Danny Sullivan	All except 6-7
				Geoff Brabham	6
				Al Unser	7
			4	Rick Mears	All
			25	Al Unser	3, 10-11
Porsche North America	March	Porsche	8	Teo Fabi	All
Truesports	Lola	Judd	3	Scott Pruett	All
Kraco Racing	Lola	Cosworth	18	Bobby Rahal	All
Dick Simon Racing	Lola	Cosworth/Buick	7/9	Arie Luyendyk	All
			22	Scott Brayton	All
			28	Randy Lewis	All except 14
			17	Joe Sposato	15
Doug Shierson Racing	Lola	Judd	30	Raul Boesel	All
Raynor Racing	Lola	Judd	10	Derek Daly	All
Machinists Union Racing	March	Cosworth	11	Kevin Cogan	All except 14
				Johnny Rutherford	14
	Lola		29/24	Pancho Carter	All
Protofab Racing	Lola	Cosworth	15	James Weaver	2, 5, 7
			65	John Jones	All except 14
A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Lola	Cosworth	14	A. J. Foyt	All except 7 and 15
				Rocky Moran	15
	March		29	Rich Vogler	3
Andale Racing	Lola	Cosworth	69	Bernard Jourdain	All except 13
Euromotorsport	Lola	Cosworth	50/16	Jean-Pierre Frey	1, 4-6
			50	Davy Jones	3
				Scott Atchison	6-8
				Tero Palmroth	11
				Guido Daccò	10, 12-15
Alex Morales Motorsports	March	Alfa Romeo	21	Roberto Guerrero	5-15
Arciero Racing	Penske	Cosworth	12	Didier Theys	1-4
				Fabrizio Barbazza	5-9, 12-13, 15
				Rich Vogler	10
Hemelgarn Racing	Lola	Judd/Buick	71	Ludwig Heimrath Jr.	1-4, 9-10, 12-15
				Tero Palmroth	5
			71/91	Didier Theys	5-8
			91	Gordon Johncock	3, 10-11
				Scott Goodyear	9, 13
				Robby Unser	15
			81	Bill Vukovich III	3
Vince Granatelli Racing	Lola/March	Buick/Cosworth	9	Didier Theys	12-15
			9/70	John Andretti	3, 9-11, 14-15
			9/7	Tom Sneva	1-8
Part-time
Bayside Motorsports	Lola	Cosworth	86	Dominic Dobson	1-3, 5-6, 8-9, 15
Dale Coyne Racing	Lola	Cosworth	19	Guido Daccò	1-8
				Dale Coyne	11
				Fulvio Ballabio	12-13
				Ken Johnson	15
				John Paul Jr.	10
ATEC Environmental	Lola	Cosworth	96	Guido Daccò	9
Bernstein Racing	Lola	Buick	15	Jim Crawford	3
Saleen	March	Cosworth	59	Steve Saleen	2-3, 5, 7, 9, 12-13, 15
Gohr Racing	Lola/March	Cosworth	56	Jeff Wood	7-10, 12-15
				Tero Palmroth	2-3
Bettenhausen Motorsports	Lola	Cosworth	16	Jon Beekhuis	9, 13, 15
				Steve Chassey	8, 10
				Michael Greenfield	11
				Dennis Vitolo	5, 12
			15/16	John Paul Jr.	7-8
			27	Fulvio Ballabio	2
				Tony Bettenhausen Jr.	11
Mann Motorsports	Lola	Buick	99	Gary Bettenhausen	3
			96	John Paul Jr.	5, 15
				Mark Dismore	12
Stoops Freightliner	Lola	Cosworth	17	Johnny Rutherford	10-11
				Steve Butler	3
U.S. Engineering	Lola	Cosworth	44	Scott Harrington	3, 13, 15
				Phil Krueger	10
Team Lazier	March	Cosworth	35	Buddy Lazier	3
Curb Racing	March	Cosworth	33	Rocky Moran	3

Since Miami was dropped from the schedule the season finale and the Marlboro Challenge was moved to Laguna Seca. A race at Fuji Speedway in Japan was originally scheduled for March 26,^[1] but was eventually cancelled.^[2]

- Meadowlands was supposed to run for 183 miles (295 kilometers) but was shortened due to rain.
 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road/Street course
  Non-championship event

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Winning driver	Winning team	Race time
1	Checker Autoworks 200	Rick Mears	Rick Mears	Team Penske	1:35:09
2	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	Al Unser Jr.	Al Unser Jr.	Galles Racing	1:51:19
3	Indianapolis 500	Rick Mears	Emerson Fittipaldi	Patrick Racing	2:59:01
4	Miller High Life 200	Rick Mears	Rick Mears	Team Penske	1:32:11
5	Valvoline Detroit Grand Prix	Michael Andretti	Emerson Fittipaldi	Patrick Racing	2:02:11
6	Budweiser/G. I. Joe's 200	Teo Fabi	Emerson Fittipaldi	Patrick Racing	1:55:20
7	Budweiser Cleveland Grand Prix	Michael Andretti	Emerson Fittipaldi	Patrick Racing	1:32:56
8	Marlboro Grand Prix	Emerson Fittipaldi	Bobby Rahal	Kraco Racing	2:09:20
9	Molson Indy Toronto	Emerson Fittipaldi	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	2:01:00
10	Marlboro 500	Emerson Fittipaldi	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	3:07:15
11	Pocono 500	Emerson Fittipaldi	Danny Sullivan	Team Penske	2:55:43
12	Red Roof Inns 200	Teo Fabi	Teo Fabi	Porsche North America	1:54:46
13	Texaco/Havoline 200	Danny Sullivan	Danny Sullivan	Team Penske	1:37:43
14	Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix	Rick Mears	Emerson Fittipaldi	Patrick Racing	1:29:02
NC	Marlboro Challenge	Emerson Fittipaldi	Al Unser Jr.	Galles Racing	0:56:37
15	Champion Spark Plug 300K	Rick Mears	Rick Mears	Team Penske	1:58:29

• Indianapolis was USAC-sanctioned but counted towards the CART title.

Pos Driver PHX LBH INDY MIL DET POR CLE MEA TOR MIC POC MDO ROA NAZ MAR LAG Pts 1 Emerson Fittipaldi 5 3 1* 16 1 1* 1* 2 2 14 19 4 5 1* 8 5 196 2 Rick Mears 1* 5 23 1* 5 8 5 4 5 7 2* 6 3 2 9 1* 186 3 Michael Andretti 4 2 17 2 13* 6 18 18* 1 1* 3 3 6* 5 7 7 150 4 Teo Fabi 6 27 30 3 4 4 4 9 4 2 4 1* 2 16 4 19 141 5 Al Unser Jr. 2 1* 2 8 21 10 7 5 20 4 9 2 20 4 1* 3 136 6 Mario Andretti 8 18 4 7 3 25 2 20 26 3 5 7 7 8 5 2 110 7 Danny Sullivan 3 8 28 10 24 8 3* 23 1 5 1 3 2 14 107 8 Scott Pruett 11 DNS 10 5 2 5 6 3 6 17 8 19 8 6 6 4 101 9 Bobby Rahal 18 4 26 13 18 2 3 1 19 9 6 22 28 7 3 6 88 10 Arie Luyendyk 17 7 21 6 6 3 9 7 24 6 23 8 4 13 10 9 75 11 Raul Boesel 14 6 3 4 28 7 8 6 7 20 20 23 9 11 10 68 12 Derek Daly 12 9 15 21 25 11 22 25 16 5 24 9 27 9 18 25 13 Pancho Carter 7 17 22 9 10 9 14 13 27 26 12 28 19 18 24 18 14 Kevin Cogan 10 26 32 19 17 24 11 12 9 25 22 10 18 8 18 15 Scott Brayton 15 12 6 18 DNQ 13 28 10 14 11 14 15 13 10 20 17 16 Al Unser 24 10 8 7 14 17 John Jones 16 20 11 11 11 19 25 11 18 16 10 13 10 22 14 18 A. J. Foyt 22 25 5 20 26 DNS 23 17 18 21 21 22 14 10 19 Dominic Dobson 23 19 18 7 18 17 11 11 10 20 Bernard Jourdain  RY  19 13 9 12 15 22 19 19 10 19 11 27 15 23 10 21 Didier Theys 20 23 20 17 9 20 12 26 11 11 21 17 9 22 Davy Jones 7 6 23 Roberto Guerrero 8 23 13 22 28 22 16 12 21 20 25 6 24 Fabrizio Barbazza 20 21 26 24 8 20 12 21 6 25 Rich Vogler 8 28 5 26 Ludwig Heimrath Jr. 9 24 13 DNS 22 DNQ 25 17 17 DNQ 4 27 Johnny Rutherford DNQ 10 13 DNS 3 28 Tom Sneva DNS 10 27 22 23 26 20 27 3 29 Guido Daccò  R  24 22 DNQ 14 12 12 21 DNQ 21 13 26 26 12 26 3 30 James Weaver  R  11 22 24 2 31 Steve Saleen  R  14 DNQ 14 17 12 14 25 13 1 32 Jeff Wood 15 15 DNQ 12 16 15 DNQ DNQ 1 33 John Andretti 25 25 24 17 19 12 1 34 Bill Vukovich III 12 1 35 Randy Lewis 13 15 29 15 16 16 23 16 15 27 18 17 14 16 0 36 Jon Beekhuis  R  13 24 15 0 37 Scott Atchison 17 27 14 0 38 Rocky Moran 14 28 0 39 Geoff Brabham Wth 14 0 40 Gordon Johncock 31 21 15 0 41 Jean-Pierre Frey 21 Wth DNQ DNQ 15 0 42 Phil Krueger DNQ 15 0 43 Tero Palmroth 16 16 27 25 0 44 John Paul Jr. DNQ 19 16 21 DNQ DNQ 0 45 Scott Harrington  R  DNQ 16 DNQ 0 46 Fulvio Ballabio 21 18 DNQ 0 47 Jim Crawford 19 0 48 Scott Goodyear 23 23 0 49 Mark Dismore  R  24 0 50 Tony Bettenhausen Jr. DNQ 26 0 51 Dale Coyne DNQ 27 0 52 Ken Johnson 27 0 53 Steve Chassey DNQ 28 29 0 54 Gary Bettenhausen 33 0 Tom Bigelow DNQ 0 Steve Butler DNQ 0 Dick Ferguson DNQ 0 Stan Fox DNQ 0 Michael Greenfield DNQ Wth 0 Andy Hillenburg Wth 0 Buddy Lazier DNQ DNQ 0 Bobby Olivero DNQ 0 Johnny Parsons DNQ 0 Joe Sposato DNQ 0 Robby Unser DNQ 0 Dennis Vitolo DNQ DNQ 0 Kevin Whitesides DNQ 0 Pos Driver PHX LBH INDY MIL DET POR CLE MEA TOR MIC POC MDO ROA NAZ MAR LAG Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th-6th place Light Blue 7th-12th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 12) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

• Top result per race counts towards Nations' Cup.

Pos	Country	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MIC	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	Pts
1	United States	1*	1*	2	1*	2*	2	2	1*	1*	1*	1	2	1*	2	1*	276
2	Brazil	5	3	1*	4	1	1*	1*	2	2	14	19	4	5	1*	5	200
3	Italy	6	22	30	3	4	4	4	9	4	2	4	1*	2	12	21	139
4	Netherlands	17	7	21	6	6	3	9	7	24	6	23	8	4	13	9	75
5	Ireland	12	9	15	21	25	11	22	25	16	5	24	9	27	9	18	25
6	Canada	10	20	11	11	11	19	25	11	13	16	10	13	10	17	15	18
7	Mexico	19	13	9	12	15	22	19	19	10	19	11	27		15	23	10
8	Belgium	20	23	20	17	9	20	12	26				11	11	21	17	9
9	Colombia					8	23	13	22	28	22	16	12	21	20	25	6
10	England		11			22		24									2
11	Australia						14										0
12	Switzerland	21		Wth	DNQ	DNQ	15										0
13	Finland		16	16		27						25					0
14	Scotland			19													0
Pos	Country	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MIC	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	Pts

Pos	Chassis	Pts
1	Penske PC-18/PC-17	283
2	Lola T8900/T8800/T8700	254
3	March 89CE/89P/88C/86C	149
Pos	Chassis	Pts

Pos	Engine	Pts
1	Chevrolet A	319
2	Cosworth	146
3	Porsche	141
4	Judd	138
5	Buick	16
6	Alfa Romeo	6
Pos	Engine	Pts.

• 1989 Indianapolis 500
• 1989 American Racing Series season

• "1989 CART PPG IndyCar World Series standings". race-database.com. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
• Åberg, Andreas. "PPG Indy Car World Series 1989". Driver Database. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• "1989 PPG Indy Car World Series". Champ Car Stats. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• "Official Box Score: 73rd Indianapolis 500-Mile Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway". Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• "Standings after Laguna Seca". Champ Car World Series. Archived from the original on April 5, 2008. Retrieved 2015-12-07.