1996 Grand Prix of Miami

Due to rain on Saturday afternoon, the qualifying session occurred on Sunday morning. Canadian driver Paul Tracy, on his return to Marlboro Team Penske after spending a year at Newman/Haas Racing, set the pole with a lap of 198.590 mph (27.681s) in a Penske PC25-Mercedes car. All of the qualified cars were newly built for the 1996 season, with CART having adopted new technical rules that altered the underbody tunnels and sidepods, and were expected to reduce downforce and increase the focus on mechanical grip.^[3]

On the start, Mark Blundell spun and Roberto Moreno had an unrelated contact with the wall. Then, the start was aborted for the second time, as Tracy was deemed to have 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 the restart, Tracy continued to lead for 8 laps of racing, until rain began to fall. The cars circulated under caution period conditions until the decision was made to red flag the race with Tracy in the lead.

The race restarted after a half-hour delay, with Tracy continuing to lead the race comfortably while second-place was contested between Gil de Ferran, Vasser, and Scott Pruett. Meanwhile, Al Unser Jr. hit Carlos Guerrero, and fell a lap down to repair his front wing. Andre Ribeiro and Robby Gordon made contact on Lap 82 while fighting for position, bringing out a caution period. During the ensuing pit stops, Tracy retired from the lead due to a transmission failure. On the same lap, rookie Alex Zanardi crashed under caution as his wheel separated following his pit stop.

Light rain again delayed the restart until Lap 102. De Ferran led at the restart, but slower traffic in front of the leaders enabled Vasser to overtake and hold onto the lead until the finish.

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	12	Jimmy Vasser	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda	F	133	1:51:23.100	3	32	20
2	8	Gil de Ferran	Hall Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda	G	133	+ 3.156	2	18	16
3	5	Robby Gordon	Walker Racing	Reynard 96I	Ford XD	G	133	+ 3.740	7	0	14
4	20	Scott Pruett	Patrick Racing	Lola T95/00	Ford XD	F	133	+ 3.744	4	0	12
5	18	Bobby Rahal	Team Rahal	Reynard 96I	Mercedes	G	133	+ 4.368	5	0	10
6	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XD	G	133	+ 16.664	15	0	8
7	99	Greg Moore R	Forsythe Racing	Reynard 96I	Mercedes	F	133	+ 20.660	6	0	6
8	2	Al Unser Jr.	Marlboro Team Penske	Penske PC25	Mercedes	G	132	+ 1 lap	13	0	5
9	6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XD	G	132	+ 1 lap	10	0	4
10	28	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	Reynard 96I	Mercedes	G	131	+ 2 laps	11	0	3
11	32	Adrian Fernandez	Tasman Motorsports	Lola T96/00	Honda	F	131	+ 2 laps	16	0	2
12	15	Scott Goodyear	Walker Racing	Reynard 96I	Ford XB	G	131	+ 2 laps	22	0	1
13	9	Emerson Fittipaldi	Hogan Penske Racing	Penske PC25	Mercedes	G	131	+ 2 laps	12	0	0
14	1	Raul Boesel	Brahma Sports Team	Reynard 96I	Ford XD	G	131	+ 2 laps	17	0	0
15	10	Eddie Lawson R	Galles Racing	Lola T96/00	Mercedes	G	131	+ 2 laps	20	0	0
16	31	Andre Ribeiro	Tasman Motorsports	Lola T96/00	Honda	F	130	+ 3 laps	9	0	0
17	21	Mark Blundell R	PacWest Racing Group	Reynard 96I	Ford XB	G	129	+ 4 laps	19	0	0
18	19	Hiro Matsushita	Payton/Coyne Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XB	F	124	+ 9 laps	23	0	0
19	16	Stefan Johansson	Bettenhausen Motorsports	Reynard 96I	Mercedes	G	115	Transmission	18	0	0
20	22	Carlos Guerrero	Scandia/Simon Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XB	G	112	+ 21 laps	21	0	0
21	36	Juan Manuel Fangio II	All American Racers	Eagle Mk. V	Toyota	G	108	Fuel	26	0	0
22	25	Jeff Krosnoff R	Arciero-Wells Racing	Reynard 96I	Toyota	F	102	Engine	25	0	0
23	3	Paul Tracy	Marlboro Team Penske	Penske PC25	Mercedes	G	84	Transmission	1	83	2
24	4	Alex Zanardi R	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda	F	83	Accident	14	0	0
25	7	Marco Greco	Scandia/Simon Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XB	G	64	Electrical	24	0	0
26	17	Mauricio Gugelmin	PacWest Racing Group	Reynard 96I	Ford XB	G	53	Accident	8	0	0
	34	Roberto Moreno	Payton/Coyne Racing	Lola T96/00	Ford XB	F	0	Accident	27	-	-
	49	Parker Johnstone	Brix Comptech Racing	Reynard 96I	Honda	F	-	Accident in practice	-	-	-

^[3]

• First CART race: Greg Moore, Eddie Lawson, Mark Blundell, Jeff Krosnoff, Alex Zanardi
• Parker Johnstone did not start the race, having suffered a concussion from a practice crash.^[3]
• All American Racers returned to CART as a team and a constructor for the first time since 1986.
• This was the first CART race since 1991 that long-time entrant A. J. Foyt Enterprises did not enter, as Foyt had elected to participate in the new Indy Racing League instead.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Jimmy Vasser	20
2	Gil de Ferran	16
3	Robby Gordon	14
4	Scott Pruett	12
5	Bobby Rahal	10

Previous race: none	PPG Indy Car World Series 1996 season	Next race: 1996 Rio 400
Previous race: 1995 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami	Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami	Next race: 1997 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami