The 1993 IndyCar season, the fifteenth in the CART era of U.S. open-wheel racing, consisted of 16 races, beginning in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia on March 21 and concluding in Monterey, California on October 3. The PPG Indy Car World Series Drivers' Champion and Rookie of the Year was Nigel Mansell. The winner of the 77th Indianapolis 500, sanctioned by the USAC, was Emerson Fittipaldi.
Nigel Mansell made worldwide headlines during the offseason, switching from Formula One to the CART IndyCar Series. Mansell joined Newman/Haas Racing as teammate to Mario Andretti, and took the seat formerly held by Michael Andretti, who himself went to McLaren for a year. Mansell won the season-opener at Surfer's Paradise, becoming the first CART "rookie" to win his first series race. At Phoenix, Mansell crashed during practice and was forced to sit out the race due to a back injury. At Indy, he was leading the race with 16 laps to go when he was passed on a restart by Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk, and wound up third. He won the Indy 500 rookie of the year award, and despite having missed one race, still led in the season points standings. Mansell went on to win five races (four of which were on ovals) en route to the CART championship. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_IndyCar_season.