The high tensions and technical squabbles during the month attracted considerable negative criticism from sports writers and media.

On the onset of a caution period, the pace car would now pick up the leader and lead the field under the yellow flag at reduced speed.

[4] USAC held special meetings in August and September of that year to draft new turbocharger boost rules and engine regulations in an effort to establish an equivalency formula.

USAC met with several owners/chief mechanics including Smokey Yunick, Mike Devin, Bill Finley, Pat Patrick, as well as Cosworth founder Keith Duckworth.

[9][10] Following the death of Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony Hulman in 1977, and the deadly 1978 USAC plane crash, owners and participants in Indy car racing were anxious to reorganize the sport.

Robin Miller even accused the Speedway of offering a purse that was too low considering the stature of the event and the costs of racing at the time.

[11] USAC began retooling turbocharger boost rules to ensure the Offy and the "stock block" engines remained competitive, which caused new disagreements about equivalency formulas and favoritism.

Driver, owner, and advocate Dan Gurney published a white paper[12] lobbying several complaints and charges against USAC and IMS, concluding that new organization was necessary to ensure the success of Indy car racing into the future.

The seed of dissent had been growing for several years before the accident,[13] and claims the crash was an immediate cause for the 1979 USAC/CART "split" are considered for the most part unfounded.

[citation needed] The first major salvo was made on March 25, 1979, when the CART-based teams boycotted the USAC Datsun Twin 200 at Ontario Motor Speedway.

Three days before the published deadline, CART president U. E. "Pat" Patrick delivered a block of 44 entries to the 1979 Indianapolis 500 for the CART-based teams.

On April 19, however, the USAC board of directors voted unanimously to reject the entries of six key teams: Penske, Patrick, McLaren, Fletcher, Chaparral, and Gurney.

"[11] USAC sent the owners a telegram informing them of the situation while they were participating in the CART race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Gould Twin Dixie 125s.

This had the effect of creating back pressure, in hopes of over-riding the pop-off valve, and thus over-boosting the engine, and increasing horsepower.

[16] On May 19 (the third day of time trials) the cars of Dick Ferguson, Steve Krisiloff, and Tom Bigelow were disqualified and fined $5,000 because they "had altered their wastegate exhaust pipes by the addition of restrictions which significantly affect the air flow."

USAC charged that the teams had tampered with the wastegate exhaust pipe, thus illegally over-riding the pop-off valve, and potentially over-boosting the engine.

Furthermore, they released a memo which stated that any cars qualifying on Sunday May 20 must have unrestricted wastegate pipes (no washers were allowed to be welded inside) that are exactly 1.470 inches in diameter or greater.

In addition, several complaints surfaced when teams charged USAC with essentially changing the rules in the middle of qualifying – a move which actually affected other already-qualified cars from the first weekend.

Later in the day, judge James Ellsworth Noland issued the injunction requested by the CART teams, and all entries were allowed to practice.

Dick Simon, who was subpoenaed to testify downtown at the hearing, spent enough time at the track to run a lap of 174 mph (280 km/h), the fastest of the day.

Andretti was participating in Formula One full-time in 1979 to defend his 1978 World Championship, and a scheduling conflict with Monaco was expected to keep Mario away from Indy in 1979.

Bobby Unser continued to practice in the back-up car, but insisted it was to test nose configurations and not being prepared for another driver.

Danny Ongais returned to the track to get ready to qualify, but Dr. Thomas A. Hanna, the Speedway medical director, would not clear him to drive for the day.

Despite some unfounded rumors circulating around the garage area, Mario Andretti decided not to skip Monaco, and would miss the Indy 500 for the first time since arriving as a rookie in 1965.

Team McLaren with driver Johnny Rutherford and Chief Mechanics Phil Sharp and Steve Roby won the contest.

On Friday May 25, USAC reversed their decision, and declared that in the best interest of the event, they would hold a special qualifying session Saturday morning for the 11 cars that were bumped from the field.

If the driver completed the four-lap qualifying run faster than the slowest car in the field (Roger McCluskey at 183.908 mph (295.971 km/h)), he would be added to the rear of the grid.

Third-place Mosley, fighting to stay ahead of fourth-place Danny Ongais, un-lapped himself on the final lap and continued to charge.

Bill Vukovich II, who was one of only two drivers to make the field during the special Saturday qualifying session, charged all the way from 34th starting position to 8th at the finish.

Sam Posey was absent from the broadcast, as he was in Monte Carlo for coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, to be aired on ABC's Wide World of Sports the following weekend.