Nicknamed "The Thrill from West Hill" for his aggressive driving style and his bad boy image, his outspoken nature saw him placed on probation and fined several times by CART.

[2][7] He drove every weekend on tracks in Central and Eastern Canada as well as the Northern United States; Tracy had to prepare and maintain his kart because his father worked long hours.

[30][31] Driving the outdated, standard March 86A-Buick V6 Wildcat car raced by all ARS participants, Tracy won the season-opening round at Phoenix Raceway but unreliability and accidents affected the rest of his season with four more top-tens.

[7][51][50] He would replace Danny Sullivan, testing and developing cars for CART champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Rick Mears,[54][55] and began a training program to increase muscle and lose weight on Penske's orders.

[50] Tracy completed a 500 mi (800 km) engine endurance test at Michigan International Speedway before proceeding to Mid-Ohio, where he outpaced regular driver Fittipaldi.

[56][50][57] Tracy was allowed to enter the season's final two races at Nazareth Speedway and Laguna Seca after going on a therapy program on Fittipaldi's advice, and he finished seventh in the former.

[64] Tracy won consecutive races, the Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport after leading 69 laps from pole position, and the Molson Indy Toronto a week later.

[71] He ended 1994 with wins in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth, when he led 192 of 200 laps, and the Bank of America 300 at Laguna Seca, where he started from pole position three weeks later.

He signed a three-year contract with team owners Carl Haas and Paul Newman in October 1994 to replace the retired Mario Andretti at Newman/Haas Racing, but Penske could resign him for the 1996 season if Fittipaldi left after the 1995 championship.

He started the season second at Homestead-Miami before colliding with Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Zanardi at Surfers Paradise and finishing eighth in Long Beach following collisions with Greg Moore and Paul Jasper, respectively.

Tracy qualified on pole in Milwaukee, missed the race in Detroit due to a diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which made him dizzy and clouded his vision, and had four top-ten finishes that were followed by crashes in four of the final five rounds.

Tracy was assigned the retired Tony Cicale as an engineering consultant to work with and make the driver calmer by moderating his expectations of attempting to win every race, and the two had a cordial relationship.

[35] Following the Gateway round, in which he and Franchitti collided, Green told them that whomever was ahead in the remaining races would win, and the other driver was ordered not to attempt an overtake and risk a race-ending crash.

[93] He won successive races in the Motorola 220 at Road America and the following Molson Indy Vancouver after teammate Franchitti stalled during a pit stop to return to championship contention.

[35][103] The rest of Tracy's season saw him finish in the top ten four more times,[35] despite an unreliable car, accidents with other drivers, and pit lane blunders that dropped him down the points standings.

[7][35] Starting from 29th,[35] he was running in second with one-and-a-half laps to go when he overtook Penske driver Hélio Castroneves just as the yellow caution flag light came on for a two-car accident between Buddy Lazier and Laurent Redon.

[122][123] Despite qualifying on pole for the London Champ Car Trophy, three poor performances cost Tracy the championship lead at the Milwaukee Mile Centennial 250 to Bruno Junqueira.

[141] Tracy led a race-high 107 laps in the Hurricane Relief 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before being hit in the rear by Bourdais, ending his race early.

[144] Before the season-ending Gran Premio Telmex in Mexico City, he fractured his right shoulder blade in an ATV accident in Las Vegas and was replaced by Atlantic Championship driver David Martínez.

[150][151] After placing third in the season-opener in Las Vegas,[152] he crashed backwards at low speed into a concrete barrier during practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, suffering a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae and mild internal chest bleeding.

[173][174] Tracy lost 35 lb (16 kg) in eight weeks by cycling and embarked on a diet for two months after seeing footage of himself recording a television program to get more physically fit for the season.

[181] Tracy was close to signing a contract to drive a Dallara DW12 car for Michael Shank Racing (MSR) but the team could not get enough financial backing to enter the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, preventing him from participating in his final planned season.

[207][208] He impressed team owner Bob Germain enough at Chicagoland Speedway in Todd Bodine's truck to sign a one-race contract,[209] and raced in Texas rather than Las Vegas as intended, due to a Texas-based sponsor's intervention.

91 MARC Ford Mustang II with Keith Kassulke, Paul Morris and Anton de Pasquale in the Invitational category and retired after 189 laps with engine failure.

[243] From 1994 until 2002, he employed a traction control device, an illegal electronic driver aid, to reduce tyre wear for greater drive-ability, but he was not allowed to reveal this knowledge for fear of repercussions from his team owner and engine manufacturer.

[244][245] Nicknamed the "Thrill from West Hill" after his 1993 Toronto CART victory for his aggressive driving style and his "Bad Boy" image,[246][247] Tracy is outspoken, speaking his mind about issues.

[10][156] Bruce Martin, writing for NBC Sports, wrote that the driver "became a crowd favorite because of his highly aggressive racing style and the fact he was intimidating on the racetrack",[247] but his driving saw him put on probation as well as fined multiple times by CART.

Author Paul Ferris observed that some CART fans liked Tracy because he appeared to be "a regular guy" who had the "lack of a classic athletic physique, and his penchant for displaying flashes of temper along with a well-timed jab at a driver who has wronged him.

[255] He also worked as an NBCSN analyst at the 24 Hours of Daytona,[256] before gradually reducing his broadcasting role owing to his SRX commitments and leaving the network after the 2021 season when his contract was not renewed.

[254][270] He was part of Team Green's and African American mentoring organization 100 Black Men of America's program to donate money to buy computers for youngsters in urban areas for better accessibility to technology based on his performance in five races in 2001.