Cool, I just looked it up. I was 'lost in the woods' in 'misery'(MO) in September of 2003 (basic training)

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I talked to a guy that ran wings a few times... said it was like being in a tornado with a billboard. He mentioned you could drive them harder into the turns, making the racing harder on the motor (which is one reason why hired guys do better in somebody else's car - they don't have to pay for the motors or the tires!). He said they were no easier to drive than non-wings, as was my original perception, but they do hold you down to the track. I imagine being stuck to a track during a tornado would make passing extremely difficult.

I found this on Smokey Yunick's wikipedia page, but I'm not sure when they showed up on sprints: "In 1962, Yunick changed open wheel racing forever when he mounted a wing on Jim Rathmann's Simoniz Vista Special Watson Roadster. The wing, designed to increase downforce, allowed Rathmann to reach cornering speeds never before seen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but created so much drag that it actually caused the car to record slower lap times. The United States Automobile Club (USAC) immediately banned the use of wings but they soon began to appear on cars competing in Can-Am and Formula One and by the early 1970s USAC once again allowed their use."

Of course, currently, open wheel racing is not so much about innovation. It's more about marketing and sponsorships and filling seats. Wings allow for more advertising space and it's easier to see a driver's number.