Renna was born in Victorville, California, to Joe Renna, a jockey and meat-company owner, and his wife Mary. The family eventually settled in DeLand, Florida, where Renna attended Father Lopez Catholic High School, graduating in 1995. As a child he was a batboy for the New York Yankees and played multiple sports, but racing became his singular focus.
He began go-kart racing in Orlando at age six, competing at Horsemen's Park in Ocoee and tracks across central Florida under the tutelage of former driver Ralph Liguori. His results in quarter-midgets, mini sprints, and micro-sprints were exceptional — 252 wins and two national championships before the age of fifteen. His idols were Rick Mears and Al Unser Jr., and his stated ambition was to drive for Team Penske.
At sixteen, Renna entered car racing through the Skip Barber Formula Ford Racing Series in 1993, improving year-on-year and winning the Skip Barber series championship in 1994. He had a brief excursion to the UK in 1995, driving six races in the British Formula Three Class B Championship for West Surrey Racing in a Dallara-Vauxhall, earning three podiums before a category win at Pembrey Circuit was nullified for an infraction. He returned to the United States for the 1996 Barber Dodge Pro Series, where he was named Rookie of the Year and won the Team USA Scholarship, partnering with stock-car driver Jerry Nadeau at the 1996 EFDA Nations Cup at Donington Park, where they finished second.
Renna joined Mattco Raceworks for the 1998 Indy Lights season, winning at Michigan International Speedway and posting six top-ten finishes to place eighth in the championship. When CART suspended Mattco for one year in April 1999 after illegal engine modifications were discovered on a teammate's car, Renna moved to PacWest Racing for a partial 1999 schedule and served as its CART test and development driver. He re-signed with PacWest for 2000, finishing fifth in the Indy Lights championship with 105 points and top-ten results in almost every round. When his arrangement with PacWest collapsed before 2001, Renna spent much of the year seeking employment, working as a driving instructor at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Derek Daly Performance Driving Academy.
Renna connected with Kelley Racing in 2000 and signed a contract as a test driver in May 2002. He also served as the driving coach and spotter to actor Jason Priestley, who was competing in the Infiniti Pro Series that year. When Al Unser Jr. entered rehabilitation in July 2002, Kelley Racing asked Renna to fill in. He passed a four-phase IRL rookie test at Texas Motor Speedway under the eye of three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford, then delivered back-to-back top-ten finishes at Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway in his first two IRL starts. The team kept him on for additional events; he took two more top-tens and finished 24th in the standings with 121 points.
In 2003, without a full-time seat, Renna made a single IRL start — the Indianapolis 500 — qualifying eighth and finishing seventh. That performance caught the attention of Chip Ganassi Racing's managing director Mike Hull. In October 2003, Ganassi offered Renna a full-time seat for the 2004 IndyCar Series season, replacing Tomas Scheckter and partnering 2003 champion Scott Dixon. Tom Kelley released Renna from Kelley Racing on October 1 so he could join CGR.
Renna made his first on-track appearance for Chip Ganassi Racing during a private Firestone tire-test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 22, 2003. At 9:20 am EDT, on his fourth lap in the No. 10 G-Force-Toyota car, Renna entered Turn 3 below the normal racing line at approximately 227 mph. He lost control, the car spun sideways and rotated into the infield grass, where air penetrated the underside and caused it to become airborne. The bottom of the car struck the outer retaining fence above the SAFER barrier, resulting in a deceleration exceeding 100 g — a force the human body cannot survive. The car split in two, the gearbox was thrown into the grandstand, and fence posts snapped. Renna, equipped with a HANS device, was killed instantly by massive internal trauma. No other persons were injured. He was transported to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 9:43 am.
The IRL launched a full investigation. Because the test session was private, there were no eyewitnesses, photographs, or video. Data from the car's accident data recorder was sent to the manufacturer in the United Kingdom to be downloaded. The final investigation report, released on December 19, 2003, acknowledged the data "did not produce a 100 percent conclusion" on the cause of the accident, noting several unknown contributing factors while confirming the car's speed was consistent with prior incidents at the circuit.
Renna was the first fatality in the IRL since Scott Brayton died during practice for the 1996 Indianapolis 500, and the first in American open-wheel racing since Greg Moore was killed at California Speedway in 1999.
As a direct consequence of Renna's fatal accident — along with major crashes in 2003 involving Kenny Brack, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, and Mario Andretti — the IRL mandated significant rule changes from the 2004 Indianapolis 500 onward. Engine displacement was reduced from 3.5 to 3.0 litres, cutting power by approximately 100 hp, and aerodynamic changes were introduced to reduce the risk of cars becoming airborne.
The Tony Renna Memorial Fund was established in Michigan to carry forward his approach to life, directing donations toward Autism Speaks, the Team USA Scholarship, and the Surfrider Foundation. Father Lopez Catholic School renamed its annual golf tournament after Renna to support the foundation. The IRL renamed its Rising Star Award in his honour, presented annually to an up-and-coming IndyCar driver who embodies the qualities for which Renna was known. Sports car driver Patrick Long, who was mentored by Renna, sported a tribute helmet livery at the 2013 Petit Le Mans on the tenth anniversary of his death.
Renna was described by contemporaries as quiet, tender-hearted, energetic, and devoted to his family — a driver, in the words of one journalist, "open-wheel fans wanted to see succeed." He was 26 years old and scheduled to marry in Hawaii on November 22, 2003, one month after his death.
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