IRL and Champ Car Stars Know the Future of Racing is in NASCAR
Quote selected text Published September 5th, 2006 in Main, NASCAR NewsFans of open-wheel racing in North America have been aiming their anger at either Tony George or Gerry Forsythe and his partners for the past 10 years, blaming one or the other for the death spiral their sport has endured since CART and the Indy Racing League went their separate ways in 1996.
Well, announcements this past weekend that the biggest American star in the Champ Car World Series — A.J. Allmendinger — and the IRL’s 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner — Sam Hornish Jr. — will try their hands in NASCAR for at least a partial schedule in 2007 should shake the open-wheel world wide awake to the fact that the battle is over and both have lost.
Canada’s Paul Tracy, still the most recognizable name in single seaters, put it bluntly during a Speed TV interview at California Speedway where he was running his final NASCAR Busch Series race of this season. Tracy announced he will join with Toyota to run an even more aggressive stock car schedule in 2007: It’s about the money.
“It’s not a secret that there’s no more money in open wheel,” Tracy said. “There are only three or four guys making good money. If you are a young driver, especially a young American driver, and you are looking to go racing with a lot of frequency and make a lot of money (NASCAR) is the place to be.”
Remember that Allmendinger has been taking his cues from Tracy since his days as a karting phenom and now both are teammates at Forsythe Championship Racing.
Allmendinger is also without a contract for next season and hasn’t been able to nail down a new deal that rewards his remarkable turn of fortunes — four wins and counting — since he joined the Forsythe gang in mid-season.
There are many among the Champ Car fanatics who believe Allmendinger’s test last week at Richmond International Raceway in a Bill Davis Racing Toyota Tundra was nothing more than a negotiating ploy to get Forsythe to up the ante.
If that is true, then Champ Car is in a lot more trouble than anyone believes if its most saleable young star considers a deal in NASCAR’s third tier series as good or better than any he can get in open wheel.
As for Hornish, he drives for Roger Penske — the IRL’s most successful owner — and it looks certain that Penske will run him in both the ARCA and NBS in 2007 as a prelude to going NASCAR full time in 2008.
“Right now our focus for Sam is to finish off the IRL season next week (at Chicagoland),” Penske told the Toronto Sun at Mosport, where he was on the pit box of his team’s LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder entries. “We’ve talked about the opportunity for him to run a few races which could be Busch or ARCA like we did with (Ryan) Newman.”
Open-wheel racing at its best is as good as anything in motorsports but if it keeps forming its firing squads in a circle, there may not be enough talent left to mount any kind of challenge to NASCAR even in a unified series.
- New Champ Car DP01 chassis draws a crowd at Sebring testing
- Allmendinger to Appear on Wind Tunnel
- Champ Car to be Joined by AMA Supermoto for Road America
- Graham Rahal Set for Champ Car in 2007
- Ricky Bobby and Co-Stars to Appear Today at Chicagoland
If Tony George and the IRL (and Roger Penske!) and Kevin Kalkhoven and Champ Car don’t reunify and don’t do it soon (2 years MAX) it’s over!
Think what you want, back who you may but they are BOTH DYING!
At this point I say let ‘em die. I’m ready for something new.
The writing is and has been on the wall.
Hornish will be gone soon. Allmendinger and Tracy will be gone soon. Teams like Rahal and Ganassi will leave once their Honda well dries up and it will be doing just that soon. Danica will take her Motorola money for three years then go to NASCAR and make even more.
Conversely, teams living on life support in Champ Car will bail and a new cheaper chassis will NOT FIX IT!! Only five drivers in Champ Car actually draw a salary…do the math.
Is it sad? Certainly. But since it seems that they’re not going to play ball with each other let ‘em die so something new can rise from the ashes.
IRL and Champ Car: We don’t need your egos and bickering anymore and you’ve screwed your fans as a result.
Let ‘em screw themselves…they deserve it!
Editor
AutoRacingSport.com
Egos and money..they dictate the course the open wheel owners are taking. They apparently don’t give a damn about the future of open wheel racing. It is so sad! Self destruction to them means a gateway to more lucrative enterprises…no need to care about what is the best of all racing…Open wheel! We will sorely miss it!
Champcar will always have a place in racing, with downtown events drawing growing crowds in awesome cities in North America and Australia, its only just the beginning, that they have signed on phoenix and Vegas.
People will eventually realize either from their neck pain or beer kegs running dry that driving in circles is boring. Sure it takes strategy, talent and athleticism… well I dont know about athleticism in nascar, some of those old dudes look pretty out of shape. But so does Champcar.
Not only do they have to strategize for pit stops, but also passing (not nearly every part of a road or street course is a passing zone.)
The drivers must be very talented to pilot 750+ horsepower cars that weigh less then 1600lbs with NO traction control around a racetrack, compared to the 700 horsepower 3000+lb nascar.
NOT TO MENTION that open wheel drivers MUST be athletic! the only amenity champcar drivers have is a drink tube. Did anyone forget to notice that Nascars have power steering AND an air conditioning unit for the driver’s helmet and undershirt?
Oh yea despite what most of the “good ol’ boys” think, Nascar teams do have an enginnering staff (not just good old american ingenuity) with a budget probably much larger then even the best champcar team, and those engineers are working on probably the most unsophisticated top level cars in racing. sure money is a big part of it, but Champ car is just getting on its feet again, after the bankruptcy of CART so give it time, Open wheel is the best.
why cant you stupid asses like both? huh? is it that hard? sure NASCAR has power steering. so? they race in circles…so? whats wrong with that? ok…champ car races road courses…so? champ car has a lighter faster car…so? they are two completely different ends of auto racing…no comparisons smart asses. i like NASCAR and i like IRL and Champ Car. i know it takes a different kind of talent to do open wheel and a different kind to do close wheel. Open whell isnt as popular as it used to be but joe is right about Champ gaining support. So just settle your damn differences and like both or like just one and stop dissing on the other…no one cares if you like open wheel better or not, let NASCAR fans enjoy NASCAR and open wheel fans enjoy open wheel and let the people who like both enjoy both. so shut the hell up!