Team Penske is on the verge of quitting CART and switching the the IRL for next year. http://www.autosport.com, http://www.espn.com

 

The main reason Penske is moving to the IRL series is because MARLBORO wants to be in the INDY 500. Due to the Government restrictions that Tobacco companies can only sponsor one series, MARLBORO was not able to display their logo in the last Indy 500, so they pressured Penske to move or lose the sponsorship. That's too bad, but that's business. Blame the government and all the anti-smoking people out there.

 

Marlboro better be getting a lot out of the Indy 500, because every other IRL race I watch is a bunch of empty stands. At least most CART road races are chock-full of spectators.

As for the govt, they must realize that tobacco advertising in motorsports is much more about advertising the BRAND, not smoking in itself. We'll se how important it is when it disappears altogether from Formula One in 2006.

 

IRL may suck ***** (excepting the Indy 500) but at least they have a clear business plan and engine manufacturers willing to build engines for the season. CART has already lost Honda and will probably lose Toyota as well. CART is being mismanaged in the worst way and its future beyond 2002 is in serious doubt - which is a shame because it is the most entertaining series out there (kiss my *** Jayson Roman). Auto racing is heading toward a bad spot - IRL will continue to blow, but it will be the American series by default. CART will probably disappear, and F1 is heading toward a split. All because of greed on the parts of a few (Tony George in CART/IRL, Kirch media in f1).

 

The driver's situation will be interesting should CART decide to collapse. It will likely result in the American drivers being reduced to a minority once again; I wonder where they will go?

 

CART is likely to lose FORD to unless they go to the IRL engine standards which means they'll be no-one left to supply engines for the series. Add the debacle at Texas Motor Speedway and loss of sponsorship in other areas and you've got a very good recipe for Failure. I'm sure glad CART got a new CEO again. He's done such a miserable job, he should be fired immediately. The boneheaded deicisions he and his mgmt team have made over the last year are ridiculous and *if* they can recover it'll be a complete miracle IMO. I don't expect to see CART around in 2003, which btw is very sad!

 

Ford was actually in favor of keeping the 2.65 high-revving turbo engine regs. They then offered to provide engines for the entire series in case Toyota and Honda both pull out. I think if this happens then other manufacturers (DaimlerChrysler, Nissan??) may decide to step in. It's a shame they're losing Honda though.