Taking a quick look at the world of open-wheel racing these days and you can’t help but feel the momentum for both series is on the upswing. After futile battles between the two series in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the two seem to be competing hard against one another, this time with both series going up and not in the other direction.

When the IRL and CART waged war in the late 90’s, everybody agreed that the real winner was NASCAR and that the casualty was open-wheel racing in America, period. That was probably true at the time. Both series were in a rut. CART with its financial woes, as well as watching all these big time teams defect to the IRL. Not to mention two engine manufacturers. Their survival was unknown. On the other side, they were enjoying poaching all these teams and manufacturers, but saw no real growth in the sport. Despite all the money arriving and big sponsors such as Target and 7-11, the sport was still in a big stink. It seemed as though they couldn’t get out of this hole. Meanwhile NASCAR was enjoying unparallel success.

NASCAR is still king in terms of ‘motorsports’ in North America. To argue that would be ignorant. However, with the work that Kevin Kalkoven and the amigos have put into the Champ Car World Series and the work of a fine young woman driver, a great marketing department and the crown jewel of races, both series have seen a surge in their ratings and attendance. Nobody would argue that all is rosy in the world of open-wheel racing in America. But I would venture to guess that nobody could have predicted this much success for both series 2 years ago.

I bring this subject up because of the fact that Champ Car has surpassed 1 million fans after 8 races and is on pace to average 150 thousand fans a race this year, something that has never happened. Unfortunately I am not privy to the numbers the IRL has, but the fact of the matter is, the Indy 500 had huge ratings this year and DanicaMania continues to invade the United States, whether you like it or not. The IRL has benefited tremendously from her. We should give them credit for also putting on exciting races.

Suddenly, many journalists tune has changed. Maybe unification isn’t the answer. Maybe both series can strive, even if it’s just a niche market, but strive nevertheless. Its nice to see reporters finally look past just unification and concentrate on both Champ Car’s and the IRL’s business model as an independent racing league. But…


I have no real opinions on unification. There are some advantages to it and some disadvantages. I leave the debating to the people. All I will say is that there’s a much better chance of unification if both series are doing well, then if both series are doing poorly. From a business standpoint, teaming together when both series are strong is more likely than when both businesses were really struggling just a few years back.

Jump on the pendulum, its swinging up!