Open-wheel exodus

IRL and Champ Car stars know the future of racing is in NASCAR
By DEAN McNULTY -- Sun Media
September 6, 2006

Fans 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.