Randy Benard wants to get rid of the IRL name. too offensive? looks like Cart did win. Indy Star article.

What's the big deal about the name IRL? It wasn't called that when it was great. It was USAC or AAA. You have a new guy, with a successful track record of taking a sports group and making it bigger, who probably wants to do things differently, as he tries to rebrand the series. As long as he doesn't call it CART, NASCAR Open Wheel or something like that, I don't really care what name they want to market it under. Just my opinion.

Jerry

I think the IRL is a reconized name in the sports world. INDY RACING LEAGUE. states well what it is. Benard says "he thinks it reminds too many people of the nasty split" what the hell does he really know about it? "to the purist, IRL is a negative acronym" he also chirps. TG did a lot of work to bring everyone together and was rewarded by his family showing him the door. This year looks to be a good year for the IRL because of all those teams with their feet under them. good car counts. I see no reason to change the name to ease the ego's of a few of Benards board members. I can't see this group adding any more ovals but i hope i'm wrong.

Didn't they go to indycar a few years back?

Also, the nascar fans @ work always say you can't have girl without irl. Sort of annoying.
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This is nothing new....the people in the front office changed it to Indy Car Series a couple years ago...Bernard is talking about blowing the name IRL name up publicly...Remember CART actually had the rights to Indy Car for a long while?...Tony George was able to get that back..

I read an article on Bernard in NSSN..He actually mentioned a few interesting things about getting grassroots racers involved..mentioned midget drivers...now we will see if an attempt is actually made.

Bernard has to still be surveying the Indy Car landscape...Not many changes yet..too early.

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Hoosierhillbilly..As Larry The Cable Guy will tell you.."I don't care who you are, thats's funny right there".....First time I heard it though..thems fightin words...

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This was kind of an interesting interview on TV 6 in Indy..with Bernard and Robin Miller...that's good he has heard from Miller....obviously Robin has the passion and knowledge about the sport, and knows where the problems are..he also knows the players.

Not much specific here....but good change takes time.

http://www.theindychannel.com/video/23520383/index.html

Here is one that answers fans Facebook questions...You have to click the click out the ad away from the bottom of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7WS7exw4k

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More information on where Bernard comes from here in the Sports Business Journal...the next year or two will be interesting.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/118794

Randy Bernard was in attendance at the rained out Bloomington USAC Sprint show last weekend. Did anyone see him?

As for the IRL name, I thought "IRL" was the sanctioning body name like USAC, NASCAR, or NHRA is. "IndyCar" is the series name, hence, the IRL IndyCar Series. The Indy Lights Series operates under the IRL banner as well, I thought.

In my opinion..I think that they see the two names as confusing and they have decided to go with Indy Car...many like me still revert to calling it the IRL...they are in no way saying those were bad years...they want Indy Car Series as a brand..I think one reason Tony George called it the IRL was the astounding fact that CART owned the name Indy Car at that point.

They want a stronger brand name, and this is one little thing they can do now. When Bernard was hired..all the details of the series were set in stone for this year..you won't see many other changes until after the 500.

Once Bernard gets settled in..I think you will see some interesting things happen...It is a great sign he was at Bloomington.

Can you imagine the enthusiasim that would develop if a midget driver or two had a realistic shot at a decent 500 ride in a year or two? Great to hear he was at Bloomington.

Too bad he wasn't at Bloomington on April 30.....

Too bad he wasn't at Haubstadt last Saturday night. He would have seen exactly what midget racing is all about.