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In short:
-CART was origionally formed to bring in better pay for teams. It accomplished that.
-In time; CART board members became more and more short sighted.
-CART lost it's major sponsor in PPG and they never found a replacement and that accelerated a downward slide.
-At some point Tony wanted to become a voting member or at least have a major say and was basically laughed out of the room.
-Tony founds IRL and shoots a warning shot across CARTS' bow.
-CART board members continue to self destruct as they have leader after leader come through but they never seem in unison in support of the new leaders.
-Of course; in there somewhere CART becomes a public company and takes many investors for a ride. Once public, they weren't as flexable to work deals and the series entered basically it's last phase before failing completely.
-During this period, open wheel racing falls into an unorganized mess and casual fans don't understand why Indy cars don't race at Indy and why the big names and sponsors in the sport don't compete at Indy. CART attendence suffers from the lack of identity and the IRL suffers because it is percieved to be a lesser series without people like Penske and Andretti supporting it.
-CART had the teams,drivers,sponsors and money, but they lost their identity and coupled with what was mentioned above it drove them into the ground.
-In 2008 IRL and CART reconcile. It now has clear leadership and one direction, but the sport is a shell of it's self.
Obviously much more than that happened, but that is a nut shell. Arguing specific races and drivers is pointless. Both series were terrible at one point and now at least it is going in one direction.
Origionally I was mad at Tony for what he did and I didn't feel that the sport needed the turmoil, but in hindsight I also have to say that something needed to be done because the Fox's were running the henhouse in CART and it was getting worse by the year. He held the ***** card and they should have respected his opinion and in retrospect in just came down to plain 'ol respect. They didn't respect Tony and he showed them that they were going to have to give him his due.
The IRL did give many Saturday Night stars a chance to live a dream. Tony underwrote much of it, but those guys got a chance. He couldn't do it forever. Unfortunately at the same time some others missed their window because of their deals.
Alex Zenardi never competed at the speedway, Little Al and Micheal missed many chances to win it and for a guy like P.J. Jones it really hurt. He had his deal with Gurney and he couldn't break it, but obviously the speedway was his dream. They had logged many days testing at the speedway just before the split. When he got his best shot there, he had a practice crash that broke his neck and never had another top flight shot. You can say that they should have just left CART, but that is how they made their living. I find it hard to believe anyone here would trade a million dollars for a hundred thousand. That said, the bill for that was not being able to run Indy.
All sides were responsable for what happened and they must all share blame equally. It's all over now, so unless anyone else wants to start another open wheel series, it is useless to discuss.
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