I felt that when the IRL started; they needed to have a flat bottom car to promote better racing.

The cost of the IRL cars is not really that out of line when compared to NASCAR. Yes the car itself is more expensive, but a team doesn't have to have as many. Two or three per driver compared to 10-15 per driver in NASCAR.

Personally; I feel the engine lease is far cheaper than running your own engine program. A million dollars and I don't have to own any engine equipment or hire engine specialists. The teams that do their own development have around 10-12 million a year in their motor departments alone. If you just lease a motor at say 40,000 a weekend for a NASCAR race, your budget for the year is around 1.4 million.

Initially; I felt they should have used Fiberglass engine covers and the alike, but pretty soon carbon will be as cheap to use as fiberglass. Maybe cheaper. I'm not sure, but I don't believe they use any titanium bolts. All of the bolts I believe are aircraft grade steel. The IRL teams need substationally less manpower than the NASCAR teams. An IRL budget is around 6-8 million a car while the best Cup teams are 28-35million a car.

I will say this, I never felt that the origional model of the IRL would survive and I always felt it would eventually have to follow CARTS footsteps to a degree. That said......Tony George was a man of his word and provided many great opportunities for the Midget and Sprint car guy. He funded out of his pocket many deals that helped the "local" racer.

JJ Yeley,Tony Stewart,Billy Boat,Jon Herb,Jason Leffler,Andy Michner,Jimmy Kite,Tyce Carlson,Jack Hewitt,Steve Kinser,Sarah Fisher, and on and on all got their chance at the dream along with other Americans form other types of racing. Unfortunately, the fans didn't follow to support their activities. If it had been successful, more of these guys would have been there.

The reason they are doing what they are doing is because that is where the money is. Street racing sucks, but they get sponsors. Face it, the fans don't come out for the IRL at many tracks and they have to where they are wanted and can make money. I would love to see the miles on the schedule again, but if you can't seat 50,000 it isn't worth doing.

The IRL is expensive as is all of the racing, but not as expensive as it seems.