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Originally Posted by Lucky161
But it's more expensive than can be supported by the available revenue. nascar spends more. That's true. However, nascar can spend more because they have more. If you waved a magic wand and 50% of nascars money disappeared, we as fans would see almost no difference in their product. If is was cut in half again, same thing. But if you cut the average IRL budget in half, half the field would disappear immediately and that's half of an already pathetic field.
I'm not a big Tony George basher, but I can't agree that he was a "man of his word." The reason is that he has publicly stated that he wanted a CART like series from the beginning. I, like many others supported the original "vision" and thought it had a chance. In my opinion they didn't go far enough and didn't stick with it long enough. But considering that he has since said that it wasn't his real goal, I can't support the contention that he was a man of his word.
Concerning engine leasing being cheaper than running your own program. The results of engine leasing were "special" team favorites getting the good stuff and everyone else getting the scraps. This was true earlier in CART and proved all over again in the IRL. A case can surely be made to support your contention, but the reality is that engine leasing caused many teams to quit.
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I'm not a Tony George honk, but he did do what he set out to do. He floated it as long as he could. He tried his vision and the fans did not respond in numbers to support it. He should not have been expected to do it infinantly.
To try and do it anymore cheaper than it is; is an extremely tough situation. There are some things that can be done, but as far as manpower and equipment needed to run the cars, it is a lean deal.
I'm not saying there isn't situations in the past to support the assumption that motor leasing wasn't level, but from what I have seen and from the people I talk with, the Honda deal is extremely on the level. The current engine lease program is a well run program that allows teams like Fisher and Coyne to compete in todays IRL. With the exception of the first year using the old cars, the IRL has never been as easy to compete in.