Nothing was gained by the split as we can see. The thought was to get back to what the Indy 500 used to be. A series could then be built around that. Obviously it didn’t work so here we are. I do think it had a chance to work if there had been one series.

Somewhere along the line, IndyCar owners started to think guys coming from grassroots open wheel cars couldn’t drive their cars so they stopped hiring them. History shows that to be false, but it didn’t matter. Foyt won on road courses, not because he was a great road racer, but because he was a great race car driver, period. You had to be a karting guy or a foreigner that had IndyCar style car experience. Owners didn’t want to spend the time to have a driver learn anymore. Popularity then started going down. Sponsors then started going away. Owners then had to hire some guys based on money they brought, not talent (almost every single Champ Car seat is like that now, IRL not as much but still happening)

I liked the old CART schedule personally. I do think an American series should be no more than 70/30 oval/road course split. Overall, Americans like oval racing better, that’s just a fact. Road racing is fine if done at the right track and not an entire race schedule. The only race I would keep for sure is Long Beach. I MIGHT consider some run on a permanent road course. The rest are garbage. There is NO WAY somebody goes to a street course race to see “racing” because there is none. It’s just a party for people to get drink and watch a parade. Sorry, but that’s all it is. The markets Champ Car was trying to get into shows that they knew their philosophy does not sell in America. Period. Sorry, but the problem with Champ Car WAS on track. Boring parades, drivers nobody in the US knows, all road racing, and 80% of races ran outside the US is not a good series to Americans. If that is supposed to be the main fan base, that doesn’t work.

I do agree Michigan needs to return. I’d like to see the ladder series be named Indy Lights. I always liked that name.

Take the top five USAC drivers in stockcars, add them to Indy Cars, they matter again. If not, everything stays the same on a national level. Unless you are a real fan, you don’t care. For oval racing, the IRL’s racing product is as good as any on the top level. The general racing population doesn’t care because of drivers in the seats. Unless that changes (which I don’t see it doing) it won’t change the popularity. The need of one series has to happen, but without some sort of a change in drivers it pretty much stays the same.