Whether Tony George or CART decimated top echelon American open wheel racing is positively open to interpretation. Subjectivity rules over such debates until irrefutable evidence presents itself in favor of one or the other and no one expects that to ever happen.

What is absolutely true and not subject to opinion is this. Had CART been the top sanction with all the nuances in place regarding road courses and importation of foreign drivers post WW II up to around 1990 it's very likely we'd never have seen A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Rick Mears, Bobby Unser, Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford, Roger Ward, Rufus and many, many more ever race and/or win at Indianapolis.

And I will NEVER believe that Steve Kinser and Jack Hewitt would ever have qualified for an Indy 500 without the actions of Tony George. For that I will always be grateful. Maybe they should not have been there, maybe they should have but I am very happy they got the chance. All the rest of the yammering about who torpedoed Indy Car racing in just noise.