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Originally Posted by Brickyard
That white paper I speak of? Gurney and those guys didn't want to destroy Indy, they've said as much in interviews and it's right there in the paper itself. What they wanted was to take something that had huge potential and was being neglected by the current group and build it.
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Huge potential? More speculation and conjecture. By 1995 NASCAR had already delivered multiple groin grabbers to Indy Car Racing and it would be nearly a full decade before NASCAR's momentum showed any sign of slowing. I will not ever believe CART was going to go head to head with NASCAR and come out on top, or even be competitive in regards to spectators and TV ratings. The handwriting was on the wall before the split and Dan Gurney and his white paper weren't going to stop the spiral of decline and. Oval track racing featuring home grown drivers was always destined to whoop up on European and South American road course racing for mainstream fans. Now, hows that for speculation and conjecture?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brickyard
Yeah, you got Hewitt, Kinser, etc in there after 1996. My question to you is, where are they now?
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Well, if I'm doing the math correctly Jack Hewitt will be 66 years old in July and Steve Kinser will be 63 in June. Where are they now? Well one thing is for sure, they won't be jumping in an Indy Car! LOL!!
How low Indy Car racing would have gone on the racing totem pole had CART stayed in control is anyone's guess. Probably not as low as it did, but with the exploding popularity of NASCAR and the CART schedule weighted 2 to 1 in favor of street and road courses over ovals at the time of the split things weren't looking all that rosy no matter what happened and who was in charge.