What most people who think Tony George and the IRL destroyed open wheel racing fail to remember the beginning of the split was started with the Gurney's white paper and the way the USAC Board was set up with non Championship owners/drivers having some say into how the Championship division would operate. I still believe that Gurney, Hall, Patrick, Roger P, and other owners had legitimate concerns about the direction of Championship Division of USAC, BUT with the death of Tony Hulman and the loss of almost all USAC officials from the plane crash on the return the Trenton race gave the CART people an opening that those two events provided. When the young stars of the open wheel cars could not get a ride because they "lacked rear-engine, ground effects experience" and Emmo F. refused to drink the milk but push orange juice in victory lane, the IMS people needed to do something to protect their "brand identity." Least people forget CART put the "500" on their schedule even though it was a USAC event, why? Because it was and still is the single most important race in the world. The CART people started the verbal war of "who are these guys" racing in the 500 without us! When CART ran against the Indy 500 with their own 500 at Michigan and had the massive wreck before the start and then allowed the teams to bring out their backup cars they lost the ability to show how good they were. I have always felt that you do not advance your agenda by tearing down your competition because when you do people may think the the overall product may be flawed. I think the advance of NASCAR was open wheel fans looking for competition on the track, not in the board rooms of sanctioning groups. I still find it hard to believe that grass root drivers, if given the chance, could not become qualified Indy car drivers, especially if there are more ovals on the tour. The track and the series are in good hands as of now, but no one can foresee what changes will be made and if they will bring an upswing, stay basically the same, or cause a demise in the event and series we love