Originally Posted by cecil98:
767, Travis Gregg was a local sprint car driver (mainly Lawrenceburg Speedway) in the late 90's and early 2000's that somehow wound up with a one year deal to drive in the Infinity Pro Series with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Immediately, Travis, qualified up front and consistantly ran up front. I believe he even won one. However, at the end of his deal? Never heard from again. He showed he was capable of the beating the foreign road racers but that wasn't good enough. He's gone.
He actually won 3 races in '05. He's run at least one race every year since....even ran two last year. I never could figure out after winning 3 races why he didn't return. Schmidt has had Lucas Oil on the #7 car for about 5 years so he's always had some sponsor money. That car has won the championship several times, but never with the same driver. Travis showed he can win, but if it's not good enough...what are you going to do?
The ONLY way a guy can make it is to get an Indy Lights ride and keep it for a few years to show what he can do. Davey Hamilton has started a team with Brandon Wagner driving. Nobody is going to hire a driver straight from dirt to run the series....just won't happen. I'm hoping that Chad Boat gets a chance at Lights. Hoping Billy has some connections to give him a chance. He has showed he can drive and works on the car....doesn't just drive it. Not saying he is the only one who deserves a chance, but he may be the only one who gets a shot right now.
The problem with Indy now is a team can't afford to show up for a one off without money. You can't build your own car and engine....you have to have the money up front for the car and engine. Before you could build your own stuff based on the money you had. The stuff may not have been the same level as the big teams, but it could still get you in the race. You can't do that anymore. That's why you don't see 60 teams show up anymore. Rich Vogler proved short track guys can make the race. Pretty much sat in an IndyCar once a year and made the race several times. Cars are basically the same today so I think it can still be done....there just aren't seats. If there is a seat, you have to bring money to it because the team can't run without it. Vicious circle.