Originally Posted by Charles Nungester:
...Like Minor league professional hockey, I'm a little sad when they leave our hometown or series.
Very good analogy, Charles. Spot on.
I think the deal with Rico moving to NASCAR boils down to two things:
One, NASCAR is where the big money is, as stated earlier in this thread.
The second is there is no direct way for any open wheel shoe to get to IndyCars. No one is going to take a chance on the sprint car guys when they can pull in a true road racer like a Pagenaud. Then you have guys bringing big money to buy rides. Sure, they are good drivers, but they have the inside track.
Other than BC of late, no one is on the radar for an IndyCar team. So the dirt guys have to go to NASCAR. IndyCar has no feeder series to speak of. Sure there is Indy Lights, and the Mazda Road to Indy, but get real. Low car counts and no TV coverage. Roll back 20 years when you had the Toyota Atlantics. Now THAT was a feeder series.
European open wheel has Formula Ford, GP2, GP3, World Series by Renault, etc. We have a mere shadow of that. Heck, a dirt guy would get more seat time running an SCCA formula (back to no coverage).
Rico is going to the K&N East Series. Remember when that was the Busch North Series? A nice regional series with a few guys that made it to the top. But between NASCAR greasing the skids for a feeder series, whether it be K&N, Trucks, or even supporting ARCA for that matter (i.e. RCR building cars for the grandkids) NASCAR is the only place to go.
Roush has an ARCA affiliate with the Roulo Brothers. ARCA has become a breeding ground for young shoes. Gone are the old veterans who make up the better half of the field.
Was it last year where Dave Darland was trying to get an ARCA ride for Daytona? Here is the top winner in USAC, and he is scraping for a one off in ARCA. That shows you how slight his Indy options are.
Gibbs, Ganassi, Childress (above), Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Penske..... all have feeder teams in the lower NASCAR tiers. Until guys like Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, Dale Coyne, etc., start forming feeder teams in Indy Lights, it's either head for NASCAR or stay on dirt for guys like Rico.
The lack of a good feeder series is what is killing the process.