I talked to someone in the know today and they said that this merger was coming for some time. It seems it is all about tires and costs and this was done to try and salvage winged pavement sprint cars that both series had been successful with prior to Must See.
The California races are King of Wings and I believe that Davey Hamilton is really the driving force behind this. Including three midwestern races the word is that AVSS will be providing the race officials and tech for these races. This is just information that I heard today.
According to this release, yes, Davey is running this.