Sounds like a great time to take a nap! LOL!!........They should hire Waltrips side kick Hammond, He seems to have it all figured out.

It does not surprise me. USAC screwed it up a long time ago.

LMAO very good point.

How many people cares about it. There was more holes in the bleachers than a USUK show.

Hey Aussieboy, since CART was so awesome, how come they were struggling for drivers and teams? The one thing that made CART grand was all the "little teams" running the 500, and the possiblity of putting the "CART Boys" out. Remember Penske in 1995 at the Speedway? Biggest blunder in racing history, period. Couldn't get 3 different chassis up to speed, and they were the best. If CART was so great, how come they lost and are no longer in existence? If CART was so great, how come Bordais is getting his ass kicked on a weekly basis by Sebastian Buemi in F1? Get off the high horse about what is better. I watched both, and liked both. Still do. Popped in an old tape of Milwalkee a few weeks ago from 1995 and it was rather interesting.

To the Robin Miller haters, that's fine, get rid of him, and never allow him anywhere open wheel cars go ever again. Then how many writers do we have for open wheeled cars? Oh wait. We Won't. He's the only one giving ANY sort of recognition to "our" style of racing. Do you agree with it, hell no, do you have to agree with it, hell no. But what you do have to do is realize he's right on my accounts. Sit with your blinders on people and think everything will be ok, becasue I hate to burst your bubble, but it's probably not going to be OK. We have to look in the mirror (along with the movers and shakers in the Indycar world) and figure out what's wrong. The series was at it's best when an owner had a choice of 2 cars, a few engines, and the motors had some grunt to them without guys with laptops running around the garage. Get back to the way it was in 1997-2001 and I'll be happy. I'm not old enough unfortunately to actually remember the National Title tour with USAC, and I wish I was. That's how it should be, but lets face it, the days of someone running the Hoosier Hundred Friday and running "the" race on Sunday won't ever happen again. But I do firmly believe that the guy that wins the Hoosier Hundred one year may possibly have a chance at "the" race on Sunday sometime. The day is coming when money won't be everything, I really do believe that.

Oh, and to whoever said F1 was hurting, good god are you nuts? F1 is by far the most popular racing in the world, no matter what anybody says. Just because it's not popular here doesn't mean it isn't popular everywhere else. Look at soccer for gods sake. Personally, I'd rather watch anything F1 than virtually anything going on in this country right now. I want to see someone beat Brawn, becasue there is something about those Brawn guys... They were on their asses last year, and now they really are putting everybody else on their ass, with not NEARLY the budgets everybody else has. Seems to me like that's exactly what Indycar needs. Some smaller teams that can run with the big boys. Look at Justin Wilson, was pretty good all month, and ran up front at all the races so far this year, with a single car team on a small budget. Ron Hemelgarn is one of my biggest heroes, and it absolutely sucks that he wasn't in the race this year.

I've only been going to the race since 2003, but been watching it for years on TV when I was little. It's all I've wanted to do, and I love the Speedway very much, and hope it flourishes for another 100 years.

G'Day !
Seems the BLOKE from DOWNUNDER has made a point that STANDS OUT LIKE DOG'S BALL'S !
AMF is obviously not some DRONGO to be taken lightly ! This is no BANANA BENDER , he's from a BIG SMOKE !
Now don't accuse him of not knowing CHRISTMAS FROM BOURKE STREET , probably just a LARRIKIN , I'm sure !
( "ok , who opened their lunch ?" )
To write such a long post , wouldn't you have to be sittin' n' the NUDDY , smokin' a ROLLIE , maybe CRACK A FAT and work a little DOODLE ?
Probably missed his DINGO'S BREAKFAST and settled for a piece of CHOOK and another CLEANSKIN , don't you think ?
Now I'm sure some of you may be think'n that someone here has got some KANGAROOS LOOSE IN THE TOP PADDOCK but don't be a KNOCKER , ya' MUG , ... no LURK intended.
And don't take it as a RATBAG , I'm just ROOTING with 'ya , Mate !
Bout' now you'd say " mind your own BIZZO " , but a question , please ...
Is it true that if you mix some DEAD HORSE and AVOS with some FAIRY FLOSS it can cause your CLACKER to get as DRY as a NUN'S NASTY ?
The original intent of this thread was to expose a FURPHY but apparently we've taken down our GRUNDIES with our BUDGIE SMUGGLERS no where in sight !
Gotta go ... hate to be a WOMBAT but I'm sure nobody will WHINGE !



http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html


:2:

In short:

-CART was origionally formed to bring in better pay for teams. It accomplished that.
-In time; CART board members became more and more short sighted.
-CART lost it's major sponsor in PPG and they never found a replacement and that accelerated a downward slide.
-At some point Tony wanted to become a voting member or at least have a major say and was basically laughed out of the room.
-Tony founds IRL and shoots a warning shot across CARTS' bow.
-CART board members continue to self destruct as they have leader after leader come through but they never seem in unison in support of the new leaders.
-Of course; in there somewhere CART becomes a public company and takes many investors for a ride. Once public, they weren't as flexable to work deals and the series entered basically it's last phase before failing completely.
-During this period, open wheel racing falls into an unorganized mess and casual fans don't understand why Indy cars don't race at Indy and why the big names and sponsors in the sport don't compete at Indy. CART attendence suffers from the lack of identity and the IRL suffers because it is percieved to be a lesser series without people like Penske and Andretti supporting it.
-CART had the teams,drivers,sponsors and money, but they lost their identity and coupled with what was mentioned above it drove them into the ground.
-In 2008 IRL and CART reconcile. It now has clear leadership and one direction, but the sport is a shell of it's self.

Obviously much more than that happened, but that is a nut shell. Arguing specific races and drivers is pointless. Both series were terrible at one point and now at least it is going in one direction.

Origionally I was mad at Tony for what he did and I didn't feel that the sport needed the turmoil, but in hindsight I also have to say that something needed to be done because the Fox's were running the henhouse in CART and it was getting worse by the year. He held the ***** card and they should have respected his opinion and in retrospect in just came down to plain 'ol respect. They didn't respect Tony and he showed them that they were going to have to give him his due.

The IRL did give many Saturday Night stars a chance to live a dream. Tony underwrote much of it, but those guys got a chance. He couldn't do it forever. Unfortunately at the same time some others missed their window because of their deals.

Alex Zenardi never competed at the speedway, Little Al and Micheal missed many chances to win it and for a guy like P.J. Jones it really hurt. He had his deal with Gurney and he couldn't break it, but obviously the speedway was his dream. They had logged many days testing at the speedway just before the split. When he got his best shot there, he had a practice crash that broke his neck and never had another top flight shot. You can say that they should have just left CART, but that is how they made their living. I find it hard to believe anyone here would trade a million dollars for a hundred thousand. That said, the bill for that was not being able to run Indy.

All sides were responsable for what happened and they must all share blame equally. It's all over now, so unless anyone else wants to start another open wheel series, it is useless to discuss.

Off the top of my head Steve Kinser, Jack Hewitt, Donnie Beechler, Tyce Carlson, Billy Boat, Joe Gosek, Paul Durant, Dave Steele, Brian Tyler, Andy Michner, Jason Leffler, J J Yely, Tony Stewart, Doug Didero, Jimmy Kite, Sarah Fisher, Stevie Reeves. P J Chesson, Davey Hamilton and of course Ed - all with significant short track open wheel experience raced in the IRL --- and you can add a few in the Pro Series including Jay Drake and Jerry Coons. Tony can't tell owners who to hire but at least these folks got a chance

CART imploded due to the greed of the owners who - that's their fault -

They got their chance and then someone with a big checkbook who couldn't carry the helmet bag of most of the people on that list bought their rides. Let's face the facts the IRL has the shallowest talent pool in professional motorsports.
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Very well said. All of these posters who live to argue about past history just kind of tickle my ballz.