[JohnSSC]

Just to follow my thoughts a bit:

NASCAR has nearly perfected the "Bread and Circus" aspect of racing. Like I said, they give 'em Spectacle and plenty of it.

This is where Open Wheel here is getting their butts kicked. One of the gripes about NASCAR is "the cars all look the same." So do CC cars. Point to NASCAR then because they have more of them, and a larger percentage of the field has a chance at the win.

Let's look at the Championship:

In CC/IRL it is almost below the radar. In NASCAR you had the Winston and now the Nextel Cup, both were/are lavishly funded things that are advertised separately. The winning of said Championship is like striking the Mother Lode.

In re: the "Bread and Circuses" aspect. We can all sit here and cry great big crocodile tears about how much more skilled "our" drivers are (which is why they get their heads handed to them when they cross over) and the sheer delight of mastering right-hand turns, but look at where we as North Americans come from:

From almost day one in racing on "permanent" courses, the oval has been the pre-dominant track shape. Foyt, Andretti, Rutherford, Mays, etc all cut their racing teeth on dirt ovals. Every week thousands of Americans go to the local dirt/asphalt oval and watch the racing. Even before NASCAR became as big as it is today, auto racing in the US, taken in toto was and is THE most popular sport. Americans (for whatever reason) like their racing on ovals. NASCAR has merely taken that prediliction, refined it, packaged it and rakes in mega-bucks in TV contracts, ticket and merchandise sales. NASCAR then rakes in the most talented drivers: Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, the Busch Brothers, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and so many others. In fact, I will take those six in matched cars against any six IRL/CC regulars on whatever variety of venues we may choose and my only question is: "Which IRL/CC guy will come in seventh behind them?"

All the while we have TG having "visions" and the Three Amigos "rescuing the traditions established by CART (without, of course mentioning USAC, from which much evolved)." The true test of interest, Sponsorship, tells you everything you need to know about the state of open wheel racing here. Go, if you dare, to the IRL Forum and read Team Owner's posts about how little in the way on non-manufacturer $$ are flowing there as well. Then go to the "Silly Season" threads (especially the CC one) and read ad nauseum who, with what bushel-basket of money is getting what ride.

It is, boys and girls, a grim picture.

Now, before I am accused of being a shill for TG, or some sort of trouble-maker, or some sort of NASCAR partisan let me say that I love Open Wheel racing. I always have. Losing it, and we are, is like losing a loved one. In this case it is like watching a losing battle in the ICU. All that I have right now is a nostalgia for what once was and a sadness for what could have been and an incredible unhappiness that this idiotic "split" that resulted from some of the most self-serving, short-sighted decisions that any racing Series could ever make (and showing no sign of learning from past mistakes) is the final nail in the coffin.

And here we sit, with so few fans of this type of racing left and we have even the Forum split as if to underscore our own inability to recognize a mistake, to learn from it and then move on.