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It's not the specs that create the defacto situation. It is the competitiveness of the chassis.
Back in the mid 90's Lola had a bad year. everyone running reynards were fine but those with Lola's got a raw deal. Some changed because they could afford to and others got stuck with a chassis that wouldn't go....
It is safer for the teams if everyone has one chassis to run so at least they feel they are starting with the same baseline.
Hence the current de-facto situation. Only Dallara has a suitable chassis. Panoz development couldn't keep pace and they fell away. Ganassi relegated them to the road courses for a season but then Dallara development brought it up to the same level or better and Chip pensioned the Panoz off for good.
No manufacturer is going to build a car for the IRL unlesss he thinks he can sell enough to cover development costs.
No team is going to buy a chassis unless they are sure the new boy on the block is going to beat the current leader...
Supply and demand. Thats the way it is.
Penske built his own cars in the CART days but when he wasn't competitive he didn't try too long before he went and bought customer cars (March, and later Reynards) because his own brand couldn't foot it.
As long as there was an advantage the Captain justified the extra cost but with no advantage or potential advantage it wasn't effective any more.
It is no different out there now.
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