Published: March 23, 2008 12:07 am            

There’s nothing like a unified opening day

TERRE HAUTE — There’s nothing like opening day.

The sun, the expectation of warm days to come, a summer tradition passed down from father to son.

The faint whiff of ethanol, the high-pitched squeal of the modern open-wheel car, the Andretti jinx.

Yep. The opening day of the IndyCar season is a beautiful thing. At long last.

Saturday’s Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (it will be opening night, not opening day, but who’s keeping score?) marks the beginning of the 16-race IndyCar Series season and the dawn of a new era that is long, long overdue.

The open-wheel unification of the IRL and Champ Car, finalized in February, is manna from heaven. I can’t remember the last time I actually looked forward to the beginning of the IndyCar season. I’ve earned a few gray hairs and added more pounds than I want to think about since 1995.

It’s a long time coming for someone who considered himself a split victim. I loved pre-split CART more than any other series … ever. More than Formula One, more than NASCAR, both of which earned my loyalty in lieu of the IRL or post-split CART, and though I still love my F1, it’s not the same.

I loved the ovals. I loved the 500-mile triple crown. I loved Paul Page, Bobby Unser, and yes, even Sam Posey. I loved the road courses. I didn’t love the street courses so much, though the Long Beach layout was pretty good once it was modified.

I loved the fact that the best drivers available — nationality be damned — were plying their trade in CART and at the Indianapolis 500. There were plenty of drivers and car owners I loved and loved to hate.

That was then, so don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not anti-IRL. That open-wheel ship has sailed well past that point of the acrimony of the late 1990s. Admittedly, I was overtly critical of the IRL back then, and when the better teams moved over, I saw no reason for ChampCar’s continued existence. I like quality racing … period. The series that gave it to me was where my interest was always going to go.

The IRL has had a better open wheel model for at least the last five years. They were deserving “winners” of the open-wheel battle, if you want to couch it in those terms.

But now isn’t the time to rehash. Now is the time for those who care about open-wheel racing to get on board. I am. Joining F1 on my DVR “must-record” list will be the new-look, 26-car IndyCar Series.

It will take time to get used to, and I think by anyone’s admission, the 2008 season is going to be a compromise.

The schedule is a kind of IRL-plus-three format, with ChampCar circuits Long Beach, Edmonton and Surfer’s Paradise (as a non-points race) being retro-fitted into the existing IRL schedule. Many of the former Champ Car circuits will likely be added by 2009.

The Long Beach-Motegi shared April weekend (the IRL teams will race at Japan’s Motegi oval, the former Champ Car teams will have a “Champ Car farewell” at Long Beach) is awkward, but understandable, given the timing of the agreement.

The former Champ Car teams are going to struggle mightily at first trying to acclimate to the very different IRL chassis and set-ups, hopefully not to the point where their own sponsorships are jeopardized (a concern given the weak economy).

But these should be temporary obstacles in what could be a bright future. The racing is the most exciting there is on our shores. The cars are the fastest you’ll see. The driver pool, even if its not always American drivers, will be deep.

IndyCar won’t be comparable to NASCAR in popularity, not for a while, maybe not ever. But at least IndyCar now has unified stability to legitimately eat into the pie.

It can be argued that NASCAR’s popularity has reached a tipping point. TV ratings and attendance have fluctuated, its traditional fans are being priced out of tickets, the drivers are much less accessible and definitely more corporate (with some Tony Stewart-like exceptions).

The rule changes of recent years stink. The lucky dog rule — still the worst rule in sports in my opinion. The Chase, which puts 28 moving chicanes on track when a championship is being decided, is moronic and ruins the idea of a true, season-long champion. More? Competition yellows which beget more yellow’s because the driver’s are often not disciplined enough to stay out of each other’s way when the race is on the line.

If it’s savvy enough, the IndyCar Series can take advantage of all of it.

There’s one “gimmick” I would like to see the IRL try beginning in 2009 presuming the car count is still up — use the Formula One knockout qualifying format. It might not be new to F1 fans, but it will be new to most domestic racing fans, and would set IndyCar apart from everyone else.

What’s not to love? There’s 26 cars. There’s a unified spirit being forged between both sides — IMS President Tony George deserves a lot of credit for that. There will eventually be the balance of ovals, road courses and street courses that most one-time CART fans never wanted to see go in the first place. There’s hope for domestic open-wheel racing for the first time in eons.

Did I mention there’s 26 cars? Heck, CART struggled at times to get that car count in its salad days.

Opening day (or night) is a beautiful thing indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, start your unified engines.



Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.

        

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