Drive to unify was strong

Something had to be done. Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven knew it.

George, the founder of the Indy Racing League, and Kalkhoven, one of the principals who took over bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams and formed the Champ Car World Series, recognized the future of open-wheel racing looked grim if the sides remained apart.

"This is all about looking forward," George said during a news conference Wednesday at Homestead-Miami Speedway to hail the unification of open-wheel racing under the Indy Racing League banner. "It was just last fall that I was thinking to myself that it really had been 30 years since the sport of open-wheel racing had been truly unified. There were periods of years over the last 30 years where we worked more closely together and better together. But by and large there were periods of years where we weren't so good at that.

"When the calendar turned over to 2008, I was wondering to myself, 'Is it possible this could ever happen?' Lo and behold, I got a call that just made me feel really warm. I felt like this was perhaps going to be the best year of my 48 to have a chance to do something that's very important to me and very close to me, and that is to help bring about the unification of open-wheel racing."

Although he had engaged in informal talks with George over the past four years, Kalkhoven knew it was time to open a meaningful dialogue when George offered a free Honda engine lease, free Dallara chassis, and a $1.2 million incentive program to any Champ Car team interested in switching to the IRL IndyCar Series for the 2008 season.

Although the schedule still has to be worked out, one of the stumbling points seemed to be smoothed out when it was agreed to allow the Long Beach Grand Prix to serve as Champ Car's finale during the same weekend as the IndyCar Series race at Motegi, Japan. There was also talk of the IRL's absorption of Champ Car races at Edmonton and Australia in the 2008. Champ Car teams will be allowed to participate in an IRL open test at Homestead-Miami to get acclimated to the normally aspirated Honda engines and Dallara chassis in advance of the IndyCar opener March 29.

George indicated unification "wouldn't have been possible without [the cooperation of] Kevin and Gerry [Forsythe, one of Champ Car's owners], in particular, coming to me, expressing a desire to work with me, to do what's right and what's best for all of the drivers and the sponsors and, most importantly, the fans, the suppliers that make open-wheel racing in North America a great sport, something close to all of us."

Kalkhoven said he didn't think "there was one specific thing" that prompted him to initiate talks.

"It was just the realization that, quite honestly, open-wheel motor racing in the United States just wasn't going anywhere," he said. "If we were to have an opportunity to develop it for the future, we should take that opportunity.

"Tony held out an olive branch, and Gerry and myself and [our] partners decided it was the right thing to do."

Team playerFlanked by pioneers Janet Guthrie, the first woman to start the Indianapolis 500, in 1978, and Lyn St. James, the 1992 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, Sarah Fisher last week announced the formation of Sarah Fisher Racing, which will begin competing in the Indy 500 in May.

"As a first-year start-up team, we know it's small," said Fisher, 27, who has 67 IndyCar Series starts and will drive the No. 67 car in honor of her successful USAC midget car. "We want to build the right way. Our 2009 program actually looks a lot better than our 2008 program. That's real exciting to us, and hopefully we can be in a lot more races."

Explaining why she chose to go the route as an owner/driver, Fisher said, "Going into the offseason this year, I kind of looked at all my options and evaluated sort of where I wanted to go and what my plans were big picture-wise. The best option for me was to start my own team because I think in the long run that's a better plan for us and for me going forward."

And Fisher will have the blessings and support of those who went before her.

"It's hard to believe that 30 years have past since I was in Sarah's shoes, doing what she is doing, grappling with the mind-boggling complexities and details of forming and managing my own team for the Indianapolis 500," Guthrie said. "Well, times have changed. Technology has changed. The rules of the game have changed. Back then, we didn't have onboard telemetry, spec chassis or spec engines, and differences between the cars were much greater back then than they are now. But drivers haven't changed.

"It still takes a ferocious desire plus concentration, judgment, emotional detachment, not getting angry or excited behind the wheel of a car, and concentration again and again. Sarah Fisher is a driver, as she has demonstrated beyond any doubt."

Big man in Vegas

Jimmie Johnson will go for his fourth consecutive victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in tomorrow's NASCAR UAW-Dodge 400. The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet has never finished outside the top 20 at Vegas. "It would be great to get that fourth win, but we won't approach this weekend any differently than we would at a track where we've never won," Johnson said. "We go into every weekend hoping to win, but so does every other team out there. I have every confidence in the equipment and the crew to get the job done, but anyone who's ever been to Vegas will tell you you've got to have some luck on your side, too." . . . Kyle Busch secured the pole position in Vegas last night with a fast lap of 182.353 miles per hour . . . Carl Edwards extended Roush Fenway Racing's winning streak at California to four with his Sprint Cup victory last Monday in the rain-delayed Auto Club 500. "I know when Matt [Kenseth] won that race [last year], that boosted us with just Matt winning that thing and having somebody at Roush Fenway getting a win that early is good," said Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford. "So I hope it's good for the team." Asked about the odds of snapping Johnson's streak at Vegas, Edwards replied, "I think our odds are pretty good at being able to win here. If you look at the [preseason] test [at Las Vegas], we were pretty good. Jimmie and those guys have some amazing way to just pull it out at the end and get wins, but hopefully we can be the guys to stop them." . . . Will Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch make it three consecutive 1-2 finishes in today's Sam's Town 300 Nationwide Series race? The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates drove their Toyotas 1-2 for the second consecutive race last weekend at California, with Stewart leading Busch across the finish line. Ranked second in the point standings, Busch arrived in Las Vegas, his hometown, as the first driver in NASCAR history to lead the Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck Series at the same time. "It's probably the second-biggest Nationwide Series race behind Daytona and in the top five Sprint Cup races of the year for me," Busch said. "It's a fun place and a great place to race. The fans get to watch a great show at Las Vegas, and I'm sure we're going to have a good time again."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com; material from sanctioning bodies, race teams, sponsors, and track publicity departments was used in this report.