Dixon gets off to a fast start
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - With the Champ Car World Series and Indy Racing League having reunified Feb. 27, last night's IRL opener, the
Pole-sitter Scott Dixon, who watched the 2007 IndyCar Series championship slip through his fingers when he ran out of fuel on the last lap of the last race of the season, was greeted in Victory Lane as the winner of a race that symbolized the rebirth of the sport.
"It's good to go in the record books as being the first to win since reunification," said Dixon, who delivered his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team its fourth consecutive win in the IRL opener by holding off runner-up Marco Andretti and Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon. "But, to be honest, I don't think the other guys [from Champ Car] had a fair shot, because they had so little time to get ready. I think next year will be more of a true championship under reunification."
The race ushered in an era of harmony after the sport went through a nasty divorce when IRL founder and CEO Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, split from the now-defunct
"I'm really happy for all the fans and all the teams," said George, whose Vision Racing team celebrated Friday the strong qualifying runs of Ed Carpenter, who won the outside pole, and A.J. Foyt IV, who was third fastest, but lamented yesterday the failed post-qualifying inspections that left both drivers bringing up the rear of the 25-car field. Carpenter finished fifth, Foyt ninth.
"I think everyone's wanted to see unification for quite some time," George said. "Now that we have it, we just have to really focus on that."
In the immediate aftermath of reunification, whatever bitter sentiments that lingered among Champ Car and IRL rivals were replaced by cooperation.
So much so that Roger Penske, the legendary car owner who defected to the IRL in 2001, and actor Paul Newman, co-owner of a Champ Car team with Carl Haas and Michael Lanigan who made no secret of his disdain for the IRL and "the management" at IMS, co-signed and circulated a letter last week to former Indy 500 ticket-holders, inviting them to come back to the Brickyard in May for the 92d running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
"We're business guys," Penske said. "You put all this stuff behind you, and if you worry about all the things that happened in the past, you're not going to be on offense going forward."
While he wasn't certain what impact the letter would have on Indy 500 ticket sales, Joie Chitwood, IMS president and chief operating officer, said, "That letter's only going to resonate for [former ticket-holders]. We thought, with reunification, it was the perfect time to do it."
But how do you explain to fans what took place during the dozen years open-wheel racing was governed by split entities?
"That there was a difference of opinion a dozen years ago and, unfortunately, one series was spun off and it was created as a way to bring back American racing, American drivers, American manufacturers, and oval racing," said Andretti Green Racing's Danica Patrick, one of the IRL's stars.
"I always believed that we either were going to continue or eventually one of us was going to die," added Patrick, "and I really never believed that the series that had the Indy 500 would [perish]."
Still, there was no stopping the defection this year of IRL champion Dario Franchitti and Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr., the 2006 Indy 500 champion, to NASCAR, where both have struggled.
"When Dario and Sam made their decisions, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen," said Tony Kanaan, a former AGR teammate of Franchitti's. "I followed Dario's decision pretty close and he felt he had done everything that he could have done here and he was up for other challenges. I don't know, you look at what he's doing lately and you wonder if he's thinking he should have stayed here.
"Each racecar driver makes his own decision with what they want to do with their career. We have a great future ahead of us and it's going to be up to the drivers, the teams, and the series to make it as good as it looks right now.
"If [Hornish and Franchitti] want to come back, we're going to welcome them back and, hopefully, we won't see people wanting to go that way; we'll see people wanting to come back this way."
The absorption of five Champ Car teams and nine drivers, and the addition of two dates - in Edmonton, Alberta, and Surfers Paradise, Australia - have proven to be a logistical headache for IRL officials, teams, manufacturers, and suppliers. But they've been good headaches.
According to Terry Angstadt, president of the IRL's commercial division, news of the reunification brought interest from potential sponsors. "I've been absolutely overwhelmed with the reaction," Angstadt said. "Far better than we thought it would be."
ESPN, the IRL's broadcast partner who televised last night's race, has only added to the excitement.
"This track has seen some of the most incredible battles the last two years at this race, but in the back of your mind there was always this feeling like there wasn't that one person at the dinner table," said Rich Feinberg, ESPN's vice president of motorsports. "Now we're all feeling this excitement and an energy that this cloud that was following us around no longer exists.
"I know that you can't flip the switch and change viewers instantly, so it's going to be a growth process. It's a journey and we embark on the next chapter of open-wheel racing and we'll see where it takes us." 