Could Indy Cars and NASCAR Work Together?

One Indy Car owner is floating an idea that is pretty interesting, but probably won't go anywhere:

One of the Indy Racing League's longtime team owners is pushing the idea of IRL-NASCAR Nextel Cup combined events.

John Barnes, an owner and the general manager of Panther Racing, thinks that even if the IRL event was positioned as a support race, Indy-style racing would benefit.

"We would make it where we would race on Saturday to replace a Busch or ARCA race, and they would race on Sunday," he said. "I have no problem being second fiddle to them, I just want to get in front of their fans and show them what real racing is all about."

Terry Angstadt, the IRL's new president of its commercial division, said the IRL would not allow itself to be presented as a support race.

"We would love to make our series better, and we will open the thought waves of doing that," he said. "But at the same time, I think we are a tier one series, and certainly it would be hard to argue that the Indianapolis 500 is not a cornerstone event, if not the premier motor sports event in the world."

Granted, the Indy 500 is the biggest motorsports event in the world, but it's also the only IRL event that draws a crowd. The rest of the season their glorified go-karts are whizzing by empty stands. Combining the two series in one weekend at a NASCAR track could bring them some new fans.

The crack about "showing them what real racing is about" won't go over well with the NASCAR crowd or the honchos in Daytona Beach, but I guess the unfounded arrogance can be forgiven. They know not what they do.

For NASCAR, there is really no risk in going along with such a combined weekend. The support race is for the benefit of the track promoter, not the Nextel Cup series. The Sunday Cup race will sell out even if they decide to have preschoolers racing tricycles on Saturday. The risk is to the IRL (and the track) which could be faced with largely empty stands on Saturday and a packed house for the stock cars on Sunday. The attendance would say more about "real racing" than any boasts the IRL might make.

To give you a further example of the difficulties faced by the open wheel crowd these days, this weekend I'll be in Las Vegas for a little R&R. On the news last night they ran a report on "What's Hot This Weekend in Vegas". I found out from that report that the CART series (IRL's rivals) will be running the Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday in downtown Las Vegas. I was surprised because when NASCAR hits Sin City, rooms are almost impossible to find and those that can be found cost a bunch. This weekend rooms are plentiful and cheap - in fact I've gotten several discount offers on rooms at nice hotels. It doesn't look like CART will make much of an impact on the town.

To complicate matters for CART, the TV report had an interview with a CART star - some French guy I've never heard of who speaks heavily accented English. In addition, CART only runs road courses which are boring as hell to watch. Seeing a bunch of foreigners playing follow the leader through the streets of Las Vegas just isn't going to generate much interest.

Judging by the statements from the IRL leadership, they'll never allow their series to play undercard to NASCAR, but it's to their disadvantage if they don't seriously consider it.