At long last, after 12 contentious years, the IRL and Champ Car have finally agreed to unify their series. The IRL came into existence 12 years ago when the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony George, came to the conclusion that the premier open-wheel racing series of the day, CART, featured too many road courses and foreign drivers. Rather than a merger, the IRL has essentially swallowed Champ Car, only keeping a few of the old Champ Car venues, including the one jewel in the crown, the Long Beach Grand Prix in April.
The split in the open wheel racing world all but killed off open wheel racing in North America, as NASCAR rushed in to fill the void, even taking with it open wheel stars from the IRL, Champ Car and Formula One in recent years. CART, and USAC before it, was once the unquestioned pinnacle of racing of any kind in this country. A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Mario Andretti, all the Unsers, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Rahal ... the list of drivers whose fame arose from open wheel racing is long and rich. While it will be far better for auto racing fans (and sponsors) to have only one major series to follow, the damage caused by Tony George's hissy fit will take at least as long to repair as the division in the racing world itself lasted.
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