This week-end a new street course will host the opening round for the upcoming 2010 IndyCar season and the Brazilian race, even if it brings a sense of renewal, cannot hide the fact that the coming year could reveal whether American open wheel racing is on its deathbed or mounting resurgence.
Although, the IndyCar in 2009 has delivered a constantly changing three-way title fight that was unresolved until the final laps of the season-closer, it still lacks the financial backing to allow more teams to attend every race of the schedule with either established veteran or upcoming drivers in their cars.
Finding fresh backing was made harder by the series' U.S. television deal that saw most races broadcast on the Versus channel. While the quality of Versus' IndyCar coverage was widely praised, it was a relatively small player in American sports broadcasting.
Paul Tracy openly admitted that his sponsors found Versus' low profile a deterrent and were much more interested in backing him for the rounds still shown on the much larger ABC channel. He wasn't the only one complaining that disappointing U.S. TV audience figures were a major stumbling block in the search for funds.
Everything is not looking that bad as the series has welcomed clothing company IZOD which has signed a long-term, multi-million dollar deal to become the series' new title sponsor
Things also starts to look up on the US TV front too, with Comcast becoming a partner of NBC - potentially making Versus, which IndyCar is tied to for ten years, substantially bigger Getting a wider audiences gives IndyCar a fighting chance - and the IZOD and Comcast/NBC announcements could achieve this.
For now, Danica Patrick remains the only driver to have made an impression on the wider public. Her flirtation with NASCAR is bad news for the IndyCar Series, although her new Team Andretti deal keeps her in single-seaters for at least two more years.
But still, the fact that upcoming American star driver Graham Rahal is still out of a contract less than one week before the start of the season is more indicative of the state of the series than any other statistics or TV ratings figures.
Although, the IndyCar in 2009 has delivered a constantly changing three-way title fight that was unresolved until the final laps of the season-closer, it still lacks the financial backing to allow more teams to attend every race of the schedule with either established veteran or upcoming drivers in their cars.
Finding fresh backing was made harder by the series' U.S. television deal that saw most races broadcast on the Versus channel. While the quality of Versus' IndyCar coverage was widely praised, it was a relatively small player in American sports broadcasting.
Paul Tracy openly admitted that his sponsors found Versus' low profile a deterrent and were much more interested in backing him for the rounds still shown on the much larger ABC channel. He wasn't the only one complaining that disappointing U.S. TV audience figures were a major stumbling block in the search for funds.
Everything is not looking that bad as the series has welcomed clothing company IZOD which has signed a long-term, multi-million dollar deal to become the series' new title sponsor
Things also starts to look up on the US TV front too, with Comcast becoming a partner of NBC - potentially making Versus, which IndyCar is tied to for ten years, substantially bigger Getting a wider audiences gives IndyCar a fighting chance - and the IZOD and Comcast/NBC announcements could achieve this.
For now, Danica Patrick remains the only driver to have made an impression on the wider public. Her flirtation with NASCAR is bad news for the IndyCar Series, although her new Team Andretti deal keeps her in single-seaters for at least two more years.
But still, the fact that upcoming American star driver Graham Rahal is still out of a contract less than one week before the start of the season is more indicative of the state of the series than any other statistics or TV ratings figures.