Just Haverin' - with Iain Shankland Re-unification. The ugly word just keeps popping up. Will it ever go away? Yes, when the Indy Racing League closes the door forever at the end of the 2006 season. Autoweek announced this week that talks between Kevin Kalkhoven and Tony George have reached a stage where both series will unite come the end of the season. Blah Blah Blah, haven't we heard this all before? According to Autoweek, Kevin and Tony are best buds now and in-turn there's a truce in the making. Kevin Kalkhoven is a very smart businessman. He's not stupid enough to burn bridges with Tony George or anyone else - besides people can be friends and still disagree with each other, thinking their business model is superior to the other. Just because they share dinner or bump into each other at events and discuss many things, there's no way of knowing that it will bring Champ Car and the IRL any closer together. It's all speculation. So let's speculate: The IRL is on life-support, it's a racing series on death's-door. It's losing teams and advertising support. Yes, they've managed to stagger up to 20 drivers/cars for the beginning of the season, but how many will there be at the end? If any of the teams were thinking of jumping over to Champ Car - and according to Kalkhoven there's a few lined up - doing so in 2006 wouldn't work when the new engine/chassis comes on line for the 2007 season. Halfway through the season we'll hear the stampede of announcements about teams moving to Champ Car for the 07 season. They're only racing in the IRL this year, biding their time 'till next season. If the new Champ Car had come out this season, there would be no IRL this year. They have Danica to talk about ... but her 15 minutes of fame is over. They've discovered that Indy race fans like road courses and street courses, but still won't attend the races. The IRL are living in their own self-imposed glory of the Indy 500. They never forget to remind everyone that they have the Indy 500. Big whoop! Indianapolis Speedway doesn't even consider this as their pinnacle race of the year anymore - it's the Brickyard 400 - NASCAR that's selling the tickets and getting people to watch on TV. The Indy 500 is made up of has-beens and never-made-it drivers. It's just like the Super Bowl - a lot of energy, publicity, hype and noise for the big event - and when it comes - it's a huge let down. At least the Super Bowl has cool TV commercials and usually the half-time show gives us something to talk about, and is memorable in some way. But let's face it the final is never as good as the games or the hype leading up to it. The Indy 500 isn't what it used to be. No one is attending and no one's watching on TV. It only appeals to the 'traditionalist' race fans - the older generation. It's only really relevant to the people that promote it and the city of Indianapolis. Re-unification could have happened several years ago if Tony George was willing to relinquish a little control, but he insists on having ALL the control. That was never going to happen. Previous re-unification talks have ended at the starting line because of something silly or petty, and unless the insignificant problems are dealt with right away, there's no point in continuing negotiations. The same thing happens over and over. The IRL have gone to a weekly or bi-weekly race schedule to keep momentum going for 2006. Why? Well NASCAR does it, so it should work for the IRL - right? Why would that make the series successful? NASCAR fans are a breed unto themselves - they're unique individuals. Anyone that can stay interested in a bunch of pre-historic cars going around in a circle for 8 hours just doesn't have a lot of interesting things to do in their life. Only NASCAR people want it every week. They have a very short attention span, so one-week without a NASCAR race and they might discover midget tossing and then there goes the series right down the drain! Why do you think the cars are all so bright and colorful?
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