Team owners in the Indy Pro Series(tm) have a passion for racing, a passion for winning and a passion for molding young drivers into future stars. source: paddocktalk.com But the fuel that takes passion to the racetrack is cold, hard cash. It was no surprise that team owners reacted enthusiastically last winter when the series announced it would triple its prize purse to a total of $3 million. "I think it's meant more to the series as a whole than it's meant just to our team," said Sam Schmidt, whose team fielded cars for Indy Pro Series champions Jay Howard in 2006 and Thiago Medeiros in 2004. "You see more cars competing out here week in and week out because the prize money is a lot better. It affords everyone the opportunity. It's not rocket science that sponsorship money in open-wheel racing is tough to get, and the prize money helps fill the gap." While many teams ask drivers to provide a portion of the budget, the increased purse eased that burden. "The increase is prize money has helped us run the cars," said Brian Stewart, whose team has won the past two entrant championships with driver Wade Cunningham. "The budget that Wade has is not enough to run the car, and the prize money helps to run the car. It's fabulous. "When we started the season, (team manager) Doug (Hoy) and I said, 'If we go to Florida for the first three races and really do crummy, we'll be hard-pressed to leave without about $80,000.' We were factoring all that into the budget when we were doing it."
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