It goes without saying that a major factor that contributed to CART's downward slide after the split with the Indy Racing League in 1996 was its inability to prevent its engine manufacturers from gaining too much clout source: sports.espn.go.com by John Oreovicz, special to ESPN.com Toyota was often seen as the political instigator, notably by sparking the popoff valve fiasco at Detroit in 2001 and attempting to strong-arm CART into a 3.5-liter normally aspirated engine formula. Now Honda is shaping up as a serious power player in the war that continues to divide American open-wheel racing. Champ Car insiders believe Honda played a key role in persuading Adrian Fernandez to convert his split operation into one that exclusively races in the IRL with Honda power. And it appears highly likely that Team Rahal -- another organization that has split its effort between Champ Cars and IndyCars -- will succumb to Honda's persuasion and switch full time to the IRL. Aside from shoring up the IndyCar field, which boasted only 19 starters for the season opener two weeks ago at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the defection to the IRL of Fernandez and possibly Rahal casts even more serious doubts about Champ Car's ability to assemble an 18-car field for its season opener, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach scheduled for April 18. The complete article at espn.go.com
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