Unified IndyCar Series Is Right Thing At Right Time For Sport’s Rising Stars

The 2008 IndyCar Series season has been 30 years in the making.             
For the first time since 1978, the teams, the drivers and all the races — including the Indianapolis 500 — will be part of one series and that makes this season one of the most anticipated in recent memory.
It also makes the preparations for it the most hectic since the Indy Racing League went to new cars and normally aspirated engines to start the 1997 season.
With Champ Car closing its doors allowing its teams to join IndyCar, it has made the past month extremely busy, as cars are still being prepared and delivered to the new teams.
And with the IndyCar Series season starting Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, some of those new teams realistically know they won’t be a factor, at least not in the first race.

Graham Rahal (Champ Car Photo)

“I think it is not going to be the easiest of weekends for us, but I do feel very confident with the team I’m with,” said 19-year-old driver Graham Rahal of Newman/ Haas/Lanigan Racing. “I look at it and I think we can be competitive, but to be competitive right off the bat next weekend will be damned near impossible.
“It may not be the easiest, smoothest of weekends, but hopefully by the time the Indy 500 comes along, we can be up front. With a little more wind-tunnel testing, I certainly think it’s possible.”
That is the key date for many of the new teams that joined IndyCar from Champ Car, to be ready for the Indianapolis 500 on May 25.
It’s the races leading up to that event that are going to be a struggle for the new teams simply because not all the parts and pieces for the Dallara chassis or the extra number of Honda engines have been prepared and delivered.
And with some new drivers and teams still trying to put a deal together to run in IndyCar, they may not be ready to compete at Homestead.
It’s been quite a challenge for these teams as they hope to compete against such IndyCar championship contenders at Andretti Green Racing, Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing. But the end result is the most complete IndyCar Series in over a decade.
“It’s great that it’s all together now and we can all focus on the future as opposed to wondering what is going to happen next,” said Justin Wilson, another talented driver from Newman/Haas/Lanigan. “I’m very excited about the way things are going and the added profile this has given to everybody and the possible room for growth. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of new things.
“Obviously, the 500 is one of them and that is something I’ve wanted to  do for a while. Being in Champ Car, I didn’t always have the opportunity to do that because of schedule clashes.
“I think it is going to be an exciting year.”
And while it may be difficult for Rahal, Wilson or Will Power of KV Racing to contend for the championship this season, the future is much brighter for this form of racing.
“The 2009 and 2010 seasons are where we will start to have a benefit,” Wilson said. “This year, we’re going to be pushing to win a race like everybody else. There is also understanding of your position and what you are up against and not doing anything too stupid. You can’t force the issue, so we’ll try to learn as much as possible and not make mistakes this year and move on toward the future.”

NEW VIEW: Justin Wilson joined Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing prior to the open-wheel merger and will now race in the IRL IndyCar Series. (TNT Photo)

For many of these drivers, oval racing will be a new challenge. Champ Car’s last oval-track race was The Milwaukee Mile in 2006. After a season of street and road races in 2007, the newcomers have to adjust to the variety of ovals on the IndyCar schedule.
“It’s quite a lot to take in,” Wilson said. “I’ve done a few races on ovals. The last time was Milwaukee in 2006. I finished second in that. To only do one oval a year was difficult to get used to, learning how to set the car up with only one chance a year to do that. It’s going to be an eye-opener  this year. Obviously, the level will be greater than what we are used to because people didn’t put as much resources on the ovals as the 13 other races that were on street and road courses.
“Now the mix is close to 50-50 and people put a lot of resources into downforce, efficiency and the race craft. That’s what we’ve got to get used to, but I feel we’ll pick it up and work it out and get used to the different types of circuit.”
When young Rahal was a kid watching his father — team owner Bobby Rahal — race, he remembers how strong the sport was and how many fans followed the action.
He believes those times will be back and he’ll be the Rahal racing against an Andretti, only it will be Marco Andretti instead of Michael or Mario.
“As a kid growing up, you remembered it just being one series, so you always wanted it to be that way,” Rahal said. “That was the ideal way to do it. You could just see in most recent years everybody looked at Champ Car as struggling, but everybody was struggling the way it was. To bring it together was critical. I don’t even think it has hit a lot of other people actually believing this has happened until we are all out there on the track together. It is still tough to believe. When you look at it from my point of view, I didn’t think it would happen this quickly but obviously it’s a nice thing that it has.
“Now, I get to drive against drivers like Marco Andretti, and I think that is great for us. I just feel lucky this has all happened at a time where I’m starting my career rather than ending it. A guy like Helio (Castroneves) or Tony Kanaan who has been around a long time may have a few more years left in them, but this is really toward the end of their career. For me and Marco and these guys, we’re all just starting, so this all works in our hands.”
By adding more top-level talent to the series, the IndyCar Series may be on the rise in terms of popularity. It has already benefited from an off-season that saw two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves win ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
However, the series also lost three-time IndyCar champion and 2006 Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish, Jr. and last year’s series champ and Indy winner Dario Franchitti to NASCAR racing.
But the tremendous positive energy created by adding Champ Car’s teams to its lineup may help make IndyCar a destination series for top race drivers throughout the world by proving there can be a career without fenders.

Team	Driver(s)
Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dan Wheldon Scott Dixon
Vision Racing	A.J. Foyt IV Ed Carpenter
Team Penske	Helio Castroneves Ryan Briscoe
Panther Racing	Vitor Meira
Andretti Green Racing	Tony Kanaan Danica Patrick Hideki Mutoh Marco Andretti
Rahal Letterman Racing	Ryan Hunter-Reay
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Buddy Rice Milka Duno Townsend Bell
A.J. Foyt Racing	Darren Manning
Roth Racing	Jay Howard Marty Roth
Dale Coyne Racing	Bruno Junqueira Mario Moraes
Luczo Dragon Racing	Tomas Scheckter
KV Racing Technology	Oriol Servia Will Power
Conquest Racing	Franck Perera Enrique Bernoldi
Rubicon Racing	Max Papis
Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Justin Wilson Graham Rahal
Beck Motorsports	Roger Yasukawa