Way back in 1995, when the “IndyCar War” was beginning to bubble up, NASCAR and IndyCar were more or less head-to-head, in terms of audience share and commercial revenue production. Unfortunately, two seminal events blew down the previous house of cards.
The first was Tony George’s decision to split with CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) followed by his creation of the IRL (Indy Racing League), and NASCAR’s conclusion of its first 7-year deal with multiple broadcast networks. Where both series used to have to pay networks to telecast their events, NASCAR was about to get paid; and the enormous infusion of TV money literally obliterated any business parity between the sanctioning bodies.
(Above: Buzz Caulkins won the inaugural 1996 IRL event at Disney World - in 1995 equipment)
As a result, the last 12 years have been an embarrassing experience to say the least. And although Tony George’s decision might have been “right” for his business (comfortable knowing that his family’s Clabber Girl fortune would tide him over, regardless of any business outcome), the rest of us were positioned to be the pooches that had our butts up in the air, and about to get repeatedly screwed. Unfortunately, CART’s “managers” were unable to get out of their own way, (exemplified by trying to go head-to-head against Indy on Memorial Day 1996. After being touted as the “best in the world”, it turned out that neither CART’s drivers, nor the sanctioning body were.)
(Above: The “best in the world” and the aftermath - and this was on the pace lap.)
After trying to hold his finger in the dike from 1996 until 2000, CART CEO Andrew Craig was finally shown the door, only to be ultimately replaced by Joe Heitzler (the guy that brought us Silvester Stallone’s “Driven” - perhaps the worst racing movie in recorded history), who ultimately mis-managed the company into bankruptcy. The business failure lead us to “Champcar” (wasn’t that originally the name for a former USAC Sprint Car series?) In the interim, IRL went into commercial hibernation preferring business attrition, rather than an outright fight, while NASCAR took full advantage of the now clear field to consolidate its largess.
(Above: even losing its long-term title sponsor Winston, didn’t keep NASCAR’s money train from chugging along
Subsequently, to apply an axiom from Sun Tzu, “In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact…” and if there is a better way to describe what the France family did to the motorsports market between ‘96 and today, I don’t know what that might be. Where, NASCAR brought in an average of $781 million dollars a year between then and now, neither the IRL or Champcar ever came close to that annual revenue stream. And today, if an average person wants to talk “racing”, they’re talking about a NASCAR event not an open-wheel show - including the Indy 500.
(Above: 2007 IRL field - it ain’t like the old days)
On the basis of the recent open-wheel “unification”, however, perhaps there is some hope on the horizon. Nonetheless, the long commercial road back is going to be strewn with potholes. But over the last three years in particular, NASCAR’s fortunes have begun to experience cracks around its revenue base; so with a fully-energized open-wheel series in play, perhaps we could see the beginnings of new competition (business and racing) similar to what we now refer to as the “golden age.” Certainly that would be nice, but this is after all business; so I ain’t going to hold my breath - yet anyway.
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