jonovision_man
11-21-05, 01:43 PM
Someone posted this elsewhere, figured a thread here might be ... entertaining. :)
http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=103601
“Car count is always important,” said IRL president Brian Barnhart, but he’s not worried about the possibility of running 18 or 19 cars. “That’s obviously not our desire or our goal, but it’s still more than [Champ Car] has had, and they showed you can still put on competent shows with that many [cars],” he said.
Barnhart is trying to help teams by encouraging Honda to reduce its engine lease program from the estimated $1.7 million for 17 races this season to $900,000 for 14 next season.
Honda might be more agreeable if it has all the IRL cars for 2006, which now looks like a distinct possibility. Team Penske has announced its decision to leave Toyota (the manufacturer is out of the IRL in ’07, following Chevy to the sidelines); Ganassi is believed to have made the same decision. If Cheever can’t field a team, that would leave Toyota with only a couple of the league’s smallest teams (Vision and Hemelgarn), not enough to make a go of it.
http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=103601
“Car count is always important,” said IRL president Brian Barnhart, but he’s not worried about the possibility of running 18 or 19 cars. “That’s obviously not our desire or our goal, but it’s still more than [Champ Car] has had, and they showed you can still put on competent shows with that many [cars],” he said.
Barnhart is trying to help teams by encouraging Honda to reduce its engine lease program from the estimated $1.7 million for 17 races this season to $900,000 for 14 next season.
Honda might be more agreeable if it has all the IRL cars for 2006, which now looks like a distinct possibility. Team Penske has announced its decision to leave Toyota (the manufacturer is out of the IRL in ’07, following Chevy to the sidelines); Ganassi is believed to have made the same decision. If Cheever can’t field a team, that would leave Toyota with only a couple of the league’s smallest teams (Vision and Hemelgarn), not enough to make a go of it.