It won't be long before the IRL does race on road courses. Their master plan to become CART is nearly complete. Once the "Champ Car" series takes the final plunge and stops coming up for air, the IRL will take over the handful of tracks that actually still hold Champ Car races, and that will be that.

10, 15, 20 years ago, I watched CART/Indycar racing as religiously as GP and Superbike. I wouldn't walk across the street to attend an IRL race. But Tony George - much to my disbelief - actually seems to know what he's doing. Granted, it's 180 degrees from what he said he wanted to do with the IRL, but nonetheless, it's working. Champ Car is a shell of its former self, and I can't even be bothered to watch it any more. There are only a very few teams/drivers left that I care about, and the only reason they haven't followed everyone else to the IRL is that they're the ones with the biggest grudges against George, and they're too stubborn to go after a good thing when they see it.

Face it, open-wheel racing in America will NEVER be what it should be as long as there are two series competing against each other. And clearly, Champ Car - or whatever they're calling it this week - can't find its ass with a searchlight. It's pretty obvious they are NOT the series that will prevail in the long run.

It's time to bite the bullet and get these two series together and get back to what was a pretty damn fine racing series years ago.

As for the Danica Patrick deal, well, fine... So she's good looking. So it helped her get her foot in the door. So what? Are you guys seriously trying to imply that it isn't completely normal in the world of racing for people to use their advantages to leapfrog the system in any way they can? Or did you actually think that everyone else that's risen to the top has gotten there on nothing more than sheer talent - until Patrick came along?