Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 4:27 a.m.
The decision by CART team owner Barry Green to field a car for Michael Andretti in the Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500 has made many wonder if the rift in American open-wheel racing is finally closing.
The answer appears to be a resounding no.
The two series continue to have basic organizational and philosophical differences: CART is a public company racing on ovals and road and street courses in seven countries on four continents, while the IRL is privately owned and races only on U.S. ovals.
CART is high tech and dominated by foreign drivers. The IRL, formed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George in 1996 with the intention of giving American drivers an easier, less costly path to a top professional series - is less technical and dominated by locally grown talent.
Since the IRL began competition, CART teams have, for the most part, boycotted its events. The exception has been the IRL showcase, the Indy 500, where Chip Ganassi took his CART team in 2000 and won with Juan Montoya.
On May 27, 10-time Indy winner Roger Penske will join Ganassi in returning his team to Indy, along with the new team formed by Green to return Andretti to the event won by his father, Mario, in 1969.
But that doesn't mean the doors to the two series have been thrown open.
Two of the top CART team owners, Carl Haas and Bobby Rahal - himself the 1986 Indy winner - remain adamant that they are not ready to go back to what is arguably still the biggest racing event in the world.
"It's always possible that we'll go back somewhere down the road, but I haven't had a lot of inclination to do it," said Haas, co-owner with actor Paul Newman of Newman-Haas Racing. "It's just too expensive and my sponsors haven't told me they want to go to Indy."
Rahal agreed, saying he is daunted purely by the bottom line.
"The cost involved to do one race is probably prohibitive to do it right," said Rahal, who co-owns his team with TV personality David Letterman.
In fact, Rahal says the return of the elite - and monied - Ganassi and Penske teams has raised the bar even higher financially.
"With guys like Roger and Chip there, it's a real tough deal," Rahal said. "If they're not there, it's a no-brainer. You go with one car for each driver and a skeleton crew.
"Now, with Chip and Roger there, you've got to go with two cars per driver and enough engines and people to do the job right. I figure it would take about $3.5 million to go.
Haas agreed, noting that it was said for years before the IRL arrived that the winning team at Indy made money, the second-place team broke even and everyone else was in red ink.
"At this point, it really doesn't make much sense financially," Haas said.
Penske, of course, disagreed with his two rival owners.
"We wouldn't be going if it didn't make sense for us," he said. "As much as I want to be at Indianapolis for the 500, it's a business decision. You don't go there just to show up. It has to have value for your sponsors and your team. We believe it does."
Green, who won Indy with Jacques Villeneuve in 1995, CART's last race there, was hesitant to return until he signed Andretti to drive for a new team in CART. The new Motorola Racing team is a separate entity from Team Kool Green, which fields cars for Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti, who will not compete at Indy.
"Michael was the catalyst for us going back," Green said. "He wants very badly to win that race before his career is over, and we want to give him that opportunity. I agreed to that when we made our (CART) deal."
Asked if it made financial sense to go to Indy, Green said, "We have a good sponsor deal and we'll have great equipment so, yes, it makes sense."
It has become very apparent that the anger and resentment of the split between CART and the IRL is mostly gone. The chances of a merger, though, appear nonexistent for the foreseeable future.
Haas, who took teams to Indy for more than a decade before the boycott began, said, "They're hurting without us being there and we're losing without being there. But there still isn't any easy solution."
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