In an excellent article, autosports writer Robin Miller says Tony
George didn’t act alone to cripple, or perhaps kill, CART. He says F1′s
Bernie Eccelstone and NASCAR’s Bill France Jr. may have helped. Miller
points out the growing TV audience for CART in 1995 and how France
might have been a bit threatened by that. He says Eccelstone was
furious that F1 champion Nigel Mansel went to CART in 1993.
Now,
there’s no way to prove that France and Ecclestone encouraged George to
start the IRL, but it sure is easy to see how they’ve both benefited
from this country’s open wheel civil war the past seven years.While
IRL and CART divided their fans, sponsors and teams, NASCAR circled
like a vulture and steadily feasted on their carcass. Phoenix,
Milwaukee and Michigan became Cup crowds while IRL and CART began
playing to more and more empty seats on ovals.Ecclestone
extracted some revenge (not to mention a sweetheart financial deal with
George) when he resurrected the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis in
2000. Its attendance goes down every year but Ecclestone couldn’t care
if there were 25,000 people in the grandstands — that’s about the only
revenue he doesn’t get.
I think Miller
overestimates CART’s appeal in 1995 and underestimates NASCAR’s lack of
appeal, but for the most part he seems to be on target. Go read the whole article.
