More open wheelers headed to NASCAR

With open wheel racing in America all but destroyed since Tony George created the IRL, increasingly open wheel race car drivers, teams and sponsors are eyeing a move to NASCAR as open wheel racing dies a slow death. There will be more Indianapolis 500 winners in next February's Daytona 500 than in May's Indy 500, and even more are eying the move as NASCAR sucks open wheel racing dry of all its best assets.

NASCAR's big money and popularity has lured Indy champions Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. to the Nextel Cup series. Dan Wheldon and Buddy Lazier have expressed interest. A.J. Allmendinger won five Champ Car races in 2006 but was offered a fraction of the money compared with what the startup Red Bull Toyota Cup team dangled to make him a Cup rookie.

"It's the second-biggest sport in America," Montoya said. "Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?"

NASCAR Chairman Brian France said Friday that he thinks the trend is a positive – within reason.

"Some of them, I think, will bring audience," France said. "Hornish in the Midwest, for example. Juan Pablo has brought us some fans. But we're not looking for them to bring us an audience, per se; we're looking for them to validate the level of competition.

"All the guys who are joining us either are champions, or have been champions, in wherever they've raced. They're some of the best in the world.

"I suppose there would be a point where it works against the grain for us. We're not even close to that. We are an American sport, but we'd also like to be a more diverse sport, too."