IRL to be no more

The Indy Racing League name is synonymous with the near-destruction of the very successful CART series that built IndyCar Racing into something bigger than NASCAR.

"On Jan. 1, IRL will be banned from being used in our offices," series chief executive Randy Bernard said. "It's going to be known as IndyCar.

"With the divorce in the mid-1990s (from Champ Car), there's no secret we lost 15 to 20 million fans and IRL gives people heartburn.

"When you go and use IRL in Europe or Brazil, they don't know what that is, but you use the word IndyCar and everyone knows what that is. Those 15 to 20 million fans, they didn't just disappear or die, they're out there … and they're low-lying fruit."