Tony George’s legacy

In 2000, NASCAR raised $558 million in sponsorship revenue and CART $492 million, compared with Indy Racing League’s $143 million, according to Chicago-based IEG Inc., a leading sports marketing analyst. It’s difficult to believe, 10 short years ago, there was $635 million in sponsorship cash coming into open-wheel racing in the USA, almost $60 million more annually than was coming into NASCAR. Be fore the IRL was created CART's annual sponsorship revenue was nearly double that of NASCAR (1995 and prior).

However, the open wheel split, caused by the creation of the IRL, has resulted in open wheel racing today generating under $100 million per year, much of it brought by ride-buying drivers.

This will be, folks, Tony George's legacy. The almost complete destruction of open wheel racing in the USA. And for what?