IndyCar back to Chicagoland so it can be embarrassed?
Chicagoland president Scott Paddock said he's looking for a multi-year arrangement and raised the possibility of IndyCar being paired with NASCAR Nationwide during the Nationwide's annual stand-alone race at Chicagoland in July [Editor's Note: NASCAR will NEVER allow this. NEVER].
IndyCar raced at Chicagoland from 2001 through 2010. The race was dropped from IndyCar schedule in 2011. Some blamed a scheduling conflict caused in part moving Chicagoland's NASCAR Sprint Cup race to early September, the traditional time for IndyCar's race there. Others pointed to a cooling relationship between IndyCar and International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which owns Chicagoland Speedway and is itself owned by NASCAR. [Editor's Note: They left because the vast number of empty seats made IndyCar look like a complete and utter loser.]
Paddock said Saturday he remains willing to work something out with IndyCar.
"We've had a lot of dialog (with IndyCar)," said Paddock, who became Chicagoland track president in January 2011. "But I don’t want to bring IndyCar back here for one year. I want to bring it back in a business model that is sustainable long term because I don’t want to be disingenuous to the fans and bring them back if it’s not for the long term. Some of IndyCar's best racing, some of its closest finishes, have been at Chicagoland Speedway. This is a good open wheel market. I think we just need to mutually align on a business and financial model that allows us to offer IndyCar product on a very affordable basis."
The two closest finishes in IndyCar history were at Chicagoland Speedway. Sam Hornish Jr. edged Al Unser Jr. by 0.0024 seconds in 2002, and Helio Castroneves best Scott Dixon by 0.0033 seconds in 2008. pressdog.com [Editor's Note: And then the fans never came back and the race went away. And so IndyCar wants to get back in bed with its mortal enemy? Order the flowers and plan the funeral.]