ISC was losing money on IndyCar races

Homestead-Miami Speedway gave the IndyCar Series a South Florida-style sendoff on Saturday with fireworks and flyovers, but the crowd was so sparse, it wasn't difficult to see why the track is not on the series 2011 schedule.

Speedway President Matthew Becherer said he wanted to keep IndyCar, but hosting the series — as the track has for the past decade — costs the speedway. He said when IndyCar chose to raise the sanctioning fee to host the series by 30 percent, the track couldn't justify the expense.

"Financially, it's an event that doesn't really make a lot of sense for us anyway and when they asked for an increased fee, it made even less sense," Becherer said. "From a business perspective, it's really not any sort of a hit we're going to have to worry about."

He added: "The impact of losing the IndyCar race is we'll be more profitable." South Florida Sun Sentinel

[Editor's Note: But who is to blame for the lack of attendance? Take your pick – 1) Poor track race promotion 2) The Economy 3) Only a handful of diehards are in love with IndyCars on oval tracks, but IndyCar can't accept that. 4) NASCAR is oval track racing and the American fans think IndyCar is one oval track series too many, 5) The split in open wheel racing caused when Tony George created the IRL to destroy CART was indeed a pyrrhic victory.]