Tony George noncommittal on Paul Tracy
Q: Tony, Paul Tracy has been the most successful and the most recognizable driver in recent years in the Champ Car series. How important is it to get him involved in the IndyCar Series, and could that opportunity come with your Vision Racing team?
GEORGE: You know, I don't know. I intend to call; I got a message yesterday from his business manager. I didn't have a chance to call him back. The message was is that he's free to talk about a ride beginning as early as Motegi. He said he would not be running Long Beach, much to my surprise.
You know, all of that's kind of unfortunate in all of this. I'm not sure what his prospects are, and I'm not sure what teams, you know, have available seats that would meet his expectations. We're currently planning to be a two-car team. On the outside chance we would need to add a third or on the outside chance the right business opportunity comes along for us to run a third, we would consider that. But, you know, at this point I'm not inclined to go spend a lot more money to do that. I don't think we'll need to. On the other hand, I'd like to see Paul in, and if it could be with Vision, that would be great. If it could be with another team, that would be great. I just want him to have the chance to come over now and, you know, I don't know how long he wants to do it, probably a year or two, couple of years and transition into the next phase of his professional career. But it is kind of unfortunate, some would say a travesty, that he's been sort of left on the sidelines here.
I'll have plenty of time to call back and find out what's going on today.