TMS could axe the IRL

The IRL has a conflict brewing that might be difficult to resolve. The president of Texas Motor Speedway, which has been the league's biggest track supporter outside Indiana, has said he wants to be the event immediately following the Indianapolis 500 by 2010 or he will stop staging Indy-car races. The problem is, Eddie Gossage, who signed a two-year contract with the IRL last week, doesn't want that race to be the weekend immediately after Indy because NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series can't move, too. But IRL officials don't want to be idle that weekend, which is why they went to Watkins Glen, N.Y., before Texas last year and to Milwaukee this year. Neither seems willing to budge. Terry Angstadt, the president of the IRL's commercial side, said there is no chance the league will forgo racing that week just to appease Texas. "It's not good for our business," he said. Indy Star