Honda took care of their IRL teams

UPDATE AutoRacing1.com sources now tell us that Honda owned the cars for every IRL team that ran with them the past few years, which underscores their level of financial commitment to the series. Now we are beginning to understand how the teams were able to afford all that crash damage yet keep on functioning.

The key was because they owned the cars, they could keep all the aero advances they made in-house. If you left Honda, you couldn't take the car. Guesstimates say Chevy and Toyota spent a total of $70 million per year combined, but Honda spent a whopping $100 million per year alone.

02/04/06 Word on the street is that Honda invested around $20 million the last two years to help their IRL teams develop their chassis which enabled them to dominate. Of course the Honda HP did not hurt either. And although Honda will no longer be favoring any teams going forward, the teams that gained an advantage will maintain it….i.e. they are not going to just throw away the bits and pieces and knowledge that made the cars go faster.

If this is true – $20 million just for chassis development – it stands in stark contrast to the rumored $500K Ford is giving Champ Car to badge all their engines, and the rumored $1 or $2 million per year to support the program.