No more free chassis for new IndyCar teams

The surviving owners from Champ Car who joined the Indy Racing League got free cars and engines in 2008 as part of the unification agreement. They all had to pay Honda for leases this season but there was still no bill for their Dallara chassis.

Until now.

Ex-ChampCar teams expected to pay for their Dallara chassis at some point, but demanding payment at the end of the season when budgets are depleted seems odd. For a small team like Eric Bachelart, Dale Coyne, Carl Haas, Kevin Kalkhoven, Mike Lanigan and Keith Wiggins received an email from IRL president of competition Brian Barnhart on Tuesday requesting a payment of $100,000 per car.

The teams were given the option of having that money taken out of their next TEAM check (all teams who run the full schedule are given $1.2 million per car by the league) or possibly working out a payment plan.

If IndyCar doesn't have its money by Jan. 14, the cars could be repossessed. More at SPEEDTV.com