IRL could return to MIS
"There's going to have to be a lot of dominoes on their end that fall into place on the schedule side," Curtis said. "Now that we've had the conversation, I've asked them to look into some things that maybe they haven't thought of. It's all going to come down to finding other willing participants who would help open up the date."
Those willing participants would have to come from other tracks willing to juggle their schedules to allow MIS to return to open-wheel racing on a date in July. Curtis said that MIS will not run another open-wheel race two weeks out from its NASCAR Nextel Cup Series date, which this year is set for Aug. 19.
MIS was offered the same first weekend in August race date for 2008, but the speedway turned down the offer, saying its IndyCar Series date in 2007 was supposed to be a one-year deal.
"(Indy Racing League officials) made it very clear to me that they want to be back here," Curtis said. "There's a lot of nice things said on the race weekend, and there's a lot of good feelings that come off of a race that was as the one we had.
"But let's face it. This is not a slam dunk. There's still going to have to be a lot of work done, and a lot things have to fall into place. But at the end of the day, we have not burnt bridges. We are both willing participants in this."
Curtis addressed the drivers at the drivers' meeting on Sunday morning before the race.
"I told them, 'Hey, guys, there's no hard feelings. You guys are the best drivers in the world, and if we can work out a date, and you guys come back, we'll promote the hell out of it,' " Curtis said. MLive.com