Champ Car/IRL merger – there’ll be none

More reunification talk from the IRL camp in this The Gazette article published in the San Jose Mercury News. All the talk is coming from the IRL side in this article and Rick Mears blames Champ Car for the talks breaking down. Mears, an adviser for Marlboro Team Penske, blames Champ Car officials for causing settlement talks to stall over the summer. "The IRL has given and given and given," he said. "There are some things that are being wanted (by Champ Car) that absolutely will not and cannot happen."

We can tell you that what Mears means is that Champ Car won't settle for anything less than 50% ownership and Tony George does not want to give them 50%. He wants to be King and Emperor. We hear Tony continues to make offers to buy Champ Car but OWRS is not interested.

We hear zero merger talk in the Champ Car paddock these days, absolutely zero. No one is even interested in such a scenario anymore, indicating they are quite bullish on the future. All the talk is coming from the IRL side, we assume because now all their engine money is going away. Toyota gone. GM gone. Honda will stay to sell the teams engines to keep their HPD staff employed and their doors open. If they get the exclusive contract to supply engines for the entire IRL grid, we don't see them subsidizing teams. Why should they? And if they did, the factory teams would get all the best stuff. If there are no factory teams then there are no subsidies and some teams will fold.