Unser blames NASCAR
He doesn't think it's a coincidence that Indy cars no longer race at Phoenix International Raceway, California Speedway and, after today's race, Michigan.
He blames International Speedway Corp., the parent company of all three tracks — plus nine others, along with NASCAR.
"I knew this was going to happen," Unser said of the final Michigan race. "NASCAR owns the track, and they don't spend any money promoting Indy cars.
"Look at what they did with Phoenix, which used to be a big deal for (Indy cars). NASCAR got it and that was the end of us. Look at California. As soon as NASCAR bought it, that was the end of us. Now, it's Michigan."
Track officials at Michigan wanted a date that wasn't two weeks before its second Nextel Cup race, set for Aug. 19. The IRL couldn't deliver one.
In fairness, ISC has shown no signs of abandoning IRL races in Homestead, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; Watkins Glen, N.Y.; Kansas City, Kan.; and Joliet, Ill. Indy Star
[Editor's Note: Bobby Unser is 100% correct. They did the same to CART and Champ Car. Nazareth was another ISC track that killed off open wheel racing due to lack of promotion. It's a very underhanded way of killing off the competition to their 'stock car' racing by making them look like failures. Of course they will deny it but history shows otherwise. The conspiracy theorists say that the France family wants to monopolize racing and get rid of the many forms (they deem it too confusing to the fans) of racing so that Americans think of racing as only stadium style oval stock car racing called NASCAR.]