Indy split sent best open wheel talent to NASCAR

If IndyCar racing hadn't shot itself in the foot 12 years ago by splitting into two circuits, the driver currently on top of the Nextel Cup Series standings might be getting ready for Sunday's 91st running of the Indianapolis 500.

Jeff Gordon cut his teeth in the open wheel racing world of midgets and sprints. He pretty much won everything mostly everywhere he competed in those days as he made a name for himself on short tracks around the country. But rather than climbing the ladder to open wheel's top tier, IndyCars, Gordon opted for a career in NASCAR.

And with the way the motorsports landscape has evolved since the early 1990s, Gordon has ridden the NASCAR elevator to the top, while the IndyCar world continues to spiral downward.

Gordon made his NASCAR debut in 1993, two years before Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George created the Indy Racing League, a splintered series from the incumbent CART sanctioning body.

Twelve years later, the popularity of American open wheel racing has plummeted, and the 500, which once lived up to its billing as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," is anything but these days.

NASCAR has dwarfed the Indianapolis 500, and not just on Memorial Day weekend when the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte on Sunday night will command nearly as much attention as the afternoon's action at The Brickyard. More at CBS Sportsline