After 15 long and painful years, the US open-wheel racing scene was finally reunited after IRL and CART (later Champ Car) joined forces once more to become the IndyCar series on this day in 2008. Inspired by team owner Dan Gurney, CART rose to become a powerful series that even Bernie Ecclestone feared. Sadly, its downfall was equally as spectacular, as Robin Miller explains in today's Great Read
In 1978, Indycar racing was underpaid, undervalued and under the blundering leadership of the United States Auto Club. Purses were paltry, television money was a joke, sanction fees were laughable and car owners had little if any input into the governing process.
Dan Gurney didn't like what he saw and worried about the future. "I knew about leadership and what the real potential of the Indy 500 was because I grew up with it," says Gurney, who drove in nine May classics before his Eagle chassis dominated Gasoline Alley in the 1970s. "I also knew we were only scratching the surface of our potential and nobody seemed interested in doing anything about it..."
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