Could Penske signal CART influx at Indy?

Hot on the heals of Chip Ganassi's overwhelming success on his first trip to Indy since 1995, Roger Penske has announced his legendary team will contest the 2001 running of the Indy 500 with drivers Gil De Ferran and Helio Castroneves. With Roger Penske making his decision a full eleven months before the event it leaves the door wide open for many other CART team owners to look at their options for next year.

A ray of light was thrown into the bitter struggle between CART and the IRL last winter when it was announced that CART teams would be allowed to compete in America's greatest race for the first time since the two rival series were formed at the end of 1995. However only Ganassi and Derrick Walker, who runs a separate IRL team for Sarah Fisher, took up the offer. Penske made a toe-in-the-water effort as a sponsor for Treadway's Jason Leffler who finished 17th in the 500.

Penske plans to use his connection with Treadway to get his drivers some added experience. He is hoping to have use of the team's G Force-Aurora chassis for a private test session, possibly at Indianapolis this summer, to acclimatise De Ferran and Castroneves to the IRL machines which neither have ever driven before.

"We chose to do it a bit differently than Chip [Ganassi] this year. We did some research and we'll be talking to Fred [Treadway] about testing," said the veteran team-owner adding, "We want to go back and run for a couple of days later this year rather then next spring. Helio is a rookie, and I think a full day of testing will be a big plus for him. Gil hasn't been to Indianapolis since 1995 and, of course, he hasn't driven these particular cars before."

Penske also implored CART to leave both the Indy race weekend and the qualifying weekend open once more on the schedule. This year no events were scheduled but the postponed Nazareth race was eventually held on the Saturday before the 500 itself. This only gave Chip Ganassi and his team a single day to finalise their preparations for the big race. Not that it showed as Juan Montoya went on to dominate the race in what was his rookie appearance at the track. The exposure that Montoya and Ganassi gave their sponsors may have opened the floodgates for many more CART teams.

"Would I go?" asked CART team owner Pat Patrick. "Sure, under the right circumstances. We'll make our decision based on the wishes of our sponsors. If they want us to go and [Indianapolis Motor Speedway president] Tony George wants us to be there, we'll go."

Ganassi, Walker and Penske will all be present at Indy next year and already there has been interest from CART owners Gerald Forsythe, [Alex Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier] Carl Haas, [Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi] Barry Green, [Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy] Bobby Rahal [Max Papis and Kenny Brack] and Bruce McCaw [Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell.]

However, many CART team's participation will come down to their sponsors and engine suppliers. Whether Ford, Toyota, Honda and Mercedes will be happy letting their team's run with the IRL engines, built by Oldsmobile and Nissan, remains to be seen. For the sponsors, Indy is a major expense, at least three brand new chassis and engines have to be purchased for just the one race while the amount of spares and equipment required by the team during the month of May can be phenomenal. On the flip side Target, Ganassi's main sponsors, raised their profile tremendously with their 2000 Indy exposure and the rival CART sponsors will no want to have them steal the limelight at Motorsport's biggest spectacle for a second year running.

If plans come to fruition then the 2001 running of the Indy 500 could turn out to be a classic battle between CART and IRL. It may even be the start of a unification process for the American single seater scene.