IRL Tony George's open mind helps series reach milestone

The fight goes on find the right markets, but the IRL -- with 100 races under its belt -- is solid.
NAZARETH, Pa. (AP) -- Tony George heard all the jokes that his fledgling Indy Racing League would start out as a Mickey Mouse operation, and there are pictures to prove it did.
The buildup to the inaugural race in 1996 was filled with uncertainty in an almost-surreal setting -- a Fantasyland in more ways than one.
Now, 100 races later, George remembers it well, and fondly.
"It seems so long ago," he said. "At the first race, at Walt Disney World, we had the opportunity to be photographed with Mickey Mouse, in front of Cinderella's Castle."
On Jan. 27, 1996, the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw his dream of a new open-wheel racing circuit come to fruition -- with a flair. He had the renowned Florida A & amp;M marching band and boxing announcer Michael Buffer for the prerace hoopla.
Close finish
Then, on a newly constructed speedway with the Magic Kingdom as a backdrop, the green flag waved for the first time. Buzz Calkins beat Tony Stewart to the finish line before a sellout crowd.
"While we struggled to field a starting grid, we could not have asked for a better storybook ending," George said of the inaugural.
How long that would continue was a large question in the circuit's early years. The established and rival CART series, which last year wound up in bankruptcy and re-emerged as the Champ Car World Series, had more lucrative sponsorship, better equipment and famous drivers.
All the IRL could brag about in those days was the Indianapolis 500, and that was perceived to be less than the glorious event won by names such as Foyt, Unser, Mears and Andretti.
In the beginning of the IRL, the world's most prestigious race ended with the ceremonial bottle of milk in the hands of little-known drivers such as Buddy Lazier, Eddie Cheever and Kenny Brack.
Eventually, the level of competition exceeded what George anticipated at the start. He hoped for success on the track and got plenty of it.
Good stat
There have been 44 finishes in which the margin of victory was less than a second. That's almost unfathomable in racing, particularly the open-wheel variety.
"I knew that oval racing had the potential to showcase the most exciting racing, from the spectator standpoint, and I knew that NASCAR had a reputation for close racing," George said. "But in our young history we may be redeveloping the standard by which close motorsports competition is measured."
He's right. In five of nine seasons, no fewer than eight different drivers have won in a schedule that never exceeded 16 races.
But there certainly have been a few bumps in the road. Nearly empty grandstands were the order of business at many venues.
A.J. Foyt, one of the original IRL team owners, once questioned the sanity of fans sitting in the seats during a heat wave in Dover, Del. But the Dover experiment failed for more reasons than the weather -- somewhat typical of the IRL's early incursion into stock car country.
Shifting success
Now, the IndyCar series is drawing respectable crowds in NASCAR hotbeds such as Richmond, Va., and Texas, and it has been enthusiastically received in Watkins Glen, N.Y., one of two venues where it will stage its first road-course races next year.
But they weren't putting their hands together in Atlanta, Charlotte, New Hampshire or in this Lehigh Valley village where the track closed for good after the race Sunday.
The fight goes on find the right markets, but the IRL is solid on the racing side with outstanding competition, full fields and reliable equipment. In the first few years the dependability of the cars was questionable.
One of the most anxious moments came at Dover in 1999, when only 13 of 23 cars were running at end. Equipment was at a premium and many wondered if there would be enough cars to race six days later at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
But technical director Phil Casey had the field ready for the trip to Charlotte, and the IRL raced for the first time on consecutive weekends.
Shows growth, etc.
"Now we'll do three in a row, six in seven weeks," Barnhart said. "That shows the growth, the resiliency of our teams and the reliability equipment."
In the boardroom, George faced other issues in the early years of the IRL.
He remembers what might have been the biggest threat -- a winning invasion in the first few years by the best CART teams at the Indianapolis 500 and the races that preceded it on the schedule. Before the IRL, the world's most famous race was sanctioned by the U.S. Auto Club, but recognized by CART with points awarded toward its series championship.
The Indy 500 was an open race, even though George guaranteed 25 of 33 spots to IRL teams.
"In reality they could have if they chose to maybe make it impossible for us to continue by showing up at Orlando, Phoenix and then at Indianapolis," George conceded. "That might have changed the dynamic of it a great deal.
"But that's not the way it turned out."
Instead, CART staged a race of its own, the U.S. 500, but it was no Indy 500. By 2000, CART teams, prompted by the interest of their sponsors, began coming to Indy, and won the big race three years in a row.
By that time, however, the CART circuit was beginning to falter without its centerpiece event. Now, the Champ Car circuit races mostly on road and temporary city street courses where there is virtually no passing.