Defection-free offseason likely could boost IndyCar

ASSOCIATED PRESS

After Dario Franchitti picked up about $1.2 million in bonus cash and other prizes to commemorate his IndyCar Series championship, three of his pursuers finally caught him.

Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan grabbed Franchitti at the season-ending awards night and tossed him into the hotel pool. That’s one way for IRL to make a splash.

Depending on one’s perspective, cases could be made that the 2009 IndyCar season was a thriving success — three title contenders not settling the year’s championship until the final minutes of the season — or an absolute dud, in which the Target Chip Ganassi and Penske teams were light years ahead almost every week, and the series’ best-known drivers made more news off the track than on it.

Numbers suggest the fan base grew, but even the most optimistic observer would say that IndyCar still has its challenges.

“The opportunities for the league to get better really rests in how we attract more sponsors to raise the overall value of our business,” said Terry Angstadt, the president of IRL’s commercial division. If there are no major defections this year, it would be a welcome change for the IndyCar world.

Danica Patrick has all but said she’ll be back in her IndyCar for the 2010 season.

Former CART and Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya, who made the jump to NASCAR in 2006 and is finally contending for the Sprint Cup title, said he’d tell Patrick that a switch won’t be easy. Franchitti, who left for NASCAR after winning his first IRL title in 2007, is back and says he doesn’t want to go anywhere else.