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There's no question the product is good, the racing is good. What seems to be lacking from where I sit is, the marketing, and as I've said a lot of times, the big stars. From my perspective, Montoya, Villeneuve, Scott Speed, Tony Stewart, Sam Hornish, should not be in NASCAR. All those big names need to be in open-wheel racing, in my opinion.
"I don't think you can stop the train called NASCAR," said Gentilozzi. "You have to define who you are, what your product is. But the idea of trying to out-star them in the U.S. isn't going to happen."
I pointed out that the drivers I named above have an international following. NASCAR is more of a domestic product. If Champ Car wants to be an international product or global product, then it needs drivers who have a global name. Montoya has a global name, Scott Speed does, so on and so forth. A.J. Allmendinger was actually beating Bourdais. There's a guy, American, beating Bourdais on a regular basis, and he got away from Champ Car. As owners of the series, at what point do you step up and say, We're going to commit to these certain athletes to be our stars of the future and whatever it takes we're going to get 'em?
"You can't have whatever it takes," said Kalkhoven. That's not going to work. I mean, there is no way that -- if somebody wants to buy somebody, has resources to be able to do it, they will. It's as simple as that.
"However, I think what you're going to find, and time will tell, is that lack of success that these people will have.
"Not to pick on A.J., because I like A.J., said Gentilozzi, "but that was a tactically terrible mistake. His teammate is qualifying in the top half of the field and he's doing bench presses on Sunday.
But the flipside is, how did that work out for Champ Car that a potential star was lost to the series?.
"If any of us think that Toyota has any conscience or limit on their checkbook are kidding themselves. The damage they're going to do long-term to NASCAR is going to be significant. But somewhere in a go-kart race in Phoenix there's another A.J. Allmendinger," said Gentilozzi
Certain key drivers you want to base -- every sport has their stars, I pointed out Who are going to be the stars of Champ Car?
"Well, Champ Car's invested big in Graham Rahal. I mean, we've really gone out on a limb to make Graham a name everywhere we can."
He's talking about Formula One, though.
"I talk about Formula One. Doesn't mean anything," said Gentilozzi.
"Look at Rubens Barrichello. I know Rubens well. He went from being a Ferrari driver to a driver you don't hear of. Rubens is a guy, okay, pretty big name around the world, been a Ferrari driver. He'd come for $5 million because that's what he's getting paid to drive that **** box.
"The point, guys, you've raised a good point," said Kalkhoven. "Who are we going to build on? We have to rebuild. I don't know that we can get out and hire a big name. I just don't. 'Cause we've looked at it."
"Between today and tomorrow, there will be five or six Formula One guys, test drivers in Formula One here, looking for a ride in Champ Car. None of the ones you talk to are shy at all about saying, We'd much rather come race here than wait for the day that won't come over there," Gentilozzi pointed out.
"We need to be looking at the best drivers in the world that we can get. That means -- I mean, in this case, he talked to Timo the other night. Timo is now in the lead of the GP2 championship. He thinks he's going to get a ride. If he doesn't, he says, I want to come back where I can race, because he loves racing in GP2.
"Those kinds of drivers are the drivers -- it doesn't matter where they're from, we just need the best drivers. And I think we've got a great field. I mean, look at all the young talent this year.
"Gommendy, all these young guys. We've got a great mix. I think that we're gonna be prepared next year probably to lose a couple of our senior drivers because they can't get it done."
"But also look at the great field of Atlantic drivers that we have. Are we cultivating? Yes, we're cultivating the drivers. We're cultivating the team owners, the crew members. That is the development series to step up for everybody into Champ Car," said Johnson.
"Are we in discussions? Yes, we're in discussions with potential new teams on a daily basis. Am I going to sit here and tell you how many cars? No, I can't. Unfortunately, I made that mistake last year so I'm not going to do that again."
"Would we love more American drivers? Yes. We can't guarantee we're going to get them. We're going to get the cream of the crop. Look at the Atlantics. There are some kids that could step up."
"One of the criticisms leveled against Champ Car a few years ago, two or three years ago, was the drivers weren't good enough to go to Formula One," said Kalkhoven. I remember reading certain journalists saying, Champ Car drivers aren't good enough to go to Formula One. And now when they go to Formula One, we're told that's bad.
"I mean, the reality is they're going to move between series. They always have done. I'm actually kind of looking forward to next year. I think we will see young Graham, as he takes over the No. 1 role in Newman/Haas, I think you'll see a real developing star. We'll wait and see.
Moving off drivers and move it to the thing that fuels the sport, which is money? Where, bottom line, where do you see the series attracting sponsorship money?
"It's clear, when you look, that there is a very warm reception for the series and its drivers. It's also relatively clear, when you just look at the level of marketing activity that, for instance, the promoter has done here, the promoter has had no difficulty in selling sponsorship," said Kalkhoven.
"It's going to be a profitable race. When you look at the level of potential European sponsors, we've got a team with Minardi, sponsored by the Dutch. People tend to forget that Team Australia is actually a fully sponsored team, albeit with wine, which I think is excellent. When you see some of the things that will be happening, I'm sure you're going to see more international sponsorship. It's just an inevitability.
"Why is the CEO of Holmatro, product made here, spending all of his budget on racing in America, like even before it came here? The attractiveness, I think, for Champ Car in the rest of the world is, that it is American," said Gentilozzi.
"They're still curious about it. We're different. We're not GP2. Our cars are faster. We're not a support series for anybody. We're not the little guy. A lot of the world feels, even though those inside understand the difference with Formula One, a lot of the world feels it's just as good and, in fact, some ways better because we don't have the disparity of the class system that has so traditionally been in place.
"I was just talking to a young driver's manager. He said, My driver has given up the idea of coming to Formula One because if you don't get those six seats then you're just dirt. He used the word "dirt." In Champ Car, doesn't matter who you are. Y'all got the same stuff.
"We fought hard. It wasn't an easy fight to get quality in engines and cars, sit on the rules, people piss, moan and bitch.
"This year, the teams in Champ Car have spent 15 million bucks converting to new cars," added Kalkhoven. "That's a huge number. Could we have kept our Lolas, maybe had another car? For sure we could. But that wasn't going to let us grow.
"So we bit the bullet. We spent $15 million, got a new car that everybody pissed and moaned about, everybody criticized. In the end, it's a great race car. They're equal in competition. The tech staff and the Champ Car staff have done a great job at making it good.
"When was the last time we had a failure on a part? I love the guys who criticize -- there's a couple journalists who criticize the Panoz all the time. We should have done this, we should have done that.
"In fact, we got a great bargain, a great performing, safe race car. We hit our target. We haven't hit every target, but we hit that one.
