Originally Posted by NickFalzone
That's a very important point that gets lost in the Tony George/IRL/Champ Car/CART fiasco. I firmly believe that NASCAR was on the upswing in 1996 and regardless of what AOW did from 1996-2010, it would have dropped off in prominence as compared to NASCAR. Would it be better off today had the split not occurred? Yeah, probably. But i think we'd be looking at a series still on ABC, but some races on ESPN1/2, and getting maybe 1.2's to 1.3's and 5.0's for the 500. In other words, profitable #'s but nowhere near competition for NASCAR. People like to put the blame everywhere but on actual content, and I think the reality is that the American public's racing interest shifted heavily towards stock car racing starting in the mid-late 90s and no matter what CART did, it would not have been able to hold onto its place as a solid competitor to NASCAR.