I'd also factor in the Honda Japan vs American Honda/ HPD. That race really does little to benefit American Honda. It's football season, in the middle of the night when they run that race. He basically said it makes no sense to pay the bill on a very expensive event. They can probably spend 1/4 of the budget sponsoring 2-3 North American events and get a better ROI for American(and Canadian) Honda. It's no secret Honda sales TANKED over the past couple of years. It's obvious Honda has a budget for Indycar, and developing a reliable and durable spec engine to the new specs isn't a trivial expense when there is competetion involved. They have to maintain their reputation, so the money will go into engine developemnt and supporting the limited number of teams that go with their engine package. As we have all warned, competition is expensive. Honda knows that well.