Instead of supporting a new race in Cleveland, IMS did this:

[AAReagles]

... Someone from that end of things tells the paint company to spend their money supporting the 100th 500 instead because they know the IRL is done after that..

I'm surprised stateside OWR lasted this long. Once it became a spec series, it was doomed, no matter what the intentions were. If their contingency plan for success was based on Penske, Ganasis, et al to follow suit - it failed miserably.

So now, unbelievably, the bigger question is how much longer the 500 will last. Not to mention if someone with the character of Hulman/Rickenbacker integrity is still around to resurrect the event before it becomes erased from national memory.

Sort of makes me wonder if the CART/IRL would have occured had anyone been able to forecast the onslaught of social media and virtual gaming systems.