[Noah930]

motion's original point got me thinking: how did the Indy 500 and IRL fare before and after "The Split?" After all, Tony George's original rant/motivation was the fact that Americans were no longer winning the Indy 500, or involved in the top tier of American open wheel racing, right? We had to get back to our Indy 500 roots of dusty dirt track bullrings and sprint car racing. Too many fancy-named foreigners were invading our turf, winning our race, and, presumably, sleeping with our women.

Well, in terms of Indy 500 winners, pre-Split, non-Americans had won the race 4 times in the 7years immediately preceeding the Split. The guilty infidels were Jacques Villeneuve, Emmo (twice, no less!), and Arie Luyendyk (who also looked like a less-muscley Fabio, so no doubt that was no good for keeping our women ours).

I guess Tony George would look at that as loss of control of the Americanization of the Indy 500, seeing as how prior to that run, you'd have to go all the way back to '65 and '66 (Jim Clark & Graham Hill) to find non-Americans winning our most hallowed race. But hey, at least they spoke English as their native language, right, Tony?

Of course, since the Split, Americans are only 4 out of 12 in winning the 500. Prior to the Split, America was 3/7; post-Split, 4/12 (Tony's saviors being Buddy Lazier, Eddie Cheever--who was raised in Europe, BTW--Buddy Rice, & Sam Hornish). Somehow, the odds weren't changed that much for the better, Tony.

So, let's look at the season leaders from 2007 in the IRL: top 4 spots are all foreigners. Thank goodness Dario Speedwagen married Ashley Judd; he's half-American by that connection. Rounding out the top-10, there are 6 Americans; that's admittedly some progress. CART had about 6 Americans spread throughout the entire field. If you look at the latter half of the 2007 IRL field, Americans made up 5 of the lowest cumulative point scoring 8 IRL regulars. So to say that the IRL has given opportunities to American drivers is not entirely correct. Yes, they're there. But the cream still rises to the top. And it's not filled with as many American drivers as enVisioned (pun not intended) by Tony George.