A defection-free offseason could boost IndyCar

After Dario Franchitti picked up about $1.2 million in bonus cash and other prizes to commemorate his IndyCar Series championship, three of his pursuers finally caught him.

Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan grabbed Franchitti at the season-ending awards night and tossed him into the hotel pool.

That’s one way for IRL to make a splash.

Depending on one’s perspective, cases could be made that the 2009 IndyCar season was a thriving success—three title contenders not settling the year’s championship until the final minutes of the season—or an absolute dud, in which the Target Chip Ganassi and Penske teams were light years ahead almost every week and the series’ best-known drivers made more news off the track than on it.

Numbers suggest the fan base grew, but even the most optimistic observer would say that IndyCar still has its challenges.

“The opportunities for the league to get better really rest in how we attract more sponsors to raise the overall value of our business,” said Terry Angstadt, the president of IRL’s commercial division. “We think we’ve got a pretty competitive racing product. We’ve had four years in a row, down to the final race. Can that be tweaked and made better? Absolutely. But we think it’s pretty good.”

If there are no major defections this year, it would be a welcome change for the IndyCar world.

Danica Patrick has all but said she’ll be back in her IndyCar for the 2010 season—“We’ll be ready for next year,” Patrick said after the season-ending Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway—but still hasn’t confirmed widespread reports she’s already committed to staying with Andretti Green Racing through 2012.

Patrick’s flirtation with NASCAR is no secret, and there are several teams with interest in bringing her aboard.

And it seems like everyone has advice for Patrick, who flatly refuses to discuss any aspect of her decision-making process about the future.

“Drive everything with a body on it, ARCA, Truck, (Nationwide), Cup, hit some walls,” three-time reigning NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson said. “It’s tough because she’s obviously going to have the spotlight on her. But hit walls, tear up equipment, make mistakes, you have to go through that. You cannot shortcut that aspect. … You have to go through those experiences to learn.”

Former CART and Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya, who made the jump to NASCAR in 2006 and is finally contending for the Sprint Cup title, said he’d tell Patrick that a switch won’t be easy, especially if she decides to race full time in the IRL and part time in NASCAR.

“You’re going to get comfortable in one thing and then you’re going to get to the other thing,” Montoya said. “And every time it’s going to be like night and day.”

Franchitti, who left for NASCAR after winning his first IRL title in 2007, is back and says he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Dixon and Briscoe, the other members of the triumvirate that switched places atop the IndyCar standings all season long, left Homestead talking excitedly about 2010.

Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves has his tax woes behind him, Tony Kanaan has already had surgery with hopes of being stronger in 2010, and young drivers like Marco Andretti seem on the cusp of being title contenders.

“I really think we’re growing,” Briscoe said. “It’s fantastic that we had two previous champions fighting for the championship. It’s names people are familiar with and that’s important, because fans need someone to follow. And continuity with the drivers, that’s even more important.”

So is getting the IRL into bigger markets.

Next season starts in Brazil, where IndyCar is certain to be received ravenously, given many drivers’ ties to South American. Sometime soon, Angstadt expects to announce a title sponsor for the series, he leaves for China next week to explore possibilities of adding a race there and said at least one major U.S. city is being targeted for future races.

“We help ourselves in a couple of ways, flat-out sponsorship in a number of categories from title down, and where we race because our product is more valuable in some markets than others,” Angstadt said. “So if we can go to a certain large (market area) in the United States, get paid a healthy sanction fee and put on a great show, make it successful for everyone? Big priority.”

There’s always going to be internal squabbles about the split between road-course races and ovals; it’s nearly a 50-50 split next year, the sort of diversity that helped lure Franchitti back to IndyCar. Some drivers clearly prefer road courses, others strongly favor more ovals.

But if the product gets stronger, those issues won’t seem as significant.

“That’s how our business gets better,” Angstadt said.

AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed to this story.