Unless some radical measures are taken by the IRL’s top brass, the 2009 IndyCar season could feature a significantly reduced field, SPEED’s Robin Miller warns…

All good suggestions but they won't happen. If they were smart they would accomplish many of these things you suggest by allowing the DP-01\Cosworth into the series. Reduce the turbo boost to achieve equivalency. Call Ben Johnson and see what he's got.

It is pretty basic but when money is tight a barter system is often used. You could give a small section of every car in the field to a sponsor in exchange for that company agreeing to feature ICS cars in their regular ads.

Say you give a 5"x7" area on every car in the field to Coca Cola and some trackside ads, then Coke agree's to place Indy Cars in X amount of minutes in commercials. You then have advertising with really no out of pocket expense. Plus the sponsor gets exposure for really nothing because they were gonna have ads anyway. More exposure = more rating = more sponsors.

Or...you could have Gene Simmons sing "I am Indy"

You have the DEFCON scale backwards, Robin. DEFCON 5 is normal peacetime military readiness; DEFCON 1 is a declaration of war and/or accompanying military assault upon the United States of America by a foreign power.

Anyway...

Now that he rules American open-wheel racing...George should allow good old fashioned brutal competition to increase the field: if the car in question is up to tech regs, let 'em run their own designs, and break out from the Dallara monopoly on chassis.

DEFCON 5? I don't know what that means, but I do know what Plan 9 From Outer Space is and unless ICS cuts costs somehow for '09, the IRL will once again more closely resememble PLAN 9...

The issue of Dallara and Honda holding all the cards when it comes to cars and engines respectively is a real problem, and unfortunately a problem the series brought upon itself. Two decisions that will go down as big self-inflicted wounds for the IRL will be deciding put off new tech regs until 2011 for no good reason and telling Dallara in 2008 "don't worry, boys, not only are you a spec car now, you'll still be one in 2011 and beyond no matter how badly you screw up."

The best argument for spec engines and/or cars is keeping costs down, but it's plain to see it's having the opposite effect. Someone at the IRL must have had a page missing from their economics textbook, the one that said in the absence of competition, a sole supplier of anything is going to raise prices unless someone with a lot of weight to throw around forces them to knock it off by way of regulation and hardball negotiations. The only player in the Indy car game who can do that is the IRL, and they need to rein in their suppliers before they run the series off a cliff.

Well said Miller. Now TG & ICS, don't screw this up. You got 1 series now. Dallara sucks, let Lola, Reynard, Panoz bid for the new chassis and make it a 3 yr deal. Every three years get new bids. That way you keep cost down, and you prevent BIG 3 from dominating.

Things must be desperate if RM is advocating changing the month of May. Maybe not, since they've messed it up already. Honda should have little problem eating a bit more on engine leases--their F1 team burned up $300mill this season so what's a bit more

The IRL hasn't the ability to sell beer at Oktoberfest. It will continue to be in danger of demise until IRL events are entertaining like other successful professional sports and until the IRL is successfully sold to more than hard-core race fans.

Once again the inconsistent "thinking" of TG is at the forefront! Dallara, the ugliest car manufacturer in the world, Honda, the most inept racing engine manufacturer of late, is holding the iRL hostage and collecting the ransom for the owners and fans. The changes to engines and chassis must be now, not in 2 more seasons. Panoz has the chassis's and there are engines,Kalkoven, to be badged. TG needs to see the Doctor(Miller) to get his cranial-rectosis cured!