Recently in Champ Car World Series Category

...other than me, obviously.

On this past Monday's episode of the Speed Report, a few of the drivers weighed in on the idea. Most were in favor.

(For those who don't know, the two open-wheel racing series, Indy Racing League and Champ Car have been racing separately since 1996.)

The oddest comment came from, in my mind, Richard Petty, who - I think - meant to say something about American viewers wanting to watch American drivers, but it turned into a comment about not being able to pronounce drivers' names.... I think his point was that a higher percentage of open-wheel drivers are foreign, in comparison with NASCAR drivers. I think that was his point.

Regardless of how he phrased it, you might have noticed a few non-native drivers in NASCAR in recent years. In fact, Dario Franchitti, Patrick Carpentier, and Juan Pablo Montoya all came from open-wheel.

So NASCAR isn't just stealing their viewers, it's stealing their top drivers. Most experts are of the opinion that reunification is the best answer to both series' respective problems. Most experts will also tell you that getting the IRL and Champ Car to agree on even basic combined standards (a common car, for example) is akin to brokering a health care deal between Democrats and Republicans.

I did find one guy, though  - check his blog out here - who's got an idea of how it could happen. It says a lot, though, that it's a four part series, and part two is split into sections a and b.

But, of course, even if they do reunite, there's the question of whether the fans will return. As Richard Petty told the Associated Press, "Now they've got to go head-to-head with [NASCAR], you've got to go head-to-head with drag racing, you've got to go head-to-head with a lot. It's like opening up a coffee shop next to Starbucks. I mean, how successful can you be?"

So that's what I'm thinking about.