Series - Fifth of Five: CCWS, Lost In Transition No Parts! No Sponsors! No Problem!

With apologies to Kenny Chesney, this pretty much sums up the effects of the "merger" of the ChampCar World Series into the Indianapolis Racing League thus unifying professional open-wheel racing in North America. Before this season opening weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway got underway, the ranks of the CCWS transitioned drivers and teams got hit with a couple of sad notes. First off, Graham Rahal, while taking practice laps at the speedway, bottomed out and spun into the wall. He will not be able to field a car for the race because there were not enough replacement parts and very little time to turn the car around. It is interesting to note that both Dan Weldon (Ganassi Racing) and Jay Howard (Roth Racing) were able to get parts and repair their cars for the race - Roth Racing is a new team for this year, after not competeing last year, but not a CCWS transition team. Second, due to the low quantity of replacement parts, the IRL Management informed all transitioning CCWS teams that they will be no replacement parts for the next few races (translation, only race hard enough to not damage the equipment otherwise you will end up like Graham Rahal and Newman/Hass/Lanigan). (originally posted 3-29-2008)