Question for Cammy

[slinger]

It was my understanding that engine leases have always been permitted in the IRL but until last year, they weren't permitted to lease directly from the manufacturers. Is that correct? It seems to me that some teams leased from the builders like Speedway, Comptech, Roush etc.

[CamKing]

That is correct, but the manufacturers were not controling the leases. Things actually changed the year before T & H entered. GM mad their engine builders sign contracts giving GM control over many of the things that the engine builders and teams had control over. Last year it just got worse. GM had some teams sign contracts giving GM the power to change that teams driver. I don't know what T and H had their teams sign, but I'm sure that they wouldn't be giving out all those free engines without have a lot of control over the teams.

My problem has always been with the manufacturers having too much control over the series and it's teams. If the IRL isn't going to bring the independent engine builders back, I'd rather they go to a spec engine so the teams can run their teams the way they want.