The whole point is, he tried something new. He also had no sponsor other than himself and even you'll have to admit, you'll never win against the millions of $$$ the Indy teams have thrown at them. He grew to HATE NASCAR and had many battles with the France clan ... for the exact reasons they're losing fans today. The NASCAR rule book looks like a Los Angeles phone book! One of the main draws to Indy for him, was the fact the Indy rule book was just a few pages at that time. He didn't feel so limited when it came to trying new ideas. I think he only played around with Indy for a very short time (3 years??). Back at NASCAR, he told both Bill Frances to kiss his ass and never looked back. He hated seeing racing become so regulated and once said if he were running the NASCAR organization, he'd have no rules! The winner would be the most talented and innovative in his opinion. That's not persactly what he said, but that's about what it boiled down to. I'll see if I can dig up a quote somewhere on Al Gore's ol' Internet thingy.