Soon to be made official: Penske ditches Cart

[Jay]

(Nov 4) ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina (Ticker) -- What has long been expected likely will become official very soon when Roger Penske, the winningest team owner in Indy car history, will leave CART to join the rival Indy Racing League next season.

Penske Racing driver Gil de Ferran won his second straight CART championship last weekend at Surfer's Paradise in Queensland, Australia, and will join reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves in the IRL next year.

Penske and de Ferran will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday night to collect $1 million for successfully defending their CART championship. Penske is expected to hold a news conference next week in Indianapolis to announce he's joining the IRL and leaving CART, a series he helped launch in 1979.

"Roger told me he was out of CART, period," CART team owner Morris Nunn told ESPN.com's Robin Miller on Sunday at California Speedway in Fontana. Nunn had a two-car CART entry in 2001 and will be running one car in CART and one in the IRL next year.

For de Ferran, the switch to an all-oval series means the talented Brazilian will not be driving Penske's entries on street and road courses next season.

"I don't know what is going to happen, but, naturally, I would miss road racing because that's what I grew up with," de Ferran told Miller. "But my allegiance is to Team Penske. My greatest ally is this team, and I don't take that lightly."

De Ferran and Castroneves both have one year remaining on their current contracts.

It's the latest -- and perhaps biggest -- blow to CART this season as Penske Racing set the standard for the series since its inception. However, with leadership problems leading to some of CART's troubles this year, Penske has become upset with the direction the series is heading.

Penske vocally objected to CART's decision to leave Michigan Speedway -- a track he owned for more than two decades -- at the end of the season.

Penske believes the IRL schedule competes in markets that will benefit his team's sponsor, Marlboro. The sponsor was unable to reap full sponsorship benefits at this year's Indianapolis 500 because of the tobacco settlement that limits cigarette sponsorship to one series.

In 2002, that series will be the IRL, so the Marlboro livery will return to the Indianapolis 500, where Penske is the winningest team owner with 11 victories. That includes Castroneves' triumph last May.

Well, I've always liked Helio and Gil...I've had my doubts about Roger... but I won't be going for any of them now!