Galles Defects to the IRL
Rick Galles announced that he will be leaving IndyCar for the IRL in 1997. Davy Jones, Galles' current driver will also make the move with the team.

Galles said that he was making the move to the IRL "because we believe in what they (IRL) is doing." Rick called himself a "rebel" and claims 100% support for the fledging IRL series.

When asked if he would still be competing in the IndyCar series he refused to comment, but mentioned that he was trying to put together a deal to run two cars in the IRL.

There was no mention of when they would run their first race in the 1997 IRL season, which held its first race of an odd, split season at Loudon last month.

IndyCar calls Texas Motor Speedway Unsafe
You will not be seeing the IndyCars at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997 -- not CART's version anyway.

The track's general manager, Eddie Gossage, stated that CART's decision was politically motivated and only came after the rival IRL inked a three-year deal with the track.

Gossage also said that he had a contract and a letter of intent with CART that he refused to sign because of a disagreement regarding the TV rights to the race. CART traditionally holds the rights to their races and sells the commercial time.

Meanwhile, Wally Dallenbach, IndyCar's outgoing chief steward simply said that the track "is not safe for us" and cited the odd transition from 8-degree banking to 24-degree banking. He said that he has not ruled out that the IndyCars could not run on the 8-degree banking, but said that they could not run on it without a proper retention wall separating the two transitions.

It was those reasons that Dallenbach claims that it was CART that refused to sign the contract.

Gossage said that Dallenbach's concerns were a "joke." Gossage also said that in the negotiations that Andrew Craig, IndyCar's president and CEO was arrogant and that CART's expectations from the track were unrealistic.

Gossage also said that CART wanted to run the race as the U.S. 500 on Memorial Day weekend, opposite the Indy 500. Gossage cited that they were committed to the Coca-Cola 600, which is also runs on Memorial Day weekend, and that it was unrealistic to "compete against ourselves."