1. Identify the external factors that have impacted and continue to impact the Indy Racing League and its marketing efforts. Which factors appear to be the IRL’s greatest threats?
2. What are the IRL’s greatest strengths? Which weaknesses would you recommend that the IRL attempt to convert into strengths? How might these weaknesses be converted?
3. What advantages does the IRL possess over NASCAR? How should these advantages be used by the IRL to compete with NASCAR?
4. How should the IRL be positioned to differentiate it from other racing leagues, both in the United States and abroad?
5. What can the IRL learn from NASCAR’s success? Are there elements of NASCAR’s marketing strategy that the IRL could adopt?

The Indy Racing League (IRL) is a major U.S.-based auto-racing league that holds races in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Japan. IndyCars are open-wheel racecars that have wheels located outside the body of the car rather than underneath the body or fenders as found on street cars. The origins of IRL can be traced to an organization known as Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). CART was a major force in auto racing and dominated open-wheel racing in the United States from its inception in 1978 until the early 1990s. The increased popularity of stock car racing led by NASCAR posed a serious threat to CART. At the time when CART should have been addressing this threat, the league instead had to deal with a split within open-wheel racing. The Indy Racing League (IRL) was formed out of frustration with CART’s global focus. This created two open-wheel racing leagues vying for the same audience. Consequently, both CART and IRL had small fan bases, while NASCAR’s popularity grew at astounding rates.

Open-wheel racing’s situation deteriorated in the years following the split into two leagues. Driver talent, team ownership, media interest and sponsor dollars were diluted as both leagues vied for the same resources. Meanwhile, NASCAR was growing at a staggering pace and eclipsed open-wheel racing as the most popular form of auto racing in the United States. The two open-wheel leagues reunified prior to the 2008 season, but damage had been done already. IRL has assets upon which to build, namely the Indianapolis 500 and emerging stars such as Danica Patrick, but it has a long way to go to equal NASCAR in terms of race attendance and television ratings.