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A lot of good points there, Fish.
As far as the contracts, though... The formation of an Indycar Federation (good name!) would actually be made quite simple if both series declared bankruptcy. And let's face it, if Tony George didn't support the IRL, they would be... And CART's cash reserves won't hold out for long. Then the new Indycar Federation can pick up the best assets and contracts in bankrupcy court.
The biggest cultural sticking points I can see are 1. the schism between the big leagues and the traditional open-wheel series, like WoO and USAC, and 2. the snobbish Euro-centric attitude of many CART fans, an ugly side to the series that I've only started to recognize since we start this thread... And I'm glad I did. Too many people have gotten Champcars completely confused with a zero-oval international series... Which it most definitely is not, nor was it ever, nor could it survive as! There are already many series filling that niche (F1, F3000 (soon to be F2 again, yippee!), the Superfund World Series, and to a lesser extend, many others.
As for that sprint/midget-IRL schism... I think that goes to two things... The aforementioned Eurosnob mentality, and secondly, a lack of sponsorship for American drivers. And the only way to bring back those sponsors _is_ to get the two series back together! Looking at Tony Stewart in particular, the jump in terms of driving style isn't that huge... You've got to be fast in one to be fast in the other!
With the technical package... The one thing I absolutely have to emphasize is VALUE! Value honestly has to be the keyword of the whole series... The economic boom of the '90s will not come back in _such_ force for many decades... And with NASCAR and F1 sucking up all the sponsors, the ones remaining will be in short supply.
So I say we keep it cheap, and try to strike a balance somewhere between the Champcars and the IRL Indycars. A 2-season competitive lifespan on the chassis (the tubs at least, with update kits supplied from the factories, not by the teams), engines which don't weigh as much as the IRL engines (which are causing loads of injuries because they're so rear-heavy, and hit the wall butt-first), but don't cost nearly so much as the 2.65L Champcar engines, and have a lot of torque, instead of just peak horsepower... I'm talking about 650hp as a target figure. Leased engines are an inevitability if you're dealing with Honda, Toyota, Mercedes, or even Ford, I'm afraid... But they do help to keep the playing field even _within_ a manufacturer's ranks.
A winter series in 2 year-old cars with spec engines, and a schedule of two thirds to half ovals are the best ways I can figure to give the USAC kids a fair shot... Sadly, it comes down to money in a lot of these deals, and _that's_ a main reason I emphasize value, so they teams don't have to look to their drivers to pay them to put a barely competitive car on the grid.
The winter series would also be a good place to show your skills because it would never leave the continent, cutting running costs enormously... And let's face it, it'd be the only show in town, so it'd be sure to draw some audience and sponsors! I mean, if we've got good weather, why not race?
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