[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

Before the engine manufacturers started defecting from CART, Helo had Aurora engine power when he won the 500 in 2001.

In 2002, he ran Chevy power, but Gil De Ferran ran Toyota power when he won in 2003...In fact, the manufacturers would let one "chosen" team take an engine and try to tweak it...Penske tried to create qualifying motors for Indy that were so good and reliable that Toyota adopted his changes to fit all of their race engines and Toyota dominated in the IRL in 2003.

Penske ran Toyota power until they left the series until 2006, IIRC.

Honda brought over Rahal, Andretti Green, and Fernandez the following year.

He had nothing to do with Honda, at least in the IRL, prior to that.

Thanks for all that. I never really followed the IRL and that period in particular was always a conundrum.