IRL is trouble anyways right now. This years 500 was one of the least watched in modern history. If racing that tight and exciting can't make people come out, there is trouble.
We used to have real racers with real reputations racing in Indy. Fittipaldi, Andretti, Mansel, Zanardi, etc and they were running with American drivers like Sullivan and Foyt.
The series has very little 'panache' that way anymore, with gimmicky drivers like Patrick only able to sell so many tickets.