Why should Jacques have stayed stateside? The writing was on the wall, F1 was the way to go in '96. Plus, JV got paid ridiculous money at BAR, way more than he could have ever made stateside. The IRL was a complete joke when it first started up (a dentist won a race the first season at Phoenix), and CART had their heads up their arses. I think everyone involved in American Open wheel racing is a complete moron, and the drivers we should be watching in open wheel racing is an amazing list: Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Kenny Irwin (RIP), Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, JJ Yeley and Robby Gordon should all be suiting up at Indianapolis in May, not August. It is also VERY telling that Montoya chose to run for Ganassi's Cup team, not his IRL team.
I still watch Indy, and I will watch other open wheel races if they are on and the mood takes me, but I make sure that neither the IRL nor Champ Car get one red cent from me. They are starting to get the message, the stands at every IRL race save Indy are empty and the TV ratings are abyssmal. The rating for Champ Car are worse than abyssmal.
The NHRA is he number 2 motorsport in the USA by default, I really wish they would do more to really push the sport forward, because one day, when Penske, Ganassi and Tony George are out of the picture, open wheel will come back with a vengence and the NHRA will say woulda, coulda, shoulda....