HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- As much as things change, the more they stay the same. That could be said of Indy car racing as the Indy Racing League prepares for the 2003 season with Sunday's Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

There is enormous change in the IRL this season, but turn the clock back to 1995 and there are some very familiar concepts.

That was the year before the IRL began its first season in 1996, when the dominant open-wheel series in the United States was also called IndyCar, but it was CART, not the IRL with that moniker.

	Al Unser Jr. joined the IRL in 2000.

Honda was already in the series and Toyota was preparing for its first season. The top drivers in the series were named Andretti and Unser and the rival series featured just a few familiar names with the rest called a bunch of no-name drivers.

Fast forward to 2003 and see how much has changed, but remained the same as it was back in 1995 and 1996.

Honda and Toyota are in the IndyCar series, only this time that division is the top level of the IRL. Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. are two of the series most recognizable names, along with homegrown talent liked two-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr.

And, the series with some of the lesser-known drivers is CART, as that series attempts to rebuild itself with a collection of talented, but unfamiliar drivers to the American motorsports landscape.

When the IRL introduced normally-aspirated engines with high-downforce chassis in 1997, it was criticized for being a spec series. At that time, CART featured tremendous competition among the engine manufacturers with Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Ford-Cosworth and Toyota.

Today, Chevrolet, Honda and Toyota will engage in a spirited engine war, which will likely change the once-cozy IRL forever, possibly escalating the cost of IndyCar racing. Meantime, Ford remains in CART in a joint partnership with Cosworth with every car in the series running the same engine.

As much as things change, the more they stay the same.

While the IRL has succeeded in taking charge of Indy car racing in the United States, the series must be careful not to make the same mistakes that plagued CART throughout those years.

When the IRL was created, it was supposed to be the low-cost alternative to CART, said an engine manufacturer who has been involved in both series. The fact is, the costs in the IRL is going up while the costs in CART are coming down. At some point, the two sides are going to be equal in cost and CART may one day become the low-cost alternative to the IRL.

While that may be the bigger picture the IRL enters the 2003 season with its strongest lineup ever, mainly in part to an exodus of teams from CART deciding to join the IRL.

Gone are such IRL mainstays as Treadway Racing, which has fallen victim to a poor economy and inability to put together a strong sponsorship package. In its place are teams with CART roots, such as Andretti/Green Racing, Team Rahal and Fernandez.

Those teams follow Marlboro Team Penske, which left CART at the end of the 2001 season to join the IRL full-time in 2002.

Target/Chip Ganassi Racing competed in both CART and the IRL last season, but that team has since pulled out of CART and will field a two-car team in the IRL with Tomas Scheckter and Scott Dixon this season.

Mo Nunn Racing joined the IRL last season while also competing in CART. That team will continue to participate in both series in 2003.

Although the current makeup of the IRL looks much different than was intended when it opened for business in 1996, the evolution of the series has seen the balance of power shift in the IRL's direction.

Imagine the fact that there is an Andretti in the series this season after Mario Andretti has been one of the IRL's most outspoken critics.

Regardless, Michael Andretti will compete in the first four races of the 2003 IRL season and then retire after this year's Indianapolis 500.

"After all the work that we have done over the past few months, I'm glad to see that the season opener is just around the corner," said Andretti, who won two races at Miami as a member of CART. "Everyone at Andretti Green Racing has worked so hard to get us to this point, and now we get the chance to see how well we've done our jobs."

For Andretti, it's a new beginning to what has so far been a glorious career.

"I'm really looking forward to this race," Andretti said. "It's my first one as team owner, and I would really like to see one of our cars on the podium. As a driver, I'd like to be the one to put the Team 7-Eleven car at the top of the charts, but I'll be just as happy if it's Tony (Kanaan) or Dario (Franchitti) who finishes in the top three.

"I don't want to give any predictions on how well Andretti Green Racing will do. The process of building a team from scratch is just that, a process. This race is the next step in our journey, and we're going to go out there and do our best and try to learn more about our cars and our team along the way."

Although Dario Franchitti's racing heritage is from the road courses of Europe, the former CART driver is ready for the challenge in the all-oval IRL.

"I'm excited about the season starting," Franchitti said. "The test days have flown by, but I know this Alpine/Archipelago/Motorola team has learned a lot. I'm looking forward to competing against the other drivers in the IndyCar Series. We're looking for good results, and I know the whole team is going to try its best to win every race."

Another of the IRL's most vocal critics was Bobby Rahal, who just happens to be the newest full-time IRL team owner. Kenny Brack, the 1998 IRL champion, returns to the series as Team Rahal's driver in a Dallara/Honda.

"This IRL series is much different from when I raced in 1999. Back in 1999, there were about six or seven cars that really could win a race," Brack said. "Now, in 2003, there are 17 or 18 cars and drivers that can race for the win on any weekend. The competition level has jumped dramatically. It will be a very tough series. But that is a good challenge for our team and myself.

	“	I'm really looking forward to this race. It's my first one as team owner, and I would really like to see one of our cars on the podium. As a driver, I'd like to be the one to put the Team 7-Eleven car at the top of the charts, but I'll be just as happy if it's Tony or Dario who finishes in the top three. ”
		— Michael Andretti

"We had a very good run in CART. We came close to winning the championship in 2001 and we won a bunch of races. So when Bobby (Rahal) came to me about running in the IRL with Honda, I was very excited, and I think we can win races with Bobby's team again."

Brack experienced the folksy IRL from 1997-99 and achieved tremendous success before leaving for CART in 2000.

"I knew that having Honda and Toyota join the IRL would really jump up the level of competition," Brack said. "Now the strong teams and manufacturers like Honda, Toyota and Chevrolet, you can have at least 15 drivers that have a good chance to win."

While these drivers are new to the IRL, they will attempt to unseat Hornish as the best driver in the series. So far in preseason testing, Hornish has been hampered by the Chevrolet engine which is so far slower than either Toyota or Honda. But Hornish remains confident that Chevrolet will find some extra horsepower and he will continue to run up front.

"The hard part about this season for us is that we've got a new car and a new chassis, along with a new engine," Hornish said. We know it's the same for everybody, but we're one of the only one-car teams, and that makes it really tough. We don't have double information. We are sharing some information with the other Chevrolet teams, but it's mostly about engine work and not necessarily about car setup. It's going to take us a bit to get where we want to be."

Drivers in the field have combined for six Indianapolis 500 victories, five IRL IndyCar Series championships, five CART championships and 142 victories in either the IRL IndyCar Series or CART. Meanwhile, the teams have combined for 25 Indy-style championships, 19 Indianapolis 500 victories and countless race victories.

The IRL has made tremendous progress since it opened for business in 1996. But the more the IRL has changed, the more it resembles CART from 1995.