Feb. 8 newsstand: Merger?

The news came across late last night ... TG & KK had come to a tentative agreement to merge the IRL & CCWS.

What we know so far ...
*-A merger is possibly in the works
*-The CC races that would be a part of it are Long Beach, Edmonton & Surfer's Paradise
*-The holdup is the April 19 Motegi date. CC is scheduled to run Long Beach the next day. Motegi offered to move its date back a week, but that conflicts with the Kansas race (ISC refused to move that date because the race is a sellout).
*-TG and IRL brass are going to Motegi to find another suitable date.
*-Neither series' website has any mention of this, so nothing is close to official.
*-The IRL is absorbing CCWS, in essence ... it will be the Indy Racing League.

Robin Miller broke it with this story on Speed last night
Says TG: “It’s as close as it’s ever been to being together, but we don’t know if we can get across the goal line. But no one is giving up yet.”
Says KK: “Both sides want this to happen very much and we’re working on it.”

The most current story out there is the IndyStar story ...

KK changes his tune a bit in 24 hours: "Once again, as has happened previously in the past four years, somebody has leaked a story to the press, and the press has turned it into a tornado. Now it has everyone running around in a circle. It's almost malicious, and it disappoints and infuriates me."

John Oreovicz runs with the same quote, and says the leaks are making any kind of transaction difficult

The AP has the nuts & bolts

Says KK: "As long as Honda won't move Motegi, there won't be a merger. It's certainly a major hurdle, but not the only one."

Oreo wants CC to "meet the IRL halfway" ... although this is dated today and up fresh on ESPN.com, it appears to be a week or so old.

I'll weigh in more later, but I have to go coach a basketball tournament game now :).