Bourdais in favour of unified series

The stock car championship has dominated the US motorsport landscape over the past decade, while open wheel racing's profile faded, with both Champ Car and the IRL struggling to get close to NASCAR's television audiences and level of media coverage.

"I see it as a vital thing," Bourdais told the Houston Chronicle while promoting Champ Car's forthcoming return to the Texan city.

"If we want to give a run to the NASCAR guys, we've got to be strong. We have two series that are struggling some, and we need one strong one.

"They (IRL) have the Indy 500, one of the biggest races in the world, and we have some great venues.  If you put it together, you could have a great series."

Despite his enthusiasm for having the Indianapolis 500 on a unified schedule, Bourdais said he was glad not to be racing there in 2006 after his Newman/Haas teammate Bruno Junqueira's back-breaking accident in last year's event.

"It's probably not appropriate (to race in the Indy 500) anyway, because Bruno got hurt pretty bad there last year," said Bourdais.

IRL founder Tony George spoke positively about the chances of reunification during last weekend's Homestead event. It was the first time that he had publicly advocated a rapprochement between the two warring series.