Penske poised to quit CART series

Penske Racing driver Gil de Ferran won his second straight CART championship last weekend at Surfers' Paradise, Australia, will join reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves in the IRL next season. De Ferran and Castroneves both have one year remaining on their current contract.

Penske and de Ferran will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday night to collect their US$1 million prize for successfully defending the CART Championship. Penske is expected to hold a press conference in Indianapolis next week to announce he's leaving CART, a series that he helped start in 1979.

"Roger told me he was out of CART, period," team owner Morris Nunn told ESPN.com on Sunday. Nunn had a two-car CART effort in 2001 and will be running one car in CART and one car in the IRL during 2002.

It's the latest, and perhaps biggest, blow to the CART series this season as Penske Racing set the standard for the series since its inception. However, with leadership problems leading to some of CART's problems this year, Penske has become upset with the direction the series is heading.

Penske believes the IRL schedule competes in markets that will benefit the team's sponsor, Marlboro. That sponsor was unable to reap full sponsorship benefits at this year's Indianapolis 500 because of a tobacco settlement between state attorneys general that limits cigarette sponsorship to one series only.

That series in 2002 will be the IRL, so the Marlboro livery will return to the Indianapolis 500 where Penske is the most successful team owner with 11 wins, including Castroneves' victory in May.