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A tap on the shoulder.

I turn and see a holy image.

"I'm the god of motor sports," the image says. "I'm naming you the king of American open-wheel racing. Now fix it."

Just a little bit of pressure.

The first thing I would do is obvious: reunite the Indy Racing League and Champ Car.

The two separated in 1996 and, since, NASCAR has dominated American motor sports.

When I was a kid, Indy cars were the big deal. NASCAR was a Southern sport. The rest of the country followed open-wheel racing.

Now NASCAR is the 800-pound gorilla.

It has expanded to California, Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Illinois.

Another way to bring Indy cars back to prominence is develop American drivers.

In the 1970s, the names were heroes: Rutherford, Unser (Bobby and Al Sr.) Foyt, Andretti (Mario), Sneva.

Now we have Sam Hornish Jr. to fight against the ®MDIT¯furners.®MDNM¯

I'm all for foreign drivers racing in this country. But if we put more emphasis on our young drivers, they would be able to compete better with the drivers from outside the United States.

Most of the best drivers the United States has developed in the past few years have ended up in NASCAR.

Jeff Gordon was going to become one of the biggest open-wheel stars of all-time. Multiple Indy 500 wins. A few championships.

Instead, he saw the writing on the wall and headed for NASCAR.

As did Ryan Newman, Kurt and Kyle Busch, and Jimmie Johnson.

Another problem is TV.

As a die-hard fan, I know when and on what channel the race is televised. But the average fan doesn't know and probably doesn't care.

If open-wheel racing were on a major network (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) on a consistent basis, it would attract more fans.

But the first step is reuniting the IRL and Champ Car.

Until that happens, NASCAR will continue to grow.

And open-wheel racing will continue its downward slide.

Googe is a Tribune page designer who writes an occasional auto racing column. You can reach him at cgooge@abqtrib.com or 823-3634.