The teams and drivers from the Indy Racing League and Champ Car turned into one big, happy family last weekend, completing the reunification of open-wheel auto racing with an event so positive that even the people who run the new-look IRL probably couldn't believe it.

For the first time since IndyCar racing split into two competing factions 12 years ago, the Indianapolis 500 looked at least a little bit like the greatest spectacle in racing, the title it not-so-modestly bestows upon itself.

The 500 had a buzz nationally. It had huge, rowdy crowds once again. It had rising television ratings. It had all of the top open-wheel drivers (at least those who haven't defected to NASCAR), including traditional names like Andretti, Foyt and Rahal in the field. It even had a superstar in Danica Patrick, who achieved that status by becoming the first woman to win a major auto race earlier this year.

When Scott Dixon took the checkered flag last Sunday and the entire IRL entourage headed to the Milwaukee Mile for Sunday's A.J. Foyt 225, the sport's backers proclaimed that all is well with the open-wheel world, that IndyCar racing finally has positioned itself to reclaim from NASCAR the title as the No. 1 draw in American motorsports.

Alas, those pronouncements are way premature.

You see, open-wheel racing in the United States was not a mere 500 miles from a return to the glory days. After getting passed and then lapped numerous times by NASCAR in the past decade, it still has a long way to go to return to its pre-breakup popularity.

Still, the sport is slowly recapturing its past. Historically, the Milwaukee Mile benefitted from the buzz created by the Indy 500 and, for the first time in more than a decade, that will be the case today as all of the top open-wheel drivers and a full field will assemble at State Fair Park.

Unfortunately, this isn't the 1960s, '70s and '80s when the open-wheel circuit — first under USAC, then under CART — had the stars of American racing. Back then, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears and the Unsers, Bobby and Al, were the biggest names in the sport. They were home-grown drivers who dwarfed everyone in NASCAR not named Richard Petty.

These days, the opposite is true. Most up-and-coming American drivers gravitate toward NASCAR, not IndyCar. NASCAR drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart make the television commericials now, not Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon.

Even though the cars do the heavy lifting, auto racing is a personality-driven sport and, except for Patrick, NASCAR has the top personalities. It has shed its label as a bunch of good ol' boys from the deep South and now draws the top drivers from all over the country, just like IndyCar used to do.

The Indy 500 field was a good example of where IndyCar stands. Only 12 of the 33 drivers were Americans. The winner, Dixon, is from New Zealand.

That is perhaps the biggest fallout from the split in open-wheel racing. When American drivers started defecting to NASCAR, foreign drivers filled the void in IndyCar and interest waned.

Before you write this off as some sort of xenophobic rant, you should know that foreign drivers, though often very talented, simply aren't as marketable to American racing fans as drivers who started at the local track and worked their way up the ladder. The only foreign-born driver with any universal appeal is Castroneves — and that's because he tangoed into the nation's living rooms on "Dancing with the Stars" last year.

In the Coca-Cola 600, also last Sunday, there were nine drivers who came up through the open-wheel ranks but landed in NASCAR. The list includes some of NASCAR's biggest names — Gordon and Stewart — and young guns such as Sam Hornish Jr., J.J. Yeley and A.J. Allmendinger who showed promise in IndyCar racing before bolting. Even foreign-born former IndyCar champions such as Dario Franchitti and Juan Montoya have gone NASCAR.

The talent drain hasn't necessarily stopped, either. Patrick, Castroneves and Graham Rahal have flirted with making the switch to NASCAR.

That's the problem with the apparent rebirth of open-wheel racing. IndyCar lost an entire generation of American drivers to NASCAR. Until it can develop and retain some American-born stars, it won't even get back on the lead lap.

ABC SUPPLY/A.J. FOYT 225

When, where: 3 p.m. Sunday, Milwaukee Mile, West Allis.

TV: Ch. 27.

Radio: 100.5 FM.