Three former winners - Al Unser Sr., Johnny Rutherford and Tom Sneva - couldn't find competitive cars for Indy, and George was upset that the CART owners couldn't make room for them.

CART owners agree that their equipment costs are too high.

USAC tried unsuccessfully to ban all CART owners from the 1979 Indianapolis 500, finally losing in court before the race began.

Rick Galles, a CART owner, has said he will enter Indy as well as the U.S. 500.

One owner even suggests that the tradition of spending most of May at Indy is in peril, should the CART owners come back.

Starting in 1983, Paul Newman joined the ranks of CART owners, teaming with Carl Haas to form Newman/Haas racing.

Della Penna said that Barry Green, a CART owner looking for an American driver, had asked him if Hearn could be let out of the remaining four years of his contract with him.

Stokkan's main concern at this point, he said, is that partial details of the proposal, which George will put before the CART owners on Nov. 6 in Houston, have come out.

The CART owners got their first chance to react to the I.R.L. yesterday when it was announced that entry forms for its inaugural race, Jan. 27 at Walt Disney World, were mailed to them.

Some CART owners, who are required under pain of financial penalties to run in the U.S. 500, will also be forced by their sponsors to enter the Indy 500.