Posted: Mon May 18, 1998 at 6:28 PM ET

Tony Stewart didn't win the pole for Sunday's Indianapolis 500, but if his team can keep an engine together, he'll probably win the race. And then he'll be gone.

The Indy Racing League will lose its brightest young star to the NASCAR Winston Cup series. Stewart knows where the big money is long-term. Why doesn't the IRL gather the money to keep him? It's just another blunder in a troubled league that has made the Indy 500 a deeply troubled race.

Defending champion Arie Luyendyk says the new cars of the IRL are harder to drive at maximum speed, about 220, than the so-called old cars of CART were at 240. Is that progress?

Indy drivers have long maintained that it doesn't matter how fast you're going, as long as the car is comfortable to drive.

All in all, the 82nd running of the 500 may be the most critical yet. There are plenty of cars this time -- more than 40 car-driver combinations -- trying to make a field of 33. But the drivers are still mostly a collection of no-names.

For last year's race -- the second after the split with CART -- TV ratings were the lowest in the history of live telecasts of Indy. But the race was run on a Tuesday due to rain delays.

If the weather's good next weekend, and ratings are low again, that will be an enormous sign that the Indy 500's name alone cannot maintain its prestige.

The race is sold out, but just beneath the surface, ticket demand continues to soften. Locals tell me everybody who wanted upgraded seating this year got it.

Scalpers tell me that where they used to get up to $1,000 apiece for prime tickets, they're now happy to get face value. Scalping is legal in Indiana, but for the Indy 500, it is a dying business.