ESPN IndyCar

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Saturday night in South Florida, Indy car racing tries to go home again.

The IndyCar Series season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway is the start of a new era, the feel-good moment for a sport that almost destroyed itself in a civil war that lasted more than a decade.

Now it's time to rejoice. One league, one show, one goal: Bring back the good old days.

"It's about time," IndyCar driver Danica Patrick said. "Open-wheel racing has suffered long enough."

But a lot has changed in 13 years. The last time American open-wheel racing was united was back in 1995, in a CART race on the picturesque California road course at Laguna Seca.

A rookie named Gil de Ferran won that day. No one who raced in that event will be in the field Saturday for the Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300.

This new league will have an Andretti and a Rahal, just as that one did. But we've moved on to another generation. It's Marco and Graham, not Michael and Bobby, who sit in the cockpit now.

A.J. Foyt officially retired two years before the split. Now he owns a team and watches his grandson, 24-year-old A.J. Foyt IV, race for a competing team.

Marco Andretti, 21, and Rahal, 19, were in grade school when Indy car racing split into two competing leagues. But they know the history of the bitter breakup. And they know what it means to be together again.

Unfortunately for young Rahal, he won't be on the track this weekend. Why? He doesn't have a car to drive.

Rahal wrecked his only IndyCar Series machine in practice on Tuesday. No backup car is available, which illustrates one problem of the February merger. It happened too late for all the Champ Car teams to get ready with new equipment in time for the opener.

That's just a temporary setback. The real question is whether the merger happened too late for open-wheel racing. Rahal doesn't think so.

"This is great for all of us," he said. "Obviously for the fans it's exciting to have the Foyts and Andrettis and Rahals racing against each other again. At the end of the day we want to go out there and beat everybody."

A diplomatic answer that makes him sound a lot like his dad, but the fathers left a big mess for the offspring to clean up. Where Indy car racing was then is a much different place than where it is now.

In the eyes of many racing fans, IndyCar still was No. 1 and NASCAR a distant No. 2 in 1995. In reality, NASCAR already had gained a huge amount of ground on open-wheel racing before the split happened. Part of that gain came from the success of racing at Indianapolis, which started in 1994.

But the Indy 500 still was the biggest and most popular show in racing. Now it may not be the most popular show of the day with so many people tuning in to watch the Coca-Cola 600.

Jacques Villeneuve won the 1995 Indy 500, the last one when open-wheel was together. A month ago, Villeneuve was in Daytona hoping (and failing) to start a Sprint Cup career.

The trend of Indy car drivers moving to NASCAR hit high gear this season. Defending Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and three-time IndyCar Series champ Sam Hornish Jr. made the move to Cup.

The merger came too late to keep them, but the new league has some stars to promote.

Two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves is a household name after his "Dancing with the Stars" victory last fall. And Patrick, despite failing to win, is the IRL's biggest draw. She recently showed some of her personal assets in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

The bad news is the merger didn't bring everyone. Paul Tracy, the last man standing before the split, doesn't have a ride because team owner Gerald Forsythe elected to close up shop and hold Tracy to his contract.

Forsythe said he shut down because he doesn't have sponsorship. He didn't have it in Champ Car either, but he was the co-owner of that group.

This merger didn't happen because all the parties involved suddenly loved each other. It happened because Champ Car was breathing its last breath. Merger was the only option, but there wasn't a lot to save.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, one of the top organizations in open-wheel history, was the big fish that came with the deal. The team has Rahal and former Formula 1 driver Justin Wilson.

Actor Paul Newman played his part for years as the crotchety old man who was determined to go to his grave cursing the IRL and league founder Tony George. Newman didn't set foot at the Brickyard for 12 years before making an appearance in 2007.

Now he's calling on all the disenfranchised fans to come back to Indy. The Indianapolis Star reported that Newman signed a letter sent out to all former Indy 500 ticket holders, asking them to return to the event with him.

Some of those fans are gone for good, but maybe new ones will emerge as IndyCar tries to make up for lost time.

We all know the saying, "You can't go home again." At age 83, Newman is willing to try.

Home for IndyCar racing won't be the same as it was 13 years ago, but it sure is nice to finally start down that path and see what we've missed.

Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at terry@blountspeak.com.