The dirt was still fresh on the XFL's plot in the graveyard of defunct sports leagues when the announcement of another start-up sports entity came. The Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC), a single-entity team-based tour that is scheduled to start in 2003, is giving the racing community advance notice of its plan.

But given Tuesday's timing -- less than five days after Vince McMahon's pride and joy succumbed like the many "good ideas" have before it -- it was quite ironic to hear the words being spoken so quickly: national television contract, plenty of talent, untapped fans, strong investors and stockholders.

Is history ready to repeat itself so soon? Will TRAC, like the XFL, make more history by becoming history? Or was TRAC simply a natural niche in stock car racing that was bound to emerge.

The plans call for owners, based in eight to 12 cities, to operate two cars per team. TRAC officials hope local ownership will draw new fans in untapped markets like Seattle and San Francisco.

"How do you become a NASCAR fan if your are not in the typical markets and you don't know the drivers," said Jon Pritchett, president and CEO of TRAC. "We feel that if fans can root for a team and a region first, we can expand the fan base of competitive racing."

But Tom Cotter, president of SFX/The Cotter Group, a motorsports marketing firm, questions whether local fans will feel enough attachment to their team.

"What's going to be Houston about Team Houston?" asked Cotter. "The driver probably won't come from Houston and it can't just be the name on the car."

TRAC officials said their idea hinges on a national television contract and claimed to have initiated talks with executives at ABC, CBS and ESPN. Pritchett said that TRAC officials are open to the idea of a network becoming a significant stockholder in the league, but that "the XFL may have made networks nervous about jumping into an ownership position with us."

It also might make networks weary of investing in business plans or having too much confidence in power brokers like McMahon without first seeing the product in action. TRAC has retained Robert Wussler, a former CBS president and CNN co-founder, to give television networks the ultimate pitch.

Because the teams will be strategically placed around the country, televising each race is essential. But if the XFL's prime-time failure on NBC played a factor in hastening the league's downfall, is TRAC setting the bar too high for itself?

"You don't want too much to happen too soon like the XFL," Cotter said. "It's much harder to build a brand when there's a rush to get it done. NASCAR has taken 50 years to get where they are at now, so I hope these guys have patience to grow what could be a good idea."

Poor talent was one of the XFL's primary factors leading to its decline, but TRAC officials think there's plenty of talent to showcase.

"You'll see drivers coming out of the woodwork from open wheel cars to short tracks, around the country and around the world once they see that we're well-funded and well-managed," said Cale Yarborough, a three-time Winston Cup champion (1976-78) who is serving as consultant for the proposed circuit. "And we'll do the best we can to make sure stars emerge."

TRAC, like the XFL, will have to do its best to quickly make its athletes household names. But that will definitely be tough under the single-entity structure.

Because each team will be permitted to work only within the budget of the umbrella organization, there will not be the haves and the have-nots as there are in NASCAR. Too much equality, sports marketers say, will doom the start-up as it needs to have consistent winners, like Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett, for people to identify with.

"If everyone is identical, like in restrictor plate races at Talladega and Daytona and in IROC, and there's no one who is outstanding, and there's no hero, villain, rabbit, hare or turtle, then there's going to be a problem," Cotter said. "There almost has to be disparity between well-funded teams and not-so-well-funded teams."

	“	If everyone is identical ... and there's no hero, villain, rabbit, hare or turtle, then there's going to be a problem. ”
		— Tom Cotter

"We'll still allow for things like driver skill and racing strategy," Pritchett responded. "But we essentially want to create a fair structure, where one driver isn't eliminated before the race starts."

Like the XFL, which didn't pay extra money to have that one identifiable NFL star, Yarborough said the league will not try to "buy" a low-level NASCAR or high-level IRL or CART driver to the new circuit. In race car driving, that move might be equivalent to buying fans who are loyal to that driver.

Pritchett said the circuit has enough capital to get the league moving before the first race, tentatively scheduled 22 months from now. He said that they have raised $8 million from investors, which will help pay for research and development of unique stock cars, and expect as much as $14 million more in investments before the inaugural green flag is thrown.

Max Muhleman, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Muhleman Marketing, said the circuit's first test of survival will come at the first race when TRAC officials begin to see if their predicted returns will hold true.

"People involved in start-ups always assume too high of a return and get cold feet faster than you think they would," he said.

The WWF and General Electric, the parent company of NBC, had enough capital to keep the XFL afloat for seasons to come, but a $35 million loss for each in the first season was signal enough to force the league to surrender after one season.

Although TRAC will have stockholders (NASDAQ OTC: LGST) -- just like both of the XFL's partners -- Pritchett said stockholders likely will not put pressure on TRAC, since the circuit will be the only product of the public company, Team Sports Entertainment Inc.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com