The 14 days that the Indy Racing League find itself in the middle of offers a study in the two extremes that define the open-wheel series.

Sunday's Bombardier ATV Copper World Classic Indy 200 was contested on Phoenix's tight one-mile oval while this Sunday's Yamaha 400 takes the green at the two-mile California Speedway.

"We may be an all-oval series, but don't let that fool you," said Kelley Racing principal Tom Kelley. "The differences between the Richmonds and the Californias and Texases make this a difficult series."

The best way to break out the 15-race IRL schedule is Indy, short ovals and superspeedways.

Indy is a place unto its own. Its long history and 2.5-mile, four-turn configuration separate it from every other track. Throw in the prestige, multimillion-dollar payday and the month-long May stay that the Brickyard requires and teams treat it as a separate series that happens to count toward the IRL crown.

That's why Kelley still shakes his head about his team's ill luck there last year. Scott Sharp put Kelley's Delphi Automotive special on the pole for the 500, only to crash at the start of the race after losing traction when his car dipped below the white line that circles the inside edge of Indy's pavement. Mark Dismore who drove Kelley's other mount last season then saw his day end after gearbox problems. Dismore, who nearly lost his life at Indy almost a decade ago, was the fastest car but fell a number of laps back when his Bryant crew was forced to repair the faulty drive train component.

"It haunts you when you suffer the kind of luck we had last year at Indy," mused Kelley. "We had the field covered. It's not often that you get that."

Off-season changes find Al Unser Jr. ultimately replacing Dismore, Thomas Knapp added as Unser's engineer and Sharp still searching for the magic that made him a top gun in the IRL.

Kelley GM Jim Freudenburg expects Unser's Corteco team to improve with each race. "Thomas and Al are still getting to know each other. It won't be long before they will have it together," he said before the Phoenix race.

Freudenburg is correct. The two time Indy 500 Champ finished fifth at PIR and led the race's mid stage.

Sharp, on the other hand, logged his second DNF of the season after getting collected in one of the seven cautions that dotted the Arizona 200 miler. Jeff Britton, Sharp's engineer, is hoping that a return to the IRL's superspeedways will be the tonic that changes his team's direction.

"We can't just live off our superspeedway performances," insists Kelley.

When the Indy Racing League was still just an idea in the head of founder Tony George, Kelley mused about the excitement that a mix of short ovals, Indy and banked superspeedways would produce. He told George that a series like the one contemplated would be something he would love to participate in. Kelley reasoned that an all-oval series would reduce the personnel and financial resources needed for a multi-disciplined effort like CART's mix of ovals and road courses.

But, the gap between short ovals and facilities like Texas, Kansas, Chicagoland, Michigan and California Speedway still demand a set of diverse equipment packages and performance parameters.

The IRL's mile-and-a-halves and two-milers place a heavy premium upon aerodynamics. Drafting replaces the short track's "Y" factor of traffic. Tight bunches of cars stacked side-by-side and four and five rows deep define the IRL's superspeedway equation.

Kelley and the rest of his IRL owners can shelve their short track programs for a while. Just as they were getting the hang of the "Bull Rings," a new game is on the table. After California, the teams will yet again find a new set of issues with Nazareth's upcoming April date.

Then it's Indy and another set of issues, Texas and so on and so on.

"Tony (George) told me to be careful what I wish for," chuckled Kelley. "He was right."