USF1 won't race in Formula One this season, but the concept of an American team in the series might not be dead. The team has lobbied the FIA to defer its entry into the series until 2011, but the sanctioning body for F1 hasn't decided on its lineup for next year. Bob Varsha, the play-by-play announcer for F1 on TV's Speed channel, said the Charlotte-based team has the infrastructure to succeed if granted a spot in 2011.

USF1 was started by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, a former F1 pit reporter for Speed, and its chief investor was Chad Hurley, a YouTube founder. In a Wednesday e-mail to USA TODAY, Windsor said USF1 hadn't shut down. "There's a lot going on behind the scenes about which we have been asked not to comment" by the FIA, he said.

"They've built a tremendous manufacturing capability. They've just run out of time," said Varsha, who added the team likely underestimated the F1 approval process and the logistics of a start-up team. "If they get another chance, they would run their business differently. They need organizational expertise. That might be missing at USF1."

Varsha couldn't understand why Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone "told every microphone he sees that USF1 wouldn't make it," he said. "This team allows F1 enhanced exposure to the world's biggest market."

Just Marketing CEO Zak Brown, whose company represents several sponsors in Formula One, said the possible demise of USF1 didn't hurt F1's chances of an American presence. The series hasn't raced here since the 2000-07 run of the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis, but Brown said he thought a race could return in the next five years if its exorbitant sanctioning fees were curbed. Brown estimated it cost a minimum of $20 million to hold an F1 race.

"F1 is interested in America," he said. "The problem is the financial model, because it calls for a government subsidy. It'll have to either be privately funded or people will have to make sacrifices on the fee. This is the world's largest economy. You'd get that money back tenfold through TV ratings and bringing sponsors in the sport."

Four wide: Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon isn't sure how the NHRA's Four-Wide Nationals will play out March 25-28 at zMax Dragway. "The only thing I've ever done four wide is a track meet in high school," Dixon said during a promotional stop at the Concord, N.C., drag strip.

Dixon said putting drivers four abreast would alter the dynamics of a sport whose side-by-side races often foster gamesmanship. "I'm sure at first everyone will play nice," he said.

Open-wheel hiatus: The Atlantic Championship, a feeder series that has produced IndyCar, NASCAR and Formula One drivers over the last 36 years, will not run in 2010 because of a shortage of team sponsorships.