Where is the Indy 500 going?

buckaroo

buckaroo

Here kitty, kitty, kitty
Joined
Nov 14, 2002
Messages
10,767
Points
513
Location
Winston Salem, NC
Remember when the full field had American drivers? This series is now a fully international sport. Here's an article written about just that back in 2010. http://www.toledofreepress.com/2010/05/27/international-drivers-dominate-indy-500/ And here's one from 2009. http://oilpressure.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/did-foreign-drivers-ruin-indy/

I grew up listening to the Indy 500 on the radio where that was the only place you could hear it live. It wasn't until 1986 that the race was broadcast live nationally on ABC. As a race fan, mostly local and NASCAR, the Indy 500 is still the only race that I refuse to miss, no matter where I am. Yet my interest in the open wheel series has waned through the years. There are many reasons, the split with CART, big names missing from the field, just to name a few. I don't know if the big race will ever get back to where it once was, but something has to change to get Americans back to the track or maybe "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" may become the Sao Paulo 500.
 
I lost intrest in the Indy cars after USAC no longer was the stepping stone to get to the 500. Remember when Midget drivers stepped up to Sprints then USAC big cars and where then given a shot at running at Indy? Things started to go bad when it became common to bring a Big wad of money or a Big sponsor to your driver interview.
I doubt I could name 5 drivers in this years Indy 500.
 
I still refuse to miss Indy, and it's still number 1 on my bucket list. I honestly think they are starting to get back in the right direction, what with the new motors and changes to the car.
 
I still make it a point to watch, but it hasn't been the big deal it used to be in a long time. At the same time unfortunately either has Indy car.
 
The Indycar series is in a lot better shape in 2012 than they were in 2007 5 years ago. In 2007 there was still two series with about 17 cars in each series, to fill the seats drivers like Milka Duno and Marty Roth were allowed to drive just to make it look like there were more drivers. Last season saw 39 cars attempting to make Indy, and regulars and a big name in Ryan Hunter Reay missed the race. But the part of the sport that has helped tare the series down once again came into play as Andretti paid off Foyt and Hunter Reay was allowed to race. Looking at the field of drivers I can say there is about a dozen drivers that I think actually have a good amount of racing talent, where as about 5 years ago you would be lucky to pick out and hand full in CART and the Indycar series. But once again the part of the sport I don't like is there is another dozen drivers in the series this year I think don't deserve to be out there. Now for every Dario, Kanaan or Will Power you have a James Jakes or a Katherine Legge or a Sebastain Sevadra that is in the field that still hurts the credability of the series. But this is not something that is exclusive to Indycar, the Nationwide race at Texas saw the driver who was 4th in points Trveor Bayne who ironicly won last year at Texas in the series, not having a ride because of money/sponsorship issues. This is something that very likely can become a big issue in Nascar in the near future.
 
There are many reasons for me, the split with cart was a big one for sure but there are others, the biggest one though for me is the cars. Indy used to be about inovation and ingenuity, the turbine car, Smokey and his stock block chevy,the buick stock blocks, Penske building a purpose built pushrod racing engine and it goes on and on. Then the cars became all the same and I'm sorry but Indy became a total bore, lets hope the new cars open up some imagination again and we get some resemblence of what Indy used to be.
Edit: Also I'd like to see different engine options for the 500, could you imagine a twin turbo Chevy Ecotec 4 banger running side by side with a Audi turbo deisel? With todays technology the engine options could be almost endless, there has to be a way to bring back old fasioned ingenuity and inovation.
 
I'm really worried about the lack of promotion that the NBC Sports Network gives the Indy 500. Or any type of racing.

And I had to turn off it, kid was getting bored with the talking. Still sad about Dan Waldon.

Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Forum Runner
 
Katt50 said:
I'm really worried about the lack of promotion that the NBC Sports Network gives the Indy 500. Or any type of racing.
Click to expand...

Given that they only cover this weekend and Carb day, I think they've done about what you would expect with it. They run their commercials, and it's been promoted plenty during the Stanley Cup playoff broadcasts. I don't know how much more they can do. I think they've done fine, and as always, the actual telecasts are excellent.

As far as the Disney networks, I don't watch them very much, so I don't know how much they're doing to push the 500.
 
I think Indy is doing a lot better since they reunited.

Technology is just tough, if you turn them loose there going to hit over 240 plus, and theres just to many things that can go wrong to send a rocket into the stands.


But running a spec car is a downer, good for a developmental series, but not so much for the highest forms of racing. They have a good car but it is still a spec car.

I am not sure if there is a solution and maybe getting back to the fun development era and 75 plus entries a year is an impossibile dream in todays world. If these cars run as closely in the race as their qualifing speeds were it should be a good show.

The certainly had a barn burner last year.
 
Katt50 said:
I'm really worried about the lack of promotion that the NBC Sports Network gives the Indy 500. Or any type of racing.

And I had to turn off it, kid was getting bored with the talking. Still sad about Dan Waldon.

Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Forum Runner
Click to expand...

That's because the Indy 500 is on ABC. As for the other Indy races, NBC Sports Network promotes them heavily. I see various NBC Sports ads all the time on USA, MSNBC, NBCSN and NBC.
 
It is kind of late so I didn't feel like starting a new topic right now but there has been talk all day from Jenna Fryer and others about a couple chevy owners and a former world champion trying to get Randy Bernard fired and put Tony George back in charge. I think if that does happen it will force another split, likely one the series wont be able to survive.
 
Bernard himself said on Twitter that "an owner" is in fact trying to initiate some kind of movement to push him out. I haven't seen anyone specify that it's a Chevy owner, but what else could it be? The only thing we've heard about recently that would turn an owner against Bernard like this would be the ruling over Honda's larger A/R turbo. If that's what's going on here, it's disgraceful. If that's not the case, I still can't imagine any situation that justifies chasing away the guy who's done more for your sport in less than two years than anyone ever could have imagined doing in the previous 14 years since the split.

And to have this come out immediately after a huge success of a 500, I bet whoever is responsible for this feels real good right now.
 
Jenna Fryer wrote 3 car owners, 2 team managers, a former champion, and a former CEO trying to regain power. Also she said it is definitely not Penske, he came to Bernards support.

This ridiculous, Bernard has been a very great job trying to help this series and bring credability back to it, but people inside the sport crap all over it and anytime the series starts to go forward they have to try and take two steps backwards.
 
Jameswnh said:
Bernard himself said on Twitter that "an owner" is in fact trying to initiate some kind of movement to push him out. I haven't seen anyone specify that it's a Chevy owner, but what else could it be? The only thing we've heard about recently that would turn an owner against Bernard like this would be the ruling over Honda's larger A/R turbo. If that's what's going on here, it's disgraceful. If that's not the case, I still can't imagine any situation that justifies chasing away the guy who's done more for your sport in less than two years than anyone ever could have imagined doing in the previous 14 years since the split.

And to have this come out immediately after a huge success of a 500, I bet whoever is responsible for this feels real good right now.
Click to expand...

Somebody once said the power struggle in open wheeled type Indy cars is as complicated as the pursuit of peace in the Middle East, they have a point.



The France nascar dictatorship suddenly makes more sense when compared.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom