Indy, how far you've fallen

B

BigWill

2,500+ Posts
pole day on versus.

A nascar guy takes a dump, it's on a major network.

Sad. They really ****** up a good series.
 
It also goes to show how little the American audience requires to be entertained in racing. That NASCAR is the king says a lot about the dumbing down of our country. It's a joke worldwide and rightfully so.

But yeah, Indy blew it.
 
I am. I am in the crowd. I am in a large blanket just waiting for the right moment to make my presence known.
 
Having attended Indy, I can attest that the average 500 fan is no smarter than the average Nascar fan.

I do agree, though, that, in person, open wheel is much more exciting than Nascar.
 
This will be my 25th Indy 500 to attend. I was attended Pole Day yesterday. I have attended a few NASCRAP races and F1 races. I can attest to the the fact that NASCRAP fans are much less educated and intelligent than open wheel fans.

And yes IndyCar did indeed blow the good thing they had and you could see it gradually coming before the split accelerated it.

See ya at Indy.
 
Mandingo, take it easy on SPEED. If SPEED wasn't around we would be getting F1 highlights days after the races.

SPEED plays to NASCAR for one reason - money. Until another series comes up with more, NASCAR will the the bully in the room.
 
I am going pretty easy on SPEED compared to what some other people have been saying. The problem isn't just this one incident. It's that this erosion of coverage is the way it started with WRC and other series that are now gone from the lineup on SPEED.

I'm suggesting an alternative to dumping all these great series from their programming...one that I believe would please SPEED brass, fans of NASCAR, and fans of many other series, both domestic and international.

OLN and HD Theater seem to find ways to make money off of WRC and other motorsport. NASCAR may be king in the US, for now, but it's not the only race out there by any stretch.
 
So what you are saying is that the race is not over?! Heh.

I just count myself lucky and hold my breath about WRC being on. I hope it is successful for HD Theater and that they continue with their fantastic coverage. Any day I expect to hear it is coming to an end.

Now to just get Australian Rules Football back on.
 
You know, it's funny, when I'm in Mexico, I can turn on the tv and get the same coverage of WRC on ESPN International. They carry lots of international racing coverage. Here, it's an afterthought on ESPN...but F1 is starting to get more and more mentions.
 
Aussie rules is on ESPN2 at 11pm on Saturday nights.

HD Theater's WRC presentation is barely better than nothing at all. SPEED's F1 committment is live practice; slightly delayed qualifying (delayed by 10 minutes or so for their intro piece); and live race. You really cannot compare the two.

Also, as I found out yesterday, Bloomberg is showing the FIA GT1 and GT3 series Saturday and Sunday races live. It is the British feed so there are no commercials and very informative commentators. The next race weekend is 03-04 July from Paul Ricard.
 
re: the GT1 series, I just found extensive video coverage of all this season's races on their (awesome) website at The Link .

That Ford GT looks badass.
 
The Bloomberg airings are live which means they are on the same schedule as the event. Today's races were on at 05:30 (GT3) and 07:00 (GT1). One issue is when time is up regular Bloomberg programing takes over. That was a problem on Saturday when both races ran over due to weather.

The Ford that won is quite stout. There are a couple of others who are now quite as good. (One of them is even driven by two girls!)
 
a couple of thoughts. Yes, Indy and 'the split' hurt open wheel racing in the US tremendously.

mandino. you do realise that Fox owns Speed, and pays A LOT of money for 1/3 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, so they have a great deal invested in the sport, unlike other forms of racing. Not saying it is right, just saying it is a money issue why NASCAR trumps on Speed.
Last thought to the OP. Vs. is moving to try to becoming a bigger player in sports coverage period. I don't know where Indy pole ranks in terms of sports viewship no matter where it is shown, but I bet it isn't that high. It is a small piece of Vs. growing their sports pedigree.
 
Son of a gun, are you shitting me, Viper? Really? OMG, that is awesome if true. I adore that sport and catch highlights online. I know what the DVR will be recording from here on out.

Go West Coast Eagles!!!

Thank you so very, very much for that info. You have done your good deed for the week. Seriously, much appreciated.
 
You guys should go to the IndyCar race at TMS in a couple of weeks. You just might like it...

One thing that might bring more of the interest in IndyCar back might be to increase the technical innovation allowed by the teams, a la F1, and the way it used to be in CART and other American Open Wheel.

For myself and a lot of other people, having different cars on the track that are always improving in different ways is an awesome attraction. Technical innovation becomes a story unto itself, giving the fans stories unrelated to driver personalities and bs squabbles that they can follow constantly, even throughout the off-season as the teams develop their cars. Intrigue between teams develops as they try to one-up each other, and new rivalries develop. It's a gift that keeps on giving in an era when you never want to be out of the public eye in the marketing business, which is all racing is.

I understand costs would be increased by allowing technical innovation, but maybe they could find cost-efficient ways to allow teams to tweak only certain parts of the cars, or just set a Developmental Spending Cap.

While I understand the motivations, spec series just leave me cold in the end compared to the alternative. I like IndyCar. Introduce some meaningful technical innovation and I'd likely love it and follow it year round. Sponsors might like that, too.

In reply to:
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mandingo,
I wasn't trying to bust your chops at all, and I am NOT saying I agree with Speed/Fox's programming decisions. I just didn't know if you knew that, but you did.


That Ford GT looks amazing as well. That is my dream car and has been almost since I got into cars and saw one at... the infield museum at Indy.
 
So true, Indy has fallen far. I used to really look forward to it. Back when the Unsers, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti would duel it out, those were great races. Then Jim Clark and Graham Hill came over from Europe and challenged the Indy establishment, those were great.
It's sad to see the American open wheel field split among two series.
 
Oh, yeah, I thought that was going to happen. Shows you how little attention it brought to the sport. They went about trying to kill each other for 20 years, and more or less both sides succeeded.
 
Does anyone think the $20 million prize and open engine rules would be good ideas? I'd really be interested in seeing what would come about and who would try. Or are these just bum ideas?
 
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