Hot take: Roger Penske and Penske Entertainment must go back to the track management business so they can create some bargain power against ISC and SMI, like offering a race in Indianapolis in exchange of a race in one or two NASCAR tracks.
Indycar Racing and Indycar Racing 2 were the first original sims. With an old computer they are still quality sims. Mario Andretti racing was a great video game that was the forerunner to those two back in the early 1990s.
@@rexthewolf3149 It turns it form an Aero game into a Mechanical game. Less downforce + moar POWAH = sketchy cars that requires the driver to be more on top of it than the engineers. This results in tighter racing as they don't have the aero grip to deal with tire skidding, so the drivers have to manage speeds to maintain pace.
@@pjludda4323 The current cars still have a big deal of mechanical grip involved. They make some good downforce, but nothing like most would seem to think.
"Hot" Take: NASCAR owning the majority of major ovals in the United States has been drastically detrimental on the IndyCar schedule and to an extent it isn't really Roger's fault like everybody says it is. It's way harder to make a deal with a competing sanctioning body to race at their track than schedule 2 races a year at privately-owned tracks (Iowa & Milwaukee)
The lack of big ovals racing in the series is a big draw back for me. Short ovals are ok... but indycar year after year continue to axe tracks like Michigan, Pocono, Texas, Fontana. Imagine bringing a track like Kansas or Homestead even Phoenix would be cool and it's a top notch facility. There's even Kentucky and Chicagoland sitting doing nothing. There should ALWAYS BE THREE BIG OVALS on the schedule. With a triple crown cash bonus.
YES!!! I grew up with the Triple Crown races, Indy 500, Pocono 500, and the California 500 at the Ontario Motor Speedway. Yes, there was a track in Ontario, California. It was called the Indianapolis of the west coast. When Ontario closed down, I believe it moved to Riverside International Raceway for a 500 km race. Both of the California tracks were great, too back they don't exist anymore. My replacement track would be Long Beach with a 500 km race. Pocono should raise the wall / safer barrier by about six to eight feet to keep the Indy Cars out of the catch fence. Remember Pocono was built to hold both Indy Cars and NASCAR Winston Cup cars.
As a casual motorsport fan from Australia, the thing that got me on board (npi) with Indycar was the 'In Car Theatre' videos on their YT channel. Before then I never realised how brutal the cars were to drive and how close and exciting the racing was. Shame they dont do it anymore and instead posted onboard footage is either a 1min video or from one cars perspective in a 15min format
Yeah, ABC, ESPECIALLY late 80's-early 90's knocked it out of the park with their onboards. Recall Al Jr. at the start of the 89 Portland race, IN-TENSE! Really got you into it.
Hot take: The thermal club race is the first step to going back to Surfers Paradise or Japan. I hope we see one exhibition race every year going forward. Maybe Mexico next year?
IndyCar is treating their business like I do an essay I'm writing at the last minute. I'm just trying to get it done as easy as possible. They just want to make Honda and Chevrolet happy and live in la-la land, but I don't think they realize how unsustainable that is going to be in the long run. They need to take risks now to benefit continued growth, rather than stagnation
Hot Take: Laguna Seca is the coolest track in the United States and deserves to be the championship's final race. Also, David I CAN'T AFFORD TO GO TO MILWAKEE DAMNIT!
It would be awesome if they could upgrade that track to FIA Class 1 status without changing the character too much. Imagine 3 F1 races in the US at COTA, IMS, and Laguna Seca rather than COTA, Miami, and Vegas.
I'd be inclined to disagree there. Barely anyone gets into F1 via stuff like the renult in fm7 however I know a lot of people as a teenager in the UK who play the F1 games as the only racing games they're interested in. So the games themselves are probably more likely to pull fans once they get a large playerbase. However this relies on one thing. The indycar game cannot be a full sim. It needs to attract more casual players.
@gentlemandriversimracing5904 having those guys come in full time is awesome, but could you imagine the interest if Max Verstappen raced at Long Beach? Or Chase Elliot runs at Iowa?
Ironically, there used to be a free-to-play racing game. It was called Simraceway, and I believe it had a DLC Indycar. It was an Rfactor clone, but it actually drove quite nicely, and the road cars were a hoot. It was cool to have officially licensed Koenigseggs and Bugattis in a sim racing title.
BMW would be a great 3rd manufacturer for Indycar to pursue. They've committed to US racing with their IMSA program, could help RLL become great again, and they've got a good stable of drivers. Imagine the international prestige that'd come with Valentino Rossi at the 500!
Hot Take: IndyCar leaving Texas is the beginning of the end of superspeedways other than Indy on the schedule. They may have to create a scheduling agreement with NASCAR just to run on ISC/SMI tracks. Most big oval tracks are owned by ISC and SMI.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but ISC and SMI owning almost all of the major NASCAR tracks seems like a monopoly to me..... which could, technically be illegal, but you never heard me say that....
The double header would have worked much better if NXT and Xfinity raced on Saturday, IndyCar and Cup raced on Sunday. Then you would have had both fanbases come for both days. I attended 2 of the 3 doubleheader Saturdays and the fact that the pricier sunday ticket only yielded a single race and no other track activity is why I never even considered making it a two day trip to stay for Sunday.
Hot take: The Long Beach GP and Saint Petersburg GP have the potential to be huge races, but their proximity to each other and huge schedule gaps hampers that potential.
In re: chassis changes: what made the different chassis manufacturers so interesting in the past wasn't that you could spot the differences between, say, a Penske and a Lola right away; it's that the subtle differences made so much of a difference in their performance. (compare the Penskes in 1994 vs 1995). One of the interesting stories of F1 buried beneath the Verstappen dominance is how the different cars (required to be so by rule!) react differently to different tracks. Will this be a good track for Williams? Why is the Mercedes not as good this weekend? and so forth. I absolutely don't think IndyCar should go this far (that gets expensive, and other than Penske, most teams that tried their own chassis didn't do well with them), having a couple manufacturers changing things year over year gives talking points. Even if the casual fan doesn't know the difference right away, imaging the broadcast commenters saying, "This year's Dallara hasn't been so good on the street circuits, but on the short ovals has been outstanding, so expect their teams to do better than expected here at Milwaukee. The Penskes should also be good, but the Lolas have too much drag for this track." Ok, now the casuals get a real insight into the whole thing.
HOT TAKE: Now that travel restrictions have eased, racing in other countries will help attract fans from other countries. You can either have them at the start of the season or if they go to europe then in June between Memorial Day and 4th of July. Look at all the circuits they used to race at. Surfers Paradise well always well attended in Australia, then you have Twin Ring Motegi, Rio, Mexico and the former ovals of Rockingham in the UK and Lausitzring. I am not saying they need to use these races again (the old indy circuit in Surfers Paradise now has a tram line along part of it and the supercars race is on a shortened version) but this will help attract fans around the world. This is one of the big reasons F1 is so big as it has always been a global racing series.
The logistics and cost for these teams to ship cars/equipment/ staff overseas would be insurmountable. Possibly a “one off” event could be done but I don’t think they will ever take on overseas events with any regularity
@@aaronb4936 They did it 25 years ago. You make a trip to Australia and come back 2 weeks later through Japan. You go to Brazil and come back through Mexico. All it takes is one Jumbo Jet transporter (two at the most) to ship all the cars. Ship Hondas in one and Chevy's in the other. They aren't that big. Really need to get out of the can't do mode to make the series grow and if you aren't growing you are dying.
Hot take: coming back to Portland International Raceway, was a stroke of genius, trying to expand into the Pacific Northwest, and don't be surprised, if we hear talks about a Seattle street course race, especially in the rain..... and I am so looking forward to Portland next year, as it takes place on MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
Hot take: the best way to add a club race to the calendar that fans will like is at a track near Seattle. We get a probable rain race which can make for good tv, without drenching fans
This episode really resonated with me. A couple thoughts: I disagree that a chassis change wouldn't be noticed by the casual fan. When I first started watching IndyCar casually (i.e. it was on the TV when we went to my grandparent's on Memorial Day) I couldn't identify the different manufacturers but what I DID notice was the cars looked different every year. Each year I would think "they can't possibly make a faster looking race car" but when the next year came, the cars looked even quicker. Second, I totally agree that there aren't many hardcore IndyCar fans. I'd love to be one, but what do you get excited over? Dampers??? IMSA has played these cards well: not long ago I was searching the internet for more pics of the Cadillac GTP engine to see how close it was to the Corvette Z06 engine (hint: the head castings are VERY close). The last time I was I did that for IndyCar was... before the internet was popular. Finally, Milwaukee. I was at the last race in 2015 (and every other race for the previous 20 years) and let me tell you, there are FAR more people typing "bring back Milwaukee!!!" than actually attended that race. I get it, it's easy (and inexpensive) to be a keyboard warrior and type that into your phone, but the actual people who clear out that weekend, buy tickets, and actually SHOW UP to the race is a completely different (and much older) demographic.
Hot Take: Standing Starts need to be incorporated on Road and street courses. It’s time to insert onboard starters on these cars and allow these drivers to not stall out and bring out yellows. Develop a formula to prevent stalling out so easily.
Hot take #2: indy car should go to all the F1 tracks in the USA and Canada to steal that sweet European viewership. Montreal, The glen, Austin, Miami, Vegas.
Hot takes: If we're going to red flag races with 5 to go, we should be red flagging the race for similar accidents anytime during the race. And drivers should have to use the turns 3 & 4 warm up lane to pit. Create a commitment line at turn 3 warm up lane entry. If caution comes out, drivers committed there can still pit or bail out and rejoin the race track off of t4. Solves the Alex Palou problem from 2022 (and a group of others in 2021 and previously)
It's been a while, but thinking about it as I watched this... I'm not sure what was worse at this point. The actual split or the fact that Indycar pulled the iRacing Indy 500 away from that member base. I say this as 44 yr old father of 2 😂
The iRacing thing is blowed out of proportion so much, iRacing is not even that big in the greater gaming landscape and every player in it is already a die hard racing fan that already is aware of what Indycar is. I don't think indycar fans would stop following the series because they can't do a virtual rendition of the official schedule, Indycar it's still there, just unbranded and running an alternative schedule, won't be long until motorsport games folds and the iracing deal is restored. The young target audience that Indycar is looking to attract is not on iRacing.
@LucasMir0 Ehhh, I will go against that a bit. The Indy 500 special event had thousands of participants each and every yr. There really was no good reason for Indycar to pull that plug, considering they had to do exactly nothing for, or spend a single nickel on that event. Going with a Russian scam company just proves a lot about the issues Indycar has currently. They have no identity (outside of IMS) and they don't really seem to care about moving their own needle.
Hot take: IndyCar has done doubleheaders on the same track before, but what about a doubleheader on two different tracks in close proximity? I'm thinking Saturday Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (FKA Mosport) then Sunday downtown Toronto for the street race. The two facilities are a 2 hour drive apart. Get to CTMP Friday evening, unload. Practice first thing Sat AM, qualifying, wave green at 4PM Eastern, checkers around 7PM. Pack up, haul car to downtown Toronto overnight, do the same thing Sunday. Offer a discounted ticket package for fans to attend both races, and bonus money if a team can somehow sweep the weekend. Grueling yes, but absolutely doable.
Hot Take: Leaving NBC & going with the CW in the next TV deal will benefit Indycar in the long run. Also Indycar needs to return to Vancouver/Edmonton in order to get a second race in Canada. The reason why I didn't say Montreal is because F1 would likely shut out Indycar from racing there. Heck NASCAR might have issues with trying to get a Cup race there next year.
NASCAR Xfinity will be on CW exclusively starting in 2025. Contract goes through 2031. Not sure if IndyCar following would be good or bad. Would IndyCar get preferential treatment for our Saturday races (IMS RC, Iowa 1, Gateway, Milwaukee 1)? What about qualifying on normal weekends?
Hot take: 2 races at Iowa should stay but if IndyCar is serious about double race weekends on ovals why not adopt the sprint race idea for Gateway and Milwaukee with 100 lap races and should still be televised.
Indycar just needs to focus on providing better entertainment all around, Better race coverage, Proper pre and post race shows, Proper podium ceremonies, ect focus on the racing and stop focusing on the drama or banter between the commentators. Advertise the season and series like they do the 500 and actually promote the series. Some people in indy still today think indycar only has a 1 race event and its the 500 they dont realise its a whole series....
Hot take: It's going to be extremely difficult to have an Indycar race outside the US or Canada nowadays, not because Indycar can't reach a deal with track owners and not because there's no market for those races (Mexico and Argentina do have big markets with intrerest in motorsports), but because of the sponsorship issues that come for some teams. Of course maybe it won't be as big of an issue as it was in 2001 now with a more global economy, but seeing how expensive for the teams a race in like South America or especially Europe would be, if they can't find any big sponsorship most likely would be against races far from home.
Hot Take: IndyCar needs to forget about NASCAR unless and until the two series are approximately equal in fans; then the ISC and SMI tracks will be more interested. Instead, if they're teaming up with another series, it should be F1, which has more overlap in fans. Do double weekends with them at the North American races, or even a non-championship round at a European grand prix. It brings the growing US F1 fanbase to IndyCar, with their younger demographics, and it aids F1's growth in the US by bringing in existing US open wheel fans. Further, it provides more value for money for the expensive F1 tickets.
Hot take: When, not if, Andretti get on the grid to race in Formula 1, GM will axe its engine program in IndyCar and get Ilmor tooled up to build a Cadillac F1 engine. When that happens, I fear that IndyCar will be too slow to react and could become a single engine series once again.
People want superspeedways but hate how dangerous they are. You have to take the good with the bad. On a side note, casual fans are more interested when the cars are going 200+ and the risk is high. It's morbid but it's the sad reality.
Yes absolutely a game is necessary. my little brother can play the F1 games and get to know about F1 through gaming, the same should be able to happen with IndyCar it is desperately necessary for younger demographics.
Why? Gamers don't want to sit down and watch TV. They reaaaally don't want to watch TV with commercials, my son is 26 and he doesn't watch anything with commercials and he loves cars and likes going to races
@@Indyslotcar I played indycar 2005 when I was little. I loved it. It got me interested in the sport very much and I’ve been a fan ever since. Video games help.
@@jbuckthemanyeah I was the same in 2005 but my cousin has played F1 & Nascar game and doesn’t watch one sec of the racing he just likes playing racing games
I have 2 hot takes: 1.) Expanding on my older hot take maybe international rounds are the way to reliably get superspeedways back since none of them are owned by smi or isc i don't think. Stuff like Rockingham (uk), motegi, etc 2.) The indycar game will be a failure as a sim racing game. In order to attract new fans it needs to appeal to a casual audience. The f1 games work as a sim lite as it allows them to include all the key features about f1 (eg tyre strategy) whilst still being approachable to the average joe.
As much as we hate it, TV and streaming now runs motorsport. And what looks good on TV isn't necessarily the racing. That means that unfortunately a half-full (or less) oval track looks worse than a half-full road track, and so, unless fans fill a oval like fans do in NASCAR, Indycar will gravitate more towards road and street courses for races, because that's simply what looks better on TV regardless of whether the races are actually good.
Hot take: If IndyCar wants to keep the Indy GP on the schedule, it should be the season finale. Indy would then have the biggest show of the year in the 500 AND the finale.
It's pretty tough to become a hardcore fan with a schedule with limited races and giant gaps. Other content just overwhelms indycar for much of their season. With other motorsports, I know that during a certain season I can count on weekly races. With Indycar it feels like I'm guessing when and where to watch. David is more reliable indycar content than official indycar content and that's a big issue.
An Indycar console game will move the needle 0.01%. Ive said that 100 times in your comments everytime you get on that soapbox over the years. The reason theyve been unable to get one done is the gaming companies cant be bothered cause they can make way more money developing other things.
Hot take, the thermal club race is an interesting return to the origins of "gran prix" racing. Should it allow fans? Yes. But racing for a purse like golf tournaments is cool. It used to be their dollar earnings were the championship ranking in golf!
Hot take: a Indycar race out of the United States would have a better fan attendance than any other (excluding the 500). Especially in Australia or New Zealand with the amount of fans down here.
Hot take: Indycar needs to drop the traditional TV package and bring the video production in-house. The only way the sport will grow is if the majority of the races are available to watch for free. The traditional TV model is dying and the future is streaming. If they bring the video production in-house and offer it for free on their own platform or an existing one, like youtube, then they will reach far more people than a paywalled steaming service from a legacy TV provider ever will. They could sell their own ads on the free stream and offer a paywalled ad-free version that also gives you all of the extra content like qualifying, practice, pre-race, etc.
They did Milwaukee ten years ago because fans asked for it, then they showed up for the first years race, then didn’t show up again. Same will happen this time.
Hot take about IMS rather than Indycar. IMS should be open to the world of racing. Being “the racing capital of the world” should bring in all forms of racing. USAC on the dirt, karts in the kart track (battle of the brickyard), IMSA, GT World Challenge, indycar, WEC, F1, moto GP, and maybe the NASCAR xfinity series on the road course, and then the Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 as traditional events on the oval.
Just calling yourself "the racing capital of the world" doesn't make it so. Like calling your sporting championships and champions "World Series/World Champions" doesn't make that true either.
Hot take: IndyCar prides itself on combining street circuits, road courses and ovals on their schedule. IMS already has the last two. A street race in Indianapolis to me has to happen.
I live in Seattle and I’ve been to the Portland race a couple of times. The one thing makes me REALLY not want to go anymore is the total lack of comfort on the stands. Not sure if other races are the same, but it looks like they designed the stands for toddlers and expect grown ups to squeeze in. There is ZERO leg room and you have to squeeze to the persons next to you to try to make into the seat. So yes, fans failed IndyCar, but at least at Portland, IndyCar is failing the fans too.
Hot take: uniformed number fonts (from 1999-2001) ruined so many liveries and it sticks out like an absolute sore thumb. I want to know how and why the IRL did this back then.
Hot take: fan attendance in Milwaukee isn’t going to make a big change. Over 100k showed up to the 2 cup races at Road America and now Nascar isn’t going to be there at all next year. Being said, I’ll be at all 3 WI races next year
IndyCar isn't NASCAR, NASCAR is much more dependent on viewership then attendance when compared to other American race series. Each Cup race costs as much to get the broadcast rights to the entire IndyCar season, and most tracks with a Cup race make more from their cut of those broadcast rights then they do from attendance.
Hot take1#: Indycar need an Scandinavian race we have maybe 7isch Scandinavian drivers next year they should be able to pull a crowd in for example Anderstorp (that I think is fitting for Indycar races) Hot take2#: Indycar needs a way to keep "lower quality" drivers out of the series. In my opinion it lessens the quality of the whole championship to see 1-2 cars 4 laps down in a green flag race. Hot take3: They need to make it easier and more exciting to follow the championship standing during races. Not a change in point structer but more updates during the race, make the championships fights across all the champoinship a bigger focus.
Hot take: IndyCar shouldn't open up engine development but instead should open up aerodynamic development at least for the Indy500. With the 500 being the only super speedway currently on the calendar it wouldn't have an effect on competition during the rest of the season. IndyCar has already given the teams more options over the years to fine-tune the aero balance of the cars so why not let the teams develop their own wings or maybe even their own bodywork? It would add differentiation between the cars that may draw in more hardcore fans from series like IMSA and F1. Well-funded teams that develop these aero components could then be required to make some amount available for smaller teams to purchase. This would help offset the cost of development and ensure much of the field remains competitive with the top teams.
Hot Take: Firing a driver before the season ends isn't something that any IndyCar team should be doing. As a team, if you want the fans to have confidence in your driver talent evaluation process, you need to at least let all of them finish the season before determining how well they did. I understand that there's a limited quantity of talent out there and that if some teams want to bring in a new driver, they want to get a leg up on starting the negotiation process to get the best driver they can before other teams who have not yet parted ways with any of their drivers can react. However, this leads one to question how the drivers perceive this. If I were a driver, do I really want to go to a team that's willing to fire its drivers in the middle of a season? I get that drivers are very competitive human beings, but I think that I would want to at least be given the chance to finish the season before any decisions are made about my future. Also, as a fan who lives vicariously through these guys, I think it's brutal, but maybe that's just the fan in me.
They make their sponsorship money with business-to-business connections. Notice the lack of consumer brands involved in IndyCar sponsorship. Notice the expansion of private seating/entertainment/VIP options. That's where the money is made. The stands have almost become a liability, especially when they're empty.
I feel on the racing game platforms they should make 3 games. 1 portable easy to pickup and play game on your phone. A full on simulation model or Gran Turismo type and a fun kids game that has all the tracks and drivers but is just geared towards fun factor racing around the real tracks with a push to pass turbo button. Just like the TV series on WB instead of HBO. I think Indycar goes in cheap on these types of things instead of something that is fun to play with your kids. My son wore his Josef Newgarden to school yesterday and nobody knew he was :(. Need to change that.
Hot Take: Indycar needs to lean into the Fantasy sports/sports gambling arena to help convert casual/marginal fans into die hards. Most of the demographic that participates in fantasy sports/sports gambling just so happens to be that elusive 18-45 year old male group that Indycar needs to capture. We just need that extra reason for somebody to go from casual observer to invested interest in the races.
Having been at, and on the track at the Chicago Road Course, That would be an amazing place for a double header with NASCAR. Sadly, even before we get into the rivalry - which you are correct about - the logistics of down town track would be almost impossible to add a third set of haulers. Also, as for race attendance, the only race I'm consistently at is RA, and that race is always well attended, well attended by families, young people, older people and such, and also by both casual and very knowledgable fans. But maybe that's an exception? I also believe Indy's open paddock is an under appreciated thing, when compared to NASCAR and F1, who put up a paywall (or pay chain link fence) and call it a safety thing, but its just a money thing. (Yet, F1 still lets Nico Rosberg in to take selfies and jinx teams)
YES! Your take on indycar lacking the hardcore fans is spot on. After decades of pandering to “the casual fan” I think it’s safe to say we’ve near squeezed all of the juice from that fruit. As a person who WANTS to be a hardcore fan and WANTS more content, etc I look at the number of “fans” who complain about paying $5/month to watch practices on Peacock and wonder if these are really the types of fans the series wants to build its foundation on
Also I think Indycar needs to get away from big networks. I've said it before but back when CART was a thing, I could pay £1 to watch every CART race they ran, broadcast wise, on a player and it worked surprisingly well on a 56k modem, it didn't care about networks, I could go from ESPN in 2001 to SPEED in 2002, to CBS in 2003 just by picking the race I wanted and hitting play. Why could CART do that in 2002, when they were imploding, but Indycar today can't or won't, why does a series that had Wally Dallenbach, Denis Swan, Chris Kneifel, Tony Cottman, et al, look like a better run series than modern Indycar in terms of offering a great deal to the fans?
Hot Take . The More INDYCAR shoots themselves in the foot by not running at ovals , having OEMs / Engine Builders do extra work just to enter , trying to move away from bump day , not getting NASCAR to do doubleheaders ( yes I know this horse is dead ) , and abandoning the hardcore fan , the farther you will move away from ever being relevant again . How are you going to get fans to beat said drum 24/7 when you constantly spit in said fans face? Partner with NASCAR or die hating them.
Hottake no2, indycar should do 1 support race for F1 when in the US at Austin for example, take advantage of the hundreds of thousands of fans showing for F1.
Hot take: Indycar and David Land have both totally missed the mark on video games. Indycar needs to forget about a standalone game. It would attract virtually no new fans and make virtually no money. The market is saturated, people already have their favourites, and only Indycar fans would bother with it. The focus should be on geting Indycar in front of as many gamers as possible by any means necessary. It doesn't need to be truly representative of Indycar. It doesn't even need to have the Indycar name on it. How cool would it be to have an Indycar-looking model in the next GTA? Or Rocket league? Or the next Fortnite? Obviously, Indycar should be trying to get in all the major racing games they can - arcade, simcade, and sim alike - to move some of the massive casual-racing-fan and racing-game-fan markets into the tiny indycar market. But they should also seize on any opportunity to be in any game in any facet. It's a huge market, and the barrier to entry is way lower than Indycar has been acting like.
Indycar should return to Las Vegas Motor speedway. Although Dan Weldon's death was tragic it's time to move on. This current car is much safer and the racing is more spread out. It would also give a superspeedway race that fans on the West Coast (like myself) could more reasonably attend.
screw it, i'll bite Hot take: Penske Entertainment needs to purchase Iowa, Gateway, Kentucky, and Pocono to secure future dates on ovals, otherwise oval dates, sans the 500 will eventually vanish.
Potentially dumb hot take with regards to the Texas fiasco: I think Penske should be more agressive when dealing with Nascar and use the Brickyard 400 as leverage to negotiate more ovals on the schedule going forward. "You wanna keep the 400 on the Cup schedule? Cool! Let us race at Chicagoland/Miami/whatever mile and a half and it's a done deal."
If the brickyard goes well this year which I bet it will, I think they can. They have to show how good and valuable it is then bargain with it. Trade for Texas security on the date or adding Richmond or homestead
NBC using NASCAR as a lead in to Sunday Night Football is as much a reason the season ends in September as the NFL itself. You could run an IndyCar race against the tail end of the early games and the 2-3 afternoon games and I'm sure it'd only knock the ratings down from 0.49 to 0.47. The ratings are already comparable to a Ronco Food Dehydrator infomercial in most markets, so why not run races and sell hospitality booths which are apparently the series' most valuable commodity in 2023.
How Month of May should be 1st week: Monday - Rookie Orientation/Veteran Refresher Tuesday thru Thursday - 8 hours per day Pole Qualifying Practice Friday - Fast Friday 8 hours Full Hybrid boost etc Saturday - 9-6 to determine Pole position. Run everyone once, then break from end til 3 pm. If you run again time withdrawn. ONLY POLE Determined. Promote Polesitter 2nd week: Tuesday-Thursday qualifying practice with 75% boost. Polesitter needs to have fastest speed Saturday - Qualifying for Fast 9. Same as week before but now only Front three rows locked 3rd Week: Monday-Wednesday race practice Thursday-Friday qualifying practice (on race boost rest of month) Saturday-Sunday remainder of field qualifying (2 lanes per usual). At 4pm Sunday top 27 locked. Last 2 hours are Bump Day. If you run you withdraw your time. Race Week: Tuesday-Thursday race practice Friday - Carb Day (Yes we are running Freedom 100) Sunday - Race Day
Hot take: Until someone can explain to the casual fan the skill involved in oval racing, Indycar and NASCAR will continue to struggle to grow there viewers. It’s fun to watch cars go in circles at 200 miles an hour in person whether you understand what is happening or not, but convincing someone to watch a multi-hour race where they “just turn left” isn’t as easy.
To me, the best IndyCar game is the 1989 Electronic Arts Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. No other game could match it, even now. Those who have completed all 500 miles there would understand. I have done it many times, and many times I have won. But my first victory didn't come easy, as I crashed in T4 on the last lap. Basically, I did the Hildebrand. The game is tough, especially the restarts with a full load of fuel. There was no tire warming at the time. The competition is tough. When somebody is really fast (about 5 cars), they are faster than you; you can't beat them, only on pitstops, but even then, you have to be perfect. Attrition helps, but you should do all 500 miles without causing a crash. The best cars there were Mears, Emmo, Al Unser, Mario Andretti, and Danny Sullivan. I guess Little Al and Michael Andretti were a bit slower in general, but they too were capable of winning. The lap traffic was no fun. Since I liked the 1998 race, I changed the cars and drivers to the 1998 field. There was an editor available. I even made 235 lap races; that was the maximum you could set in the editor. To win Indy in this game felt like a real achievement. Of course, I did it with damage and yellows. One time I crashed, but I could make it to the pits with a blown tire and still finish the race. You can somehow move with one tire down. Great memories!
My lap record was above 239mph. That is during a qualifying run when you ran out of fuel on the fourth last lap. Buick could blow up. I read on internet that people have done 240 mph. I might not be so great with the setup. But that is no easy thing to do. Lola-Buick was the fastest car. You could win races in any of three.
Agreed please go to Milwaukee, it is a riot and a half! A couple of bars right across the street from the south end of the track! I’ve got buddies up in Milwaukee that we meet at Indianapolis in Milwaukee all the time. Have fun Rihs and a good time. Milwaukee, the city, is a hoot and a half
The big four major league sports have done the same thing, made attendant and parking and concessions just a little bit of candy to the owners. The real money is on the TV contracts, end of story. Why do you think so many owners are content to put losing teams on the field year after year after year after year after year: Jerry Reinsdorf, the McCaskey family. Two longtime losers in basketball, football, and baseball. Remember the bulls got “stuckWith Michael Jordan as the second pic. They’ve been in the toilet ever since. Every game the Bears play is a toilet bowl. The White Sox haven’t done shit in 20 years
Indycar Texas matter and fans support the Texas race and all races matter and Indycar new and engine and car will happen one day don't worry you DL and I agree on many issues.
No, it doesn't matter when you have a series that's so unimaginative when it comes to selecting a oval tracks. To pad the oval tracks, Let's Race then twice in the same weekend. It might as well be 1971 than 2024 for Indycar.
