The question is how does IndyCar make the most of it?
As I focused on in the previous blog, it's all about perception. Even among some who say they love Indy Cars, most of what you hear from them is what is supposedly wrong with Indy Cars, not what's good. Let's get started on changing that perception.
The Cars
There is nothing wrong with the car currently being used in the series. Spec cars are a fact-of-life in 21st Century auto racing. After watching Sunday's race and witnessing how much passing was going on all over the race track, not just for the lead, I would say the current car is a pretty "racey" car, meaning you can pass other cars with it. Drivers were passing all over the place last Sunday.
Oh, but they don't go faster every year in qualifying - SO WHAT! Indy does not need 240 MPH time trial averages! The faster you go, the more money you need to spend to do it and the more teams like Dreyer & Reinbold will have to throw in the towel. The current balance among the teams has never been more competitive, don't change that. Faster also narrows the racing groove. Narrow equals less passing - simple as that, no exceptions. 228 MPH was just right!
Indy got just what it needed Sunday - 68 lead changes between 14 drivers, 19 cars on the lead lap separated by less than 10 seconds while running under the green flag, one engine failure, only 21 laps of caution, 133 consecutive laps of green flag racing, one-car, limited-budget racing teams competitive with the giants of the sport and a track record race average of over 187 MPH! A 500-mile race that lasted less than 3 hours! That's what will bring the fans back! Thank you, Randy Bernard!
What Derrick Walker needs to focus on is not how to change this car, but far more importantly, how can we build more of them cheaper! Mass produce that damn car.
I think he should begin to work with Dallara on ways to crank out more of these chassis at a lower cost.
They should be following the model of the electronics industry.
Remember when flat screen HDTVs hit the market. Cutting edge technology - a 42-inch Pioneer Elite was $15-GRAND! Few people could afford one. Here we are just a few years later and you can buy a 60-inch 1080P LCD 3D Vizio for under $1,000. Once you master the technology, then flood the market with it.
Look at the I-Phone - it's $600 - why - they keep making changes to the design and can't produce enough of them. Yeah, there's lots of really cool stuff the I-Phone can do, but outside of Facebook, Twitter, messaging and very little talking, (I paid $35 for my "3G smartphone" and it does everything I need - talk, FB, Twitter, message, I can even deposit checks to my bank with it) how many of those other apps do you really use or need? If Samuel L. Jackson can't figure out where to buy mushrooms for his Greek cuisine dinner the phone is already cooking for him, what has this world come to?
Make it so anyone who could afford a top-dollar sprint car can now afford to go IndyCar racing and watch how fast guys like Bryan Clauson is running competitively at the Speedway. There would be 150 entries for the 500.
We would need to bring back Harlan Fengler to tell novice drivers to come back when they get more experience. I'd bet it would take a month just to figure out which 33 cars would qualify for the race - Deja Vu!
The Drivers!
I know this is going to rub some folks the wrong way, but this is my perception of the reality of Indy in the 21st Century. A driver doesn't have to race at Eldora to earn the right to be called the best driver in the World. That was then, this is now. The sooner the traditional IndyCar crowd who haven't already come to the conclusion that the BEST drivers in the World ARE at Indy now regardless of birthplace, the faster we can push the bar higher at the Speedway as far as fan popularity is concerned.
We need to start promoting drivers like Kanaan, Andretti, Franchitti, Hinchcliffe, Dixon, Castroneves, Power, Carpenter, Briscoe, Wilson, Pagenaud, Bourdais, DeSilvestro, Newgarden, Legge, Munoz, Sato and the rest as the the best qualified drivers in the world instead of calling them a bunch of rich crybabies who bought their way in (which they DID NOT). Then the quicker Steve Levy and the rest of the stick & ball guys at ESPN will start paying more attention to IndyCar. The days of buying your way into Indy have been over for some time now - get over it! These drivers are good racers. If the fans who say they support Indy depict their drivers as unqualified, how do you expect those who don't know to think anything else?
Let me give your brain something to gnaw on and might make you change your perspective if you haven't already.
Who is the most traditionally-rooted IndyCar owner involved right now - I say it is four-time winner and Indy Legend, A.J. Foyt. Who is Foyt's driver this year - a Japanese former F1 driver named Takuma Sato! Why did Foyt hire him? Sato did not come with a giant sponsorship package to support A.J.'s wallet. In fact Foyt is still working with his many-year sponsor ABC Supply again this year. He hired him because A.J. thinks Sato is one damn fine, hard-charging race car driver! A.J. loves this guy! Why, that last lap balls out, passing attempt on Dario Franchitti in 2012 is right out of Foyt's own playbook. He won at Long Beach charging hard, drove so deep into the final turn at Sao Paolo that Hinchcliffe pulled a sprint car slide job on him to get the win. Good for Hinchcliffe, too. Sonofabitch, that guy's a Canadian.
So if A.J. Foyt thinks the guy is that good, shouldn't we join him? I have!
If there is any driver out there in any other form of racing - including NASCAR Sprint Cup - bring it on baby. I think you might just get your ass kicked! Unless you are Kyle Larson!
For the majority of it's history, Indy has been an International event. In the early years Frenchmen, and even an Italian/Englishman (Dario Resta) dominated the scene. Two of Wilbur Shaw's victories came in a Grand Prix Maserati built in Italy! Scotsman Jim Clark passed on Monaco GP in 1965 to come and win Indy, and quite frankly, that quiet F1 champion kicked those sprint car-racing American's asses so soundly enough, that even they admitted he was one of the best ever. Ralph DePalma and Mario Andretti were born in Italy.
The Track
As for the track. There's a lot of renovation needed for the old gal. I have been pounding on this drum for a long time but I really and truly believe this may be the most important change that needs to be made at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - go back to the way Carl G. Fisher started running the place in 1911 after he discovered many races were not as good as one GIANT of a race is!
That philosophy made Indy what it was and again should be! The experiment of having other classes of cars at the Speedway, adopted in 1992, is turning out to be a dismal failure. Go back to one race, one month (or even just one week) and that's it.
By introducing other types of cars, the image of an Indy Car has changed over the past 25 years. We need to get that identity back. The only way I see that happening is by racing only INDY CARS at INDY - period.
NASCAR, F1, MotoGP motorcycles, Grand Am, Nationwide have all been dismal failures. Sure, the first couple of years that NASCAR was allowed to race on the track, there was a lot of interest, but really, was the racing (cars passing other cars on the race track, not in the pits) any good? NO!
There were many errors in judgement made by those in charge back then regarding a lot of things. Since then a lot of those mis-judgements have been repaired and in some cases have strengtened open-wheel racing for the better. Now is the time for IndyCar to stand up for itself, take back the place that is rightfully theirs - The Indianapolis Motor Speedway! A new sign posted at the entrance of Gasoline Alley!
