Craven Morehead

Possibility of not having a full field of 33 for the first time in years. As of last weekend 85,000 tickets were still for sale. This race used to sell out for the next year one week after it was run.

What are your thoughts on Indy? What went wrong?

bellzboy

Tony George's split with CART and the infusion of foreign drivers replacing the americans has killed all open wheel racing in America, and that includes the 500. Not to mention, the rule forcing a large number of the spots to go to IRL drivers doesnt help. And the cost of putting a car in the field is huge, especially now that you need a new engine and aero package.

laconic1

It's unfortunate that the split happened, but what is even more unfortunate is all the things that Tony George found wrong with IndyCar racing in the early '90s when he founded the IRL are finding their way into the IRL.
He founded the IRL with visions of american drivers coming up through the open wheel ranks, and for the first year or so of the IRL that was true. Now there are as many foreign drivers as there ever were in CART.
He tried keeping costs down, and making things like engines more accessible. Now engines and chassis are more expensive and less accessible than ever to the little guys. Guys like Penske and Ganassi can still just outspend everybody and win that way. They have won the last four races between them. If I'm a small team owner, how do I even hope to compete against them? I have no idea how the IRL should fix its problems, but open wheel racing in the U.S. is on it's deathbed.

Serpent

The split wasn't what doomed open wheel racing. It was the poor management of CART. CART was dominate until the CEO left and everyone found out what trouble CART was in... After that George tried to buy everyone up and has done a good job at that, while trying to imulate NASCAR and not doing a good job at it.. I for one am not going to the 500 this year as i have done in years past (went last year for the first time since the split) and i have to say it wasn't as good as before the split... Another problem is, all the current up and coming drivers want to goto NASCAR instead of CART or the IRL and that just kills it, because americans want to see american drivers, not someone who can barely speak english.

cycloptor

i completely dissagree.... CART did not kill OW racing. the split killed it, and the split only helped to further weaken CART and it's position. George wanted to emulate the France family and what they have with NASCAR.... only has failed utterly with the IRL so far. What he should have done, if he knew anything about anything, was talk mergers with CART a few years ago and actually negotiate one. Not turn his series into what it set out not to become (if that makes sense).

Now I'm not saying that George is the only one to blame, CART was stupid and made mistakes along the way as well, but CART never set out to destroy the other guy, and in fact, with the new ownership is really starting to turn itself around...

Serpent

I didn't say that CART set out to destroy the other guy, just that CART's failure to stay intact is what has doomed open wheel racing.

cycloptor

sorry, misunderstanding....

still though, lets be honest, OW racing in north america was going to need a shot in the arm no matter what. and the IRL and the way that it was and is doing business is not doing it any good. CART in my personal opinion is doing a much better job now than the IRL at any given point in time. hell, TG has even managed to kill the indy this year....

both sides need so smarten the fuck up and sit down and talk merger because the state of affairs is rediclous. and, mark my words, in two to three years, if that dosent happen, one of two things will happen. both series will be hurting big time, or, CART under current management, will change engine and chassie regs to be more inline with the IRL, Honda and toyota get fed up with the lack of people watching on tv and in the stands at irl races and move to CART again and CART flurishes (sp) yet again...

yeah... ...think about it...

Delvid

The real race at Indy is in June. F1 race last year was awesome. Rain, hail, dry then wet. Anything goes. Alot of hotties there too.

cycloptor

lol...so true it hurts. thank god for the circus that is F1.

shakran

i think the real reason Indy is in trouble is because of market saturation. Look at the stats. We have nascar stock cars, which are shiny things going in a circle. We have nascar trucks, which are boxy shiny things going in a circle. We have outlaw racing, which are weird looking shiny things going in a circle until they're too dirty to be shiny anymore.

In short, we have too many shiny things going in a circle - something which was barely interesting to begin with. Especially with the increased exposure of F1, WRC, SCCA racing, etc on Speed Channel, people are starting to figure out that there are more interesting races to watch than shiny things going in a circle.

cartmen34

Tony George and the split. Yeah, that's what we need, more cars going in circles for hours on end.... yeah.



Two sides to every story, but yes, F1 owns all. Going to my first (of hopefully) F1 races in June. *gets geesenipples just thinking about it*

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"The problem with quick and dirty, as some people have said, is that the dirty remains long after the quick has been forgotten" - Steve McConnell

Chemical

I went to my first Indy 500 this weekend. What an amazing experience. I'm from Canada so we don't get events like this and it was definitely well worth the drive down.

It wasn't so much the race itself, as I found that kinda boring. I was sitting in the 1st Turn Infield seats so we didn't really see much except for the 15 seconds when the cars went by. What I really enjoyed was the experience. The whole tailgating aspect, the Sat night before the race, the events goign on inside the track on Sat. I'm glad I went and my friends and I are planning on goign back again. This time we'll know what to expect so that we'll be more prepared.... i.e bringing a BBQ, deck chairs and such.

I do have a few questions though. Why in the world don't they drive in the rain? They do in F1, why not Indy? The F1 cars are bigger and faster right? Is it really worth paying for more expensive seats?

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matteo101

Word

sky_driver

I have never been to an indy race, but imagine it would be a fantastic experience. I have seen nascar, and it is quite impressive to see what goes on in the pits as I had a pit pass during races in Atlanta and Daytona. It would be nice to see more American drivers.

castex

They don't drive in the rain because it's quite dangerous enough as it is.
I watched this last night, and was thrilled by the skill and daring of some of the drivers involved. If Tomas Scheckter hadn't blotted his copybook with that nasty alleged rape business a couple of years ago he clearly could have been almost as big a star as his dad. Did anyone see him overtake about 5 cars going into a turn halfway through?
Nutter!