All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

They were also on "American Ninja Warrior." And I'll give them credit for vastly improving merchandise quality. Driver, IMS, and series gear is easily available now, and no longer tries to ape NASCAR's garish white trash-aimed stuff.

Like every sport, they need to somehow infiltrate kids. Kids should know who Will Power and Scott Dixon are. Put out a video game. It doesn't even have to be realistic - "IndyCar Jam." Get a cartoon Alexander Rossi into an episode of fucking "Paw Patrol." If the plan is to get 9-year-olds to watch cars turn left on TV for three hours, good luck.

You also have to distinguish yourself from NASCAR: We are not a redneck sport. We are a sophisticated U.S. version of F1. Seems you might have an "in" with millennials and hipsters going that route.

 

James Hinchcliffe does a lot of ads for Honda up here and you see him on talk shows because he is really good in front of the camera but as far as athletes here in Canuckistan he doesn't have the name recognition of the biggest hockey players or guys like Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista. In other words, my mother doesn't know who he is which is always my barometer for an athlete's popularity. But she knows Subban, Crosby and the big guys from the Jays.

 

It maybe we're just trying to save newspapers here, all over again.

 

Hey now ... I don't think my #3 ascot was aimed at white trash.

 

Sorry, but you and I must have different ideas of household names. I would grant you Castroneves, but that's probably as much (likely more) due to winning Dancing With The Stars as winning Indy three times. Maybe Marco Andretti, but solely because of his last name. I seriously doubt John Q. Sports fan would recognize Dixon, Power, Kanaan, etc. In the day, Andretti, Foyt and Unser were household names. Maybe Mears. Guys like Rahal, Fittipaldi, Sullivan probably in the second tier. Sullivan was helped by TV appearances like Miami Vice, his looks and dating big name models. Back then, when you mentioned auto racing in the U.S. people assumed you meant Indy stars, not NASCAR like today.

 

My apologies if I've ranted about this before, but I'm not a fan of the current Month of May schedule at Indy. I understand why a weekend of qualifying was chopped off, but the compressed schedule takes away a lot of the excitement and drama. Plus there is often rain in May, so the already limited practice time becomes even tighter. If you have rain on the only qualifying weekend like this year, there's no way to make up for it. Then having 10-33 requalify from scratch on the second day makes no sense to me. I also don't get the lack of practice to work purely on race setups. After qualifying you have the Monday practice, then no more track time until Carb Day on Friday. Would it be too difficult to add at least one more day of practice?
Separate note: I'm watching the Monaco second practice on the DVR. That new curb is going to be a disaster if it doesn't get fixed.

 

You are responding to an imaginary post. My point was that they are names to me because I follow the series.

Other than Dale Jr. and maybe Jimmie Johnson, I'm not sure many NASCAR drivers are widely recognized these days, either.

 

The Kentucky Derby comparison is quite apt, actually. The casual fan has no idea who the horses or jockeys are. Oh look, there's Bob Baffert. They tune in to hear "My Old Kentucky Home," see the weird hats and pick a winner based on its name, color or spots on its forehead. The race is over in two minutes, and everyone conveniently forgets about horse racing (with the exception of a possible Triple Crown winner) until the next May. But you can wager on it, which makes it unique among niche sports.

Indianapolis is shiny cars that go fast, Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and a bunch of guys with funny names. Casual fans tune in to hear "On The Banks of the Wabash," wonder if Mary Hulman will forget the words to "Gentlemen, start your engines" again and watch for crashes. Five hundred miles? Good God, why would anyone without more than a casual interest in the sport sit through three hours of bad ABC broadcasts?

But that's today's sports "experience" (ugh) in a nutshell. The team for which my grandfather had season tickets now has a ferris wheel, because the attention span of the casual fan is comparable to an amoeba. Even the major sports are trying to figure out how to lure younger fans, because the landscape is radically different than it was 25 or 50 years ago.

Yeah, there used to be 150,000 people at 500 qualifying. But that was before Indianapolis had the Pacers or the Colts. Nothing's the same. And if you don't offer something more than the basic product, you're in for a tough sell nowadays. Which is why there's a concert in the middle of the infield on Sunday.

I couldn't name one MLS player, but the idea of chanting songs and waving banners -- like in Europe -- appeals to certain people. You could say the same thing for any niche sport. You can't name any IndyCar drivers? I live 30 miles from Dawsonville and am willing to bet 2 out of 100 people at the supermarket today couldn't pick Chase Elliott out of a police lineup.

NASCAR is still using V-8s descended from the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and a chassis based on the 1960 Ford Fairlane. They finally scrapped carburetors just a few years ago and finally added 15 percent methanol to their racing gasoline. Junior is retiring at the end of the season. Danica is about to be unemployed, unless Lesa France Kennedy ponies up some ISC cash. Jimmie Johnson is 41. Matt Kenseth is 45. They're about to rely on Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Richard Childress' grandsons and the Busch brothers to revive fan interest. And the Daytona 500 will be stock car racing's version of the Kentucky Derby.

What may save IndyCar? One, Indianapolis is still the biggest race in the world. It's survived two world wars and the open-wheel split. Two, street and road course racing is an experience, which attracts people who don't care about the cars but want to be part of the action. Three, open wheel can adapt much more quickly to developing technology, with whatever alternative energy eventually replaces piston-powered gasoline engines.

Three weeks ago, Jenna Fryer's daughter hadn't heard of Fernando Alonso. Yesterday, Fryer wrote about how Alonso-mania is all anybody's talking about this month. That's how fast things can change.