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

The thing I can't believe is that Sato didn't collect Franchitti when he went around.

Colleague started a debate via Twitter. Here's his two tweets and my response:

Every year when I watch the #Indy500, I wonder why IndyCar isn't more popular than NASCAR in the U.S. Too many foreigners? Bad marketing? / I guess I just don't dig the long, slow, plodding, bumping races that NASCAR puts on. NASCAR only gets exciting for the final 10-15 laps.

Me: Yes and yes. Cannibalized the sport just before the racing boom of the late 90s. Now that it's together and good, recession.

 

There was some foreshadowing by the announcers earlier in the race when they said Sato has some trouble being patient. And when that happened, I had a thought that if Sato had waited a little longer, he could have pulled off that pass in turn two.

And goodness, Ashley Judd must have run a hell of a race in order to be the first one interviewed afterwards. A little while later, it sounded like the PA announcer congratulated Judd and there was some booing as if to say "This isn't about HER!"

 

I think NASCAR can appeal to non-racing fans in a way IndyCar will have a tough time overcoming. The cars are really easy to identify. They look like rolling boxes of Tide or Bud Light or big-ass tributes to the military, so it's easy for people to pick a rooting interest even if they can't name a driver. They jostle, they bump, they have wrecks that involve 15 cars.

In IndyCar it's often tricky to even tell the cars apart. There isn't as much movement and jostling as NASCAR. And obviously, it's been hampered by being a third-rate crappy series for a while. It's entertaining now, but it has a lot of years of damage to repair.

I don't know about the foreign driver thing. It may well hurt IndyCar, but I don't get that. I can't imagine how godawful IndyCar would be right now without Franchitti, Dixon, Sato, Wilson, Kanaan... I think the foreign drivers make it far more interesting, but there certainly seems to be some core group pissed that they're not watching 33 guys named Buddy.

My view is slightly skewed by the fact that I find ovals incredibly boring. Today was my typical Memorial Day weekend Sunday -- get out of bed, watch Monaco on the DVR, and by the time I'm done watching that there's about 50-60 laps left in Indy. Just about perfect.

 

There's one other problem for IndyCar: while there's a big Midwestern chunk of fans that thinks it should be all ovals, a lot of those ovals draw crowds that look like high school football games. Get a few hundred miles away from Speedway, Indiana and no one cares about IndyCar on ovals. There's a clamoring from fans to go back to Phoenix. I went to the last race in Phoenix, and the crowd appeared to be well shy of 10,000.

I get the oval history of IndyCar and I'm fine with having a mix, but if I'm a race promoter I want no part of selling IndyCar on an oval in most parts of the country.

 

Yup. But it's doable ... and the Indy 500 helped prove it.

Excellent race. Funny that Sato pulled exactly what Franchitti advised one of the "rookies" - put in quotation marks because it was someone like Rubens Barichello or Jean Alesi - not to put their tires below the white line. That's what Sato did and he couldn't hold the speed and pull the pass on that line. Strong work by Franchitti not to get collected in the wreck.

Wonder if anyone will mention this in a story.

People would consider going for open-wheel racing. I would and I was born and brought up in NASCAR country. Thing is, the open wheels is still more pure racing IMO. Look at the number of passes for the lead in the 500. NASCAR always loves to pull that card. Funny how no one mentions that rules are changed in midstream if NASCAR thinks it's going to screw up their show.

It's not a show. It's a race. If you want reality TV, pitch another awful idea and get in the long line.

 

What should not be overlooked is that on the second-to-last restart, Tony Kanaan passed FIVE FUCKING CARS to take the lead. Amazing.

Of course, ABC in its infinite shoddy production of the 500, never showed a replay of it. Even though there was another yellow in which it could have.

On Sato, as PCLoadLetter well knows, along with any other F1 observers here also know, there was no way in hell Takuma Sato was going to be cautious in a position to take the lead.

That last lap move is what he does. Banzai Sato. He's aggressive as hell and it makes him very exciting and very frustrating (at times) to watch all at once. This is a guy who once got slapped in the helmet by Michael Schumacher at Spa. I told my wife on the last restart that if he got in a position to win, it was extremely likely he'd hit the wall on the last lap. He had several Nigel Mansell-like moments just before that where he nearly brushed the wall.

I loved it. I disagree with some commentary I've seen that the pass was tried too soon. Because of the way the aerodynamics on the Indy cars was working today, Turn 1 was the best place to pass. The short chutes seemed to screw up the draft, thus the classic Turn 4 pass would've been tougher to pull off.

I don't think Sato went too low, nor do I think Franchitti squeezed him (as I've seen some of my F1 friends contend). It's the last lap of the Indy 500. You don't expect quarter to be given, nor do you give any. That's why I loved the end of that race. No one gave in. Franchitti won, all power to him. All power to Sato for pushing it to the limit.

That moment is why people like me love auto racing. You live to witness something like that.

 

ABC, once again, awful.

Ashley Judd interview? Fine. Give her 30 seconds. Delana Harvick would probably get the same after the Daytona 500.

But it seemed like that interview dragged on for 4 or 5 minutes, and it was almost as awful as the national anthem prior to the U.S. men's soccer game Saturday night.

The race was awesome, though. Spectacular final 10 laps, and I'll remember that Tony Kanaan drive for awhile. Great stuff.

 

I'll cut ABC a little slack on the Ashley Judd thing. I get that they are in a tough position of selling the event to as broad an audience as they can, and she helps. What struck me was how much she seemed to be mugging for the camera. I've seen her in that situation plenty of times, and usually got the impression she was being accommodating but didn't necessarily want to be on camera. Today, she seemed like she was really milking it.