I said that about the strap after I saw Jack do the opening green flag. And a couple laps later when he did it again, I noticed that he had a white band around his wrist. I’m assuming it’s just like a wiimote strap.
I love watching open wheel racing like Indy and F1, but I can’t stand nascar style racing. Which means the whole CART/IRL split has ruined my favorite sport. I really did enjoy that ESPN article on it, particularly the part where he discusses the problems IRL faces when attempting to recruit native talent without a true growth path for drivers to come up.
The other major problem I see is that there are relatively few winning caliber teams. It makes it tough to grow the sport if there isn’t enough competition to make it really interesting. The 500 demonstrated that. Despite the runner up’s impressive fuel strategy style gains near the end, the eventual winner was rarely challenged for the first 190 laps. (carefully trying to avoid spoilers). You don’t get fans interested if the outcome seems pre-ordained early on barring an accident. You need races that are see-saw style events with a number of drivers in contention.
I’m hopeful that the new car chassis next year will bring in interest, drivers, and competition. But, you never know, the owners might stick with the really traditional style model.
The Ed Hinton ESPN article on the CART/IRL split was interesting but he overdoes the “decreasing number on Americans because of road courses”. In the early 1990s ratings and crowds were very high. Bill France (NASCAR) and Bernie Ecclestone (F1) were worried, especially when F1 champion Nigel Mansell left F1 to drive in CART. George would have been better to form his own racing team if he wanted to give you Americans like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon a chance. Starting his own league was an act of hubris and it didn’t do him much good except lose a lot of money and leave a weaker open-wheel series.It also weakened the Indy 500 because innovation used to be what Indy was about, not a spec series (which ends up being dominated by two teams).
Agreed. I think that the idea of more Americans in open wheel racing is not a bad one, but the thinking behind it is, IMO, more often xenophobic and insular than not. I liked the Hinton piece, but he pretty clearly takes the side of George and Foyt against the big bad upstart CART car owners that think they can have a say in racing. His bias definitely shows.
And while it’s undeniably true that many CART drivers bought their rides, they were also amazingly talented. Alex Zanardi was miles faster than nearly anyone on the track, as was Montoya and Junquiera after him.
Yeah, I’d like to see more Americans in open wheel racing too. But internationalization is a reality - it’s even happening in “good ole boy” NASCAR, and it’s not going to change.