Open-Wheel Racing in America: Does anyone still care?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I actually grew up watching Indy cars before the Indy split. Then indy split, then anyone without cable or satellite couldn’t watch any indy racing unless it was nearby (Burke Lakefront or Mid-Ohio for me) or the 500. Then along came IROC which was really neat because the cars were real similar except all different colors so you could follow the purple one or the yellow one and the driver’s talent and luck were the deciding factors. NASCAR was the next logical step. Ingenuity, talent and luck are rewarded as well as deep pocketbooks and political saavy. And the cars are lots of shiny colors with cartoon characters, movie heros, and the M&M’s guys. I can identify 90% of cars on the track in a field of 43. Some other ideas:
Number of races. IRL races 14 races, NASCAR races 36 points races plus Gatorade duels and the All Star race.
Number of drivers: IRL lists 23 drivers this year, NASCAR.com lists 65 drivers in the points standings.
TV coverage: I can watch prequalifying practice, qualifying, happy hour practice, and the race plus usually Busch Series qualifying and race and a Craftsman truck race in one weekend. IRL is usually race coverage only (unless it is on and I don’t realize it)
Which brings us to access to the little guy at the local track: NASCAR drivers own, support, and race at local tracks. Kenseth and Stewart were up here at our local half mile on a Monday night earlier in the summer. Also, there is access for the little guy to show up with a car, qualify into a race and win it all. See David Gilliland for details. He went from first start in a Busch series to on a short list for a full time Nextel ride next year. I don’t think anyone has any dream of moving from local or regional racing to an open wheel car team in the elite series in a year.

And I’ve never seem anybody throw beer cans at an open wheel racer. Let’s face it, whether you like it or hate it, the open emotions of NASCAR make it fun to watch. The drivers, the crew cheifs, the fans, the girlfriends and fiances all make NASCAR fun to watch.

22

Then you’ve never watched the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where the Michelin tires were failing in qualifying so only the six Bridgestone-equipped ran the race. I think it’s dangerous with the open cars though.

23

Uh, the International Race of Champions was run for the first time in 1974, long before the Indy/Champ Car split. The car they used was a Porsche Carrera RSR.

24

I think the point being made there was that his motorsports-watching progression went from open-wheel to IROC to NASCAR. You know, IROC was the transitional step between the “giant go-karts” and the “taxi cabs.”

25

Yeah, that’s what I meant. IROC itself is older than I am. The style of IROC is very similar to NASCAR (which actually makes IROC pretty pointless since half the drivers are NASCAR drivers and they always win).

26

Okay, that makes sense. But I thought a little history lesson might be interesting, and the idea that IROC was originally not so heavily influenced by NASCAR.

27

(emphasis mine)

Not entirely true; Sebastien Bourdais (Champ Car) and Danny Lasoski (World of Outlaws) both have IROC wins in the past 2 years.

IROC does have too many stock car guys, though. And they need to quit using non-champions as field fillers (Ryan Newman? Carl Edwards?) I am glad to see that the ARCA champs and the Grand-Am champs got in this year, though. Odd how there are two IRL drivers this year, but neither of them were the 2005 champion.