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While being out of the country this year prevented me from watching the Indy 500, I have to ask a question thats been nagging at me for several years now.

Is it even relevant anymore?

It might just be me and and my changing tastes in racing. But ever since the CART/IRL split in the mid 90s, it just hasn't been the same for me. I was a fan of CART and its more road-racing oriented schedule, as opposed to IRL's "open-wheel NASCAR" format. I had gone to several CART races at both Mid-Ohio and Burke Lakefront and enjoyed them, although I never went to an IRL event.

In an IRL-world, Indy just became yet another oval in a season of ovals. But when CART ruled the day, Indy seemed like something special -- it was a unique track (compared to road courses) with a ton of history behind it.

So am I the only one who feels this way? Is Indy must-see TV anymore?

-Dave

Whats Indy Car racing???

I never really did follow it.
I think it's more prestige than anything...

Several hundred thousand people show up there, so I'd guess it's still relevant for one day a year. The rest of the time it really is not. There are so many problems with it (and the rambling starts).

At the Indy 500 a lot of teams are pasted together just for that race. A good amount of them just are not prepared and have technical problems.

These cars are so fragile that when they touch they break. A lot of the drivers are weak so they touch a lot. This causes a lot of caution laps - there were two cautions in the first 10 laps today.

When they break they drop water adding time to cleanup.

The cars don't carry a starter so when they spin they need a tug from a tow vehicle to get restarted. Don't tell me how primitive NASCAR is - at least they have starters!

They don't race every week. We don't have football games spread out with 3-4 weeks between each one.

If you have fewer races wouldn't you want to put them all in places where your target audience is? A certain percentage of a sport's success has to do with real fans going to races. I've seen the Champ cars run at Burke Lakefront, I enjoyed watching the races there as you could see the whole track. It was not too crowded either.

They have added some interesting aspects - like one set of tires with more grip, and the "push to pass" short term HP boosts, but it's not enough.

It might be more relevant than AAA baseball, not sure though. Reason I bring this up is that drivers don't stay - just like AAA ball players. It's hard to have a favorite driver when they end up going somewhere else.

Plus I don't like Danica.

I think it has a "tradition" type following. I have neighbors who moved in from Indiana. They always talk about how
much fun they had at Indy. In fact, the husband goes back every year still. I don't necessarily think its all about the
race though. It's kind of like going to Carlisle for a swap meet, when you know that there will not be much there to
buy for your car. You just go for the fun time. I don't necessarily think everybody there is a huge Indy car fan.

GMJohnny wrote:I think it has a "tradition" type following. I have neighbors who moved in from Indiana. They always talk about how
much fun they had at Indy. In fact, the husband goes back every year still. I don't necessarily think its all about the
race though. It's kind of like going to Carlisle for a swap meet, when you know that there will not be much there to
buy for your car. You just go for the fun time. I don't necessarily think everybody there is a huge Indy car fan.

Yep, I think its like Carlisle without the walking. A friend who lived near Indianapolis used to to every year and tailgate with a group in the infield. Think the race was secondary.