What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Why does such a proud Mecca for open wheel racing like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway allow the debacle that is NASCAR's second tier race to run at such hallowed ground? Racing at Indianapolis should be a spectacle, not an embarrassment.

Yes the stock cars generally have always produced a snooze fest at this track with few of them even coming within 500 miles of being good races. But at least NASCAR enjoyed huge crowds and all the excitement they bring in the early days there. This second tier race (I can never remember what corporate sponsor is in play) has been an absolute joke each time it has been run, never drawing more than a few thousand spectators.

Today there weren't 2000 people in the grandstands. Nearly every one of the individual grandstands were completely empty. One section that had some people, the NorthWest Vista (the turn 4 area), had literally just a few dozen fans. A handful of sections clustered around the start/finish line on both sides of the track, the Paddock and Tower Terrace grandstands were somewhat full, and there were a smattering of fans in the A, B and E stands, which are along the main stretch and towards turn 1. Why does NASCAR continue with this event, on national TV, before a virtually empty grandstand? It makes no sense. How can the drivers stand to compete there when they can't possibly feel there is any excitement whatsoever in the crowd.

I would bet that had NASCAR started this back in the early days of the Brickyard 400 when some people thought the NASCAR race was starting to overshadow the Indianapolis 500, when NASCAR was at it's zenith of popularity, it probably would have drawn much better. Lucas Oil Raceway (Indianapolis Raceway Park) used to draw 20-30,000 people for their second tier race, which preceded the Brickyard 400 by more than a decade. It continued to enjoy huge popularity in the early years of the Brickyard 400, and in fact drew even larger crowds because of the increased attention a top tier NASCAR race brought to the area. Had NASCAR put the race at the IMS in 1998 or 1999 it may have attracted 100,000 people or more. But when they moved it there, attendance at the Brickyard 400 had already been cratering for years. The thought then was perhaps a second stock car race on the weekend would help bring some of the fans lost, back. Well, not only did that NOT work, they wrecked what had been pretty popular event and replaced it with one that one day might be the first sporting event held at a major venue that actually draws zero people.

NASCAR needs to admit they made a mistake with this race and end it. It's terrible racing anyway and without a big crowd there isn't anything to get excited about.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Wanted to mention, I took my son to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on Saturday for the IMSA race. Great venue, beautiful beautiful place.

Got to meet Mike Hull, Scott Dixon's chief strategist and get a good up close look at the 2017 Ford GT and the prototypes. Pretty cool stuff. But still not Indycar cool.
 
WeAreNDHockey said:
Why does such a proud Mecca for open wheel racing like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway allow the debacle that is NASCAR's second tier race to run at such hallowed ground? Racing at Indianapolis should be a spectacle, not an embarrassment.

Yes the stock cars generally have always produced a snooze fest at this track with few of them even coming within 500 miles of being good races. But at least NASCAR enjoyed huge crowds and all the excitement they bring in the early days there. This second tier race (I can never remember what corporate sponsor is in play) has been an absolute joke each time it has been run, never drawing more than a few thousand spectators.

Today there weren't 2000 people in the grandstands. Nearly every one of the individual grandstands were completely empty. One section that had some people, the NorthWest Vista (the turn 4 area), had literally just a few dozen fans. A handful of sections clustered around the start/finish line on both sides of the track, the Paddock and Tower Terrace grandstands were somewhat full, and there were a smattering of fans in the A, B and E stands, which are along the main stretch and towards turn 1. Why does NASCAR continue with this event, on national TV, before a virtually empty grandstand? It makes no sense. How can the drivers stand to compete there when they can't possibly feel there is any excitement whatsoever in the crowd.

I would bet that had NASCAR started this back in the early days of the Brickyard 400 when some people thought the NASCAR race was starting to overshadow the Indianapolis 500, when NASCAR was at it's zenith of popularity, it probably would have drawn much better. Lucas Oil Raceway (Indianapolis Raceway Park) used to draw 20-30,000 people for their second tier race, which preceded the Brickyard 400 by more than a decade. It continued to enjoy huge popularity in the early years of the Brickyard 400, and in fact drew even larger crowds because of the increased attention a top tier NASCAR race brought to the area. Had NASCAR put the race at the IMS in 1998 or 1999 it may have attracted 100,000 people or more. But when they moved it there, attendance at the Brickyard 400 had already been cratering for years. The thought then was perhaps a second stock car race on the weekend would help bring some of the fans lost, back. Well, not only did that NOT work, they wrecked what had been pretty popular event and replaced it with one that one day might be the first sporting event held at a major venue that actually draws zero people.

NASCAR needs to admit they made a mistake with this race and end it. It's terrible racing anyway and without a big crowd there isn't anything to get excited about.
Click to expand...

They're pushing for the Busch Grand National Series... Err Busch Ser... Nationwide... Xfinity Series to more closely shadow the Cup series in an effort to draw more money. Attendance has been dropping the last few years, and tracks that fans care about (IRP, Milwaukee, Memphis, Nashville Superspeedway) have been left off the list for return trips to NASCAR owned tracks (SMI/ISC (21 tracks owned between the two with 31 Cup races of a 36 race schedule))

It's a lot easier to have the crews for cars running both divisions to be in the same garage/infield than scattered across a city, or some times across the country.

For the "standalone" Cup weekends (which are increasingly rare) NASCAR experimented with combining the Busch or Trucks with Indycar weekends, but it was apparently a disaster attendance wise as fans of only one type stayed away.

I honestly wish they would focus more on the smaller tracks for Busch/Trucks, but money drives the sport and without butts in the seats, they can't afford it. The weekend is already rented out for Cup guys, might as well use the track.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Wanted to mention, I took my son to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on Saturday for the IMSA race. Great venue, beautiful beautiful place.
Click to expand...

Lime Rock is one of the best tracks in the world to spectate at.

And wicked cool to drive...
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Holy chit. Target is out as an Indycar sponsor. Dixon will need to get a new sponsor. Not good for Ganassi or the series as a whole IMO. 27 year relationship done.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

We now enter the F1 summer break with Lewis grabbing hold of the F1 title lead.

As has been pointed out- it appears that the incident in Spain made the two Mercedes drivers go two directions- one better, one worse- and the results are playing that out. I do want to be a fan of Nico's, as I really liked his dad. But that excuse yesterday for driving Verstappen off the road was pretty weak. Yes, you were full lock AFTER you drove him off the track and left no room. You are lucky he didn't drive into you and break your car like Lewis did.

But Mercedes has really shown some dominance with Lewis driving so well. Once he's out front, he just is out there controlling the gap.

It will be interesting to see how he and the team deals with the failures of the early season, which will start coming back to bite him, soon. He's running out of parts. Wonder if both Monza and Spa would be the tracks where he takes major grid penalties- as both tracks are pretty easy to pass on. And if there's any chance of rain on Sunday- I'd do it in a heartbeat. The chance of a SC on either track would be strong, which would bring the pack back together.

As for the rest...

Red Bull is finding some speed, even with that lump of a Renault engine. Big move in relative performance.

Ferrari, on the other hand. Goes from a close 2nd to a less close 3rd team.

Torro Rosso has really fallen off. Nothing left in that thank, it appears.

Force India has found some nice legs- pretty much the 4th fastest team now, over Williams. Which I'm not sure what's going on there.

Renault is making a year out of a bad one- showing more and more speed- starting the season back, and now is mid.

McLaren is really trying to be the 4th best team- and is making it really good. My gut tells me that by the end of the season, they will surpass FI. But they still have fuel consumption issues. That nobody else seems to have...

Manor is Manor. At least scoring points.

Sauber. Geez. They appear to be imploding.

Then the new guys- Haas. Started off a LOT stronger than we thought they would. And, for the most part, maintaining that speed. Which means they are not scoring points anymore. But they are finishing, and usually reasonably strongly. Not counting Brawn (which was Honda), I can't recall a brand new, ground up, team being this good. Which is cool.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Holy chit. Target is out as an Indycar sponsor. Dixon will need to get a new sponsor. Not good for Ganassi or the series as a whole IMO. 27 year relationship done.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised they lasted this long. Most of that was due to the former CEO's relationship with Chip, because the ROI reasoning to stick around this long had diminished long ago.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

alfablue said:
We now enter the F1 summer break with Lewis grabbing hold of the F1 title lead.

As has been pointed out- it appears that the incident in Spain made the two Mercedes drivers go two directions- one better, one worse- and the results are playing that out. I do want to be a fan of Nico's, as I really liked his dad. But that excuse yesterday for driving Verstappen off the road was pretty weak. Yes, you were full lock AFTER you drove him off the track and left no room. You are lucky he didn't drive into you and break your car like Lewis did.

But Mercedes has really shown some dominance with Lewis driving so well. Once he's out front, he just is out there controlling the gap.

It will be interesting to see how he and the team deals with the failures of the early season, which will start coming back to bite him, soon. He's running out of parts. Wonder if both Monza and Spa would be the tracks where he takes major grid penalties- as both tracks are pretty easy to pass on. And if there's any chance of rain on Sunday- I'd do it in a heartbeat. The chance of a SC on either track would be strong, which would bring the pack back together.

As for the rest...

Red Bull is finding some speed, even with that lump of a Renault engine. Big move in relative performance.

Ferrari, on the other hand. Goes from a close 2nd to a less close 3rd team.

Torro Rosso has really fallen off. Nothing left in that thank, it appears.

Force India has found some nice legs- pretty much the 4th fastest team now, over Williams. Which I'm not sure what's going on there.

Renault is making a year out of a bad one- showing more and more speed- starting the season back, and now is mid.

McLaren is really trying to be the 4th best team- and is making it really good. My gut tells me that by the end of the season, they will surpass FI. But they still have fuel consumption issues. That nobody else seems to have...

Manor is Manor. At least scoring points.

Sauber. Geez. They appear to be imploding.

Then the new guys- Haas. Started off a LOT stronger than we thought they would. And, for the most part, maintaining that speed. Which means they are not scoring points anymore. But they are finishing, and usually reasonably strongly. Not counting Brawn (which was Honda), I can't recall a brand new, ground up, team being this good. Which is cool.
Click to expand...

Nice synopsis.

I do think Hamilton and the team will take the double penalty sooner rather than later. And you make a good point -- if there is any chance of rain on Sunday, the team should jump on that weekend to take the penalty.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Kepler said:
Are there lead changes in F-1 anymore? It sure seems, for lack of a better word, boring. Pretty, but boring.
Click to expand...

When has there been? Last time I can remember would be the 70's, before I watched.

But, like any other sporting event, there's nobody forcing anyone who does not want to watch.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Holy chit. Target is out as an Indycar sponsor. Dixon will need to get a new sponsor. Not good for Ganassi or the series as a whole IMO. 27 year relationship done.
Click to expand...

Terrible news for the series and Ganassi, but the handwriting was on the wall when they went down from 2 cars to 1. Now they'll still sponsor NASCAR even though INDY is where the relationship began and the INDY is what has brought home CHAMPIONSHIPS and an INDY 500 win.

Of course that's par for the course.

I hate to be negative but I just don't see how Indycar will grow back into a relatively mainstream sport anymore. :(
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Kepler said:
Are there lead changes in F-1 anymore? It sure seems, for lack of a better word, boring. Pretty, but boring.
Click to expand...

There have been some fantastic fights on the track. And I'm not talking about the Mercedes teammates smashing into each other. I don't know what you've been watching...
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

solovsfett said:
I hate to be negative but I just don't see how Indycar will grow back into a relatively mainstream sport anymore. :(
Click to expand...

They had a decade head start on NASCAR as far as declining popularity and now all of the things that are decimating NASCAR (and live sports in general) are happen to Indycar as well.

Sometimes I think something that has been especially damaging to the popularity of auto racing of all forms is that far fewer people want to (or can) turn a wrench on a car anymore. Combine that with the lack of attention span of the upcoming generations, and the truly horrible way the two major auto racing sanctioning bodies in the sport in the United States have run Indycar and NASCAR for all of the 21st century so far and it's easy to see why they have become niche sports.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Kepler said:
Are there lead changes in F-1 anymore? It sure seems, for lack of a better word, boring. Pretty, but boring.
Click to expand...

There you go... you went and got alfablue's panties in a bunch again!

Really sad news about Bryan Clauson. Going to be a lot of heavy hearts as Indycar returns to Pocono anyway after Wilson's death. This just makes it worse.
 
Re: 2016 Open Wheel Racing- this Haas to be a great Roissing year.

Very sad news about Bryan Clauson. I really hate this sport sometimes. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top