James,

Your post is pretty much right on with the exception of the "boring follow the leader train race" comment. If you would have seen Tobias come from the 13th row to win at DuQuoin or other notable drives on the miles, you wouldn't think that way.

Yes, there are some every now and then but these races are a different kind of race. You have to race the competition as well as the track. You have to drive a good handling car when full of fuel and manhandle that animal when the fuel load burns off. All the while taking care of that right rear tire. That is why we like the 100 lap race concept rather than the 50-50 split.

IndyCar will continue down the road it is on. Sorry to say that USAC has tried to kill the Silver Crown division and I am not too sure that they still won't. Yet all of the while, NASCAR continues to be the "leader" of racing in the USA.

For me, bring on the short tracks. Every weekend we see outstanding racing that you know can't be duplicated. Then the next race comes along and it is termed an instant classic. All of this that a bunch of so called race fans never see. Bring on the short tracks.

I like some of what he says. Stock block engines? If you can make it work, do it. Open the rule books? Yes please. Spec series? No thanks. However, road/street courses do not need to go. My guess a lot of people who b*tch about them have never seen one in person. It takes all the balls and skill to drive Mid-Ohio as it does to flat foot it around Chciagoland. I feel that multiple disciplines and innovation is what can differentiate IndyCar. That being said, there no doubt needs to be more ovals. Not all mile and a half cookie cutters, racetracks. Richmond, Dover, Milwaukee, Indy, New Hampshire, to name a few. And now I'm really going to put my head on the chopping block. There does need to be more American drivers in the series, and if they come from dirt tracks, great. But "furriners" as some describe them, are important for the series too. TK, Power, Dario, and Dixon are all fantastic drivers. Again, differentiation. Maybe a USA vs the world. Lets put our best against their best.
Finally, here's a proposal for an IndyCar rules package. 700-1100 hp and half the downforce. 250 mph isn't that important to me. A driver having to drive his car is.

Posted via Mobile Device

That sounds great lets get a couple of races on the one mile dirt tracks to the mix for them furriner guys to race on in them big old front motor cars for points. That really would be fun.

Honest Dad himself

Champ Dirt Cars on the IndyCar circuit a absurd idea , Maybe, Bobby Unser has been a long time advocate of Dirt Cars to be back on the IndyCar Sked, In my conversations with Uncle Bobby, Randy Bernard was @ least considering it before he was given the boot

You might ask Will Power if he would like to Race a Big Car on the Mile Dirt ... you might be surprised @ the answer ?

IIRC Alex Lloyd went to Kruzer's Skool & had a new appreciation for Dirt Track Racing

I could imagine Rodger , Chipper , Mickey A would have a temper tantrum about gettin dirt on the soles of their shoes on the front straight @ Springfield , If I was race director I would throw the Green on Darland, Clauson, Power , Carpenter @ see how fast they could do some stepin & fetchin gettin outta da way LOLLLL !!!!!!

I would tell the whine & cheese crowd knock off the complaints & if you do not want to race the Dirt Tracks .... do not show up !

I'd ALMOST buy into this, except for NASCRAP. What do they know that Indycar doesn't ? They're going BACK to the roots of racing. It may be the truck series, but they're running at Eldora this year. Seems like dirt is for more then farming in their eyes.

NASCAR has a benevolent dictator running the show. He will be running the show today, next week and five years from now. In short they have stable leadership. Randy was always one bad decision away from being ousted as 'head' of IndyCar. He was in the leadership position but we all know who was running the show.


And there you have it. It's a culture clash. With Indycar you have a chef cooking up a fancy dish to eat. With us it's "who's gonna run up to KFC and get a bucket of chicken?" We love dirt and most of us love pavement. and as someone else put it, Michael A don't like to get his shoes dirty.

It is what it is. Outside of AJ, Ed, Davey and Sarah you won't change the mindset of most of the other car owners. IndyCar will continue to go down the primrose path with this mindset, just like CART, ChampCar, SCCA F5000 and CanAm (3-times) did. Like Mudpacker said, the weekly shows will still be here and USAC, warts and all, will still be here. That's enough for me. If Tony K, Tomas and a few other want to join in on the fun I'd be happy to see them. Of course we would make suttle changes like calling them Tomas "The Slammer" Schecter and Tony "The Kushion King" Kanaan.

1 thing missing from the old formula theory, people are not hands on anymore like they were 15-20- or 30 years ago. Heck I would like to know of the people that have posted on this thread,how many of you actually change your own oil or air filter? Everyone used to change there own oil. Quick pole here at work, out of 20 people working around me, only 2 of us change our own oil. Only half of the people could tell me how often you are supposed to change your oil. The other half either said they change it by the sticker or when there car tells them its time to change. To go back to the old formula, you would have to have major media backing just to educate the fans on what they are seeing. By the way I also asked the same 20 people this question:

Do you ever go to the race track? 60% no, if I want to watch racing, I can turn on the TV for free. The other 40% attended either the 500 or 400 last year. Only 4 people attended a short track race.

This might be the most telling post of all. NASCAR has a huge following, but I'd bet a large chunk of their fanbase doesn't care about the motorsport aspect at all. They don't care about the technology on their cars, the physics behind racing, or even what's going on the track. It doesn't translate to the mainstream anymore(unfortunately). But, as much as I despise NASCAR, I have to admit they did a good job of making their product relevant to the masses. They play the WWE factor of the sport. They play up driver rivalries, stuff like that. They've in essence turned racing into reality TV.

I make ALL mechanical repairs on all 4 of our family vehicles. I also go to the races, and work on race cars too. As times change though, it has become more specialized. You either learn to progress , or stand around and have someone else do it.

As for the Big Leagues as they say. BORING. Take a friend to a short track , when they want to take you to a MAJOR race. A trade if you want to call it that. You'd be surprised how many people will come back. But you have to get them there first.