Great to see someone who raced (and once hit the water truck) at Bloomington Speedway win. But sad to see the crowd size. I went for many years including the first year but my last was 2013.

Saturday's crowd was truly pathetic. NASCAR's junior circuit used to get more spectators when it ran at IRP.

I would go to the xfinity race if it was back at IRP

Maybe so people don't have to sit out & bake in the early day sun, but instead enjoy a nice afternoon/evening of racing...thankfully it started when it did...idk if Kasey coulda beat Brad on ANOTHER restart...(they woulda had at least one more, if it wasn't getting dark...I am sure...).

I'm pretty sure the stands were about as empty the last time they started it any earlier. IMS needs take the apron back out so the stock cars can race 2 wide........

The members of IoW have prolly been to millions of races that start at 7pm (or after - I've been to many that never start on time); so why is a 2:40pm sched green flag even a discussion point??? idgi. I agree with the one post though, with up-coming rain, you'd like to think they coulda bumped it up 10-15minutes at that point...it wasn't like they had people waiting outside in long lines to buy tickets...lol

The story on local talk radio was that IMS had only sold 19,000 tickets a few days before the race. You certainly no longer have to order your seats a year in advance. You can just show up on race day and purchase tickets in any grandstand.

As for the late start time neither IMS or NASCAR cares about the ticket buying fan at all. It's all about the television ratings. And the overnight ratings yesterday showed that the Brickyard viewership numbers went up from last years and weren't very far behind this years Indy 500. IMS reportedly gets something like $15M from the NASCAR television contract for the Brickyard race so fans aren't the main priority when it comes to starting a race late in the day.

The story on local talk radio was that IMS had only sold 19,000 tickets a few days before the race. You certainly no longer have to order your seats a year in advance. You can just show up on race day and purchase tickets in any grandstand.

As for the late start time neither IMS or NASCAR cares about the ticket buying fan at all. It's all about the television ratings. And the overnight ratings yesterday showed that the Brickyard viewership numbers went up from last years race and weren't very far behind this years Indy 500. IMS reportedly gets something like $15M from the NASCAR television contract for the Brickyard race so fans aren't the main priority when it comes to starting a race late in the day.

i listen to Query & Schultz (97.5/1260 Indpls) most days. Query is part of IMS radio and he quoted tv ratings as being in line and even slightly better than the CC600 at Daytona. Double that of some lower profile nascar events. So you're exactly correct. TV calling the shots to the tune of 15 million.

Personally, i'd love to see them move Xfin back to LORP and run the cup race saturday at 11 am giving fans a chance to checkout local tracks that evening.

Ultimately do we even need a stock car race at IMS? It's like late models at Knoxville, who cares? Just because it's an iconic race track in one racing genre, doesn't make it great for any other. If you want to win at indy, than become an indy car racer. Winning the brickyard may be special, but it's NOT the Indy 500

i wonder if the lack of atmosphere will entice any drivers to push harder for a one off deal to run the 500?

Bingo!! Just like trucks at eldora

Motorhead, I agree with your point, but will say trucks at Eldora have better value than cup at IMS, at least the trucks have some crossover value to expose some to dirt, even if it pales in comparison to what we know as real dirt track racing