Originally Posted by HDINDY:
Not much tradition left at the big oval,road course ,golf course. Concerts ,Motorcycles all we need is a midway with rides on the front stretch.
How many folks might be at least mildly interested in the 500 because they went to a concert there? It's a way to put the race in the consciousness of folks who might not otherwise give auto racing a second of thought.
Even Roman Chariots ran non-wing, and on dirt. Hail Caesar!
I have the same feeling about this lock in situation as I did about the 25/8 situation. To me the fastest 33 belong in the first 11 rows. If you want to guarantee spots just add them to the field. It's a really big track and theres plenty of room for your guaranteed spots to add on to the tail of the field. My first preference would be the traditional bump day that actually meant something, but apparently I'm living in the past with this thinking.
Looking back a few decades.
Cars bumped:
1969-2
1979-2 but those two started the race.
1989-2
1999-5
2009-2
Dr Indy had a terrific site to the history of the 500 but most of the statistics are no longer on his new
site.
If three cars get bumped this year,that's about average.