Brickyard and Stevensville are correct as unpopular as there comments are. Stevensville is correct in that the result of Tony George's decisions nearly killed Indy car racing. Open wheel and sprint car fans love Tony because their heroes got a chance to race at Indy (I think this was cool too but it didn't lead to success). However, any dispassionate review of what transpired will clearly show this was a train wreck that the Indy 500 and Indy racing is just now recovering from.

CART was formed for many of the same reasons folks criticize USAC today. USAC was not promoting races well, purses were not what they should have been, and generally bad decisions were the order of the day. CART happened because of this and it was clearly the golden age of Indy style racing in terms of attendance and television. It was not the golden age for fans here for the reasons listed but facts are stubborn things and can't be dismissed because you don't like them.

We can all lament that Indy racing sucks because of rear engine cars, foreign drivers, not enough ovals, no grass roots racers, etc. but the facts are the world has changed and the 1960's are gone forever.

Roger and his good old boys club could have played along instead of taking their ball and going home. Pretty sure they had the opportunity but instead elected to go off and run some absurd contradiction to the 500. Either way my hat's off to all of you in this conversation, agree or not it's pretty well articulated. One thing I certainly have an issue with is this path of indy lights and so forth. They still run super modifieds in this country, you would surely think with any race acumen at all, that the stars of that type of racing could easily adapt to the indy cars, yet barely a sniff is given. I guess ultimately it's all a money game boys. The little bit I read of the Gurney letter implies heavily, it's a business. That said indy car should not at all be confused about why their American audience has declined, for them it makes good business sense to hire foreigners with big wallets, and let the star's of American short track racing go race stock cars!

I don't like how you addressed, "ISF" he made some good points, but you seem to like putting words in people's mouths and then dodge direct questions. I'm sure you are, "king ding-a-ling" on whatever CART board you frequent with all your papers and clipings, but this board is where actual American racers spend time, not so much a fan board for Indy whiners. I don't disagree with what your selected data says, only your conclusions. You, CART, El Capitan and Mr White Pages are all free to have your own opinions derived from the data you collected. Hey your a smart guy, you have a vast vocabulary and collect some interesting data. You see the 500 your way, I get that and I concede that the train didn't first go off the tracks with CART/Penske, it began several years before with some mistakes USAC made. Having said that, it doesn't change what was done after USAC, it just shows the continued chaos that led to today.

My opinion is that what TG tried to do, to move the needle more back towards being an American race with American drivers, with a focus on ovals(we like ovals in this country), was commendable. Ovals are American, like "Baseball, Apple pie, and Chevrolet". Road/Street courses are more of a European thing, I realize early on they ran some Road/Street courses with USAC, but over time America settled on oval track racing. Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon are some notable names that came out of the IRL era and several others that proved that drivers from sprints, offroad and many other backgrounds can get it done at Indy, but CART owners don't pursue our drivers like they should, instead opting for foreign unknowns. Its funny in most of your jabs about where are these guys, you don't mention them... Wonder why? My bet is because it doesn't fit with your narrative of, "TG killed Indy and CART is the best". You say we were sold a false bill of goods, but that isn't so. When you can't pronounce the names of 90% of the field anymore, you don't need anybody to tell you something is wrong, its kinda obvious. We long for AJ Foyt's, Mario Andretti's and all the other greats groomed in this country to race for us. I don't mind if a foreign team wants to come and compete against us, that's fine and I think its what was intended when the race was billed as "International", but it's become exclusive instead of inclusive. Nobody forced the CART/Champcar folks to leave, they chose to. The race stayed in the same place, ran on the same day, only some of the rules and schedule changed. They left because their road race ringers no longer had the advantage and they knew they couldn't just outspend everyone to get the championship anymore.

I know you see the race as some, pseudo-European technological, engineer vs engineer, top speed endeavor. However, there is more to racing than top speed and most fans don't come for a demonstration of terminal velocity or to admire the engineering of a wing or the pushrods on the suspension. The average fan wants to see passing, drivers mixing it up and some drama.

To me it's all beyond correction, much like Nascar, so I'll get up early on Memorial day weekend, watch Monaco and then the rest of my afternoon I will be free to BBQ or something else I actually care about until it's time to go to the track. For years memorial day weekend was the race day to end all race days, kicking the day off with Monaco, then Indy and then the 600 at Charlotte. Watching a couple of drivers thru the years run both Indy and the 600, and having to start in the rear because they usually missed the drivers meeting. Now Indy has its issues, BC won't be there, and I probably won't even watch a lap. Nascar is just as bad, lost in the tall grass with all their gimmicks. So the only standing tradition for me is Monaco and whatever I can get into that night.

This is the end.

A timely photo for this topic. Check out photo #1786!

http://www.coastal181.com/weekday_photos.htm