1) there was no mention of Detroit, or the rest of the schedule, at the indy 500. Plenty of yellow time and a 4 hour rain delay to advertise, but there was nothing. 2. 6 month off period, one race, then another month off. 3. If they don’t have Peacock they can’t even access the entire season. 4. Where are the Ovals bring back Pocono and Michigan. Triple crown.
Personally the absolutely intense amount of ad breaks ruins the entire rest of the season for me, I cancelled peacock last month because it was infuriating to try and watch a race. I can watch 24 F1 races with zero commercials this year for $10/mo 🤷🏻♂️ I would love to give that to indycar as well
@@ryanfraley7113if “lately” meant last race only, yea. He’s literally dead last in points among full timers still and just crashed into the wall two races ago at Barber. He had a good run at Indy but he’ll have to do it more to undo his bad rep 😂
I had a dad and his young daughter sitting behind me at the race and that girl was screaming for sting ray the whole race because of the puppy paw prints on the car. String Ray has a growing fan base, and it is weird to see, lol.
This sport needs to advertise themselves as a racing series instead of just the “Indy 500” event and we need better scheduling to engage the fans and make sure they tune in for more! This sport has NO IDENTITY outside of the 500! (Also the Detroit GP sucks, we have Michigan)
Indycar needs grow existing events like Long Beach, Road America maybe, and the finale. It needs traditions and spectacles that make people watch more than once a year. My brother is always excited for indy each year and then doesn't watch for another twelve months. He is a big (road) car guy as well, he watches f1 and some gt racing.
@@Gwackomoli those circuit tracks are classics whole the rest of the circuits are just randomly existing on the schedule. Clearly your brother likes road course racing, which is great! But I hate the fact that we have to do IndyCar’s work. Have you ever showed your brother IndyCar racing outside the 500? (Also he should give IMSA, WEC, and Trans-Am a try!)
It's the Kentucky Derby of open wheel racing. Casual fans only care about it once a year. You can't replicate the lore and tradition of 100+ years. It also helps that the IMS provides a thrilling and high-risk brand of racing.
But they could have promoted Detroit or mentioned the next race during commercial breaks especially during the long rain delay instead of just show last years race.
I have always been frustrated with the lack of promotion of the other races. The Indy 500 is THE racing event in the US. Most of the other races are treated like a third tier monster truck event showing up at the county fairgrounds.
Exactly. I'm a casual-ish fan, F1 and WEC are my true loves, but indycar is awsome and I watch every race I know is on. And I saw absolutely zero promotion for alabama or indy road course online, and I managed to miss both of them!
Your totally right! Some of the other tracks are awesome events as well. I had a blast at Laguna a few years ago still have the hangover. Went to Iowa last year love those farm girls had fun watching both races and the concerts, I am hoping someday they put Phoenix back on the map or head down to Long Beach since I live on the west coast. Going to Milwaukee this year for the double.
They had one of those at the fairgrounds in the county next to us last Saturday.. They were promoting it on local TV and radio. Probably was being promoted better than an IndyCar Series race race.
@@F1jones I think it would help. Showing off that kind of racing then telling people “Guess what? You won’t see that again the rest of the year” is not a recipe for success.
Dave, you pretty much answered your own question. It's not one thing either. But here is something else. Years ago, Tony Kanaan made a statement on the difference between Brazilian sports fans and American sports fans. He said in Brazil, we have 2 sports. Football and racing. In America, you have so much going on the sports fan has a lot to choose from. Their attention spans are short and trends change rapidly.
You are totally spot on. So many options but Indycar doesn't take advantage of that. After the Superbowl Indycar should be promoting like mad and get in more races after St. Pete to draw viewers before Baseball gets going or the NBA playoffs. There is a lull that indycar should be taking advantage of and it seems like they are too relaxed. The TV show should run the full season and be on a bigger platform nobody watches the damn CW. If your trying to compete against Drive to Survive get on Amazon or a platform that gets eyeballs like HBO.
Lift that ban forever some of us have kids , lives. I have been a Speedway IN resident for 52 years and alway tried to go but some residents cant go one reason or another. Lift the TV ban!!
Back on the day the next race after Indy was the next weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. It was heavily promoted as to see the same stars of the 500 in the Chicago market. It was routinely sold out. Same product racing on another oval builds momentum for the casual fan. Next race should be on a oval to grab the new/casual fans that watched the 500.
I’d go Milwaukee, Laguna Seca, Texas, Road America after Indy. Focus first on ovals but get folks to see the IndyCars can be entertaining on roads too.
I was at the Indy 500 in the late 80s and 90s; it was always a PARTY where the race happened to happen. The fans were not like Nascar fans. They were fallen down drunk, all the time. The golf course was a public outdoor pee course. And that was true in the golden era. The golden era was Michael Andretti vs Al Unser Jr.
I remember when the Milwaukee Mile followed the 500. It was an exciting track and continued on with the idea of oval racing. Street races lack the side-by-side that makes racing true racing.
The first mistake is having Detroit right after the 500. Going from 220 mph, wheel-to-wheel racing to tooling around streets designed for buses and taxicabs is the opposite of compelling. Then they put the race on the USA network. Not everybody has cable, so you lose a lot of casual fans right there. As an "old-timer", I wish they would go back to running at Milwaukee the week after the 500, the way they used to, then a Saturday night race at Texas. Put Detroit back on Father's Day weekend, where it was in the '90s. Then later in the season, return to Michigan Speedway in late July or early August for a 500-mile race. I know times are different than they were back then, but CART and NASCAR would both race at Michigan in the month of August, about two weeks apart, and the stands would be full for both races. The 500 was almost a "perfect storm" situation, with the long rain delay, pushing the race almost into prime time, and then the race that people tuned into was one for the ages. NASCAR had a perfect storm with the 1979 Daytona 500, which did as much as anything to propel it from what it had been, into what it became. IndyCar should be doing everything they can to build off of this year's 500.
We need to get more of the casuals (or just Indy 500 fans) to be hard-core IndyCar fans. I have an idea more superspeedway ovals please. Also better promotion and marketing for all races would help. The 500 is awesome but IndyCar has so much more to offer.
Formerly a lifelong NASCAR fan. Attended my first 500 on Sunday. Not only will I be back next year, I’ll also be attending the Long Beach GP in 2025. I’m all in on IndyCar now.
@@TheJingles007nor would they be all that interesting. Daytona and Talladega are easy flat in stock cars, let alone in an IndyCar. It’s not a matter of driving skills at that point, but more about your spotter giving you good guidance and getting lucky with wreck avoidance.
Amazing idea with the slate of 500 mile races on superspeedway ovals! Season opener at homestead, and going to Michigan/kentucky/texas/chicagoland at different points through the season. That idea combined with having 5 street courses, 5 road courses, 5 short ovals, and 5 superspeedways would be a great recipe.
The worst one is after St. Pete before Long Beach get rid of Thermal and put in Phoenix or another oval somewhere in the warm weather states IMO. Prime opportunity since the Super bowl is over before baseball gets started and a lull in sports to watch.
@@scsmith4604 just unnecessary and no points just a waste of time really maybe racing in Brazil or Mexico or somewhere south of the border would have been a better option.
I go to the Nascar Cup Series race at Pocono every year. If Indy went to Pocono I would 100% go, and I am not a huge Indy fan. As an outsider I think Pocono would be an awesome track for Indy!
Excellent point about the economy crash in 2008 damaged Indy500. The 2010s didn’t go the way we thought. Then 2020 happened. I wish IndyCar was more successful
I honestly believe the way the reunification happened was as much of a problem as the economic crash. Reunification was supposed to fix everything but, by 2010, they were already dropping ovals for street courses and adding ChampCar things like push-to-pass. I enjoyed watching both series, but the biggest draw for watching CCWS, besides the fact that they raced at Road America, Cleveland, and Milwaukee (where the IRL didn't at the time) was to see who Paul Tracy would crash into, or what other driver would do something stupid. A lot of their events didn't really have much racing, and their TV audience by the point of reunification was not very large. The only one of those three venues I listed that IndyCar picked up right away was Milwaukee (which was on the schedule before reunification). Instead of adding Road America or Cleveland, they instead started events at such horrible street courses like Baltimore, Houston, a Chinese street race that never happened, and recently Crashville. It is like IndyCar picked everything that was wrong with CCWS and decided to adopt those things. I am shocked they didn't try to keep San Jose or the Streets of Vegas with their railroad crossings.
@@ramblinman4197 Agree 100%. The Indycar Powers That Be pushed gimmicks over cars. Push to Pass and the Red and Black tire compounds are gimmicks. They have never made for better racing. In fact, Push to Pass has become a major embarrassment. Honda says that Indycar needs a third engine manufacturer or they are out. Penske, the owner of the series, runs Chevrolet who looks to be given an advantage and Penske's people don't seem to be listening to Honda. So what is going to happen when half the field no longer has an engine supplier?
You are spot on with the overuse of Grand Prix. It makes them sound like knock off F1. More Ovals more balance between all 4 disciplines that make IndyCar great
David, it's a bloody shame that you missed out on Indycar in the 80s to mid 90s, prior to the war. Racing as it should be, so much fan and media interest...it was beginning to rival f1 in terms of global popularity. And yes, you're perfectly correct...as an American living in Europe the motor racing landscape is completely different. No need for the big gimmick, the big party. The racing speaks for itself....race after race.
Who wants to watch these 12-year-old all-the-same crapwagons? The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made. Like watching paint drive! Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
This is so true. I’m a member Purdues band and an avid racing fan. Many of my fellow bandmates wanted to just leave after the rain delay and not even watch the race or care about the race. I couldn’t understand why someone would attend the race and not watch. This analogy of the party that a race happens at makes so much sense.
You need: - Good marketing - A video game - „Great storytelling“ - More OEM - more races with standing: Bring back Texas, Michigan and Pocono (500‘s), Cleveland Roger does a great job and has to play catchup because of the years of underinvesting from Tony George
Yes and no. I’ve brought family and friends who wanted to check the bucket list box who were there for the whole package. Have been unsuccessful at turning any of them into true IndyCar fans even though they loved the 500.
The interest is still high for a lot of us; in my opinion, our family still goes to ALL the OVALS. This year they lost Texas, but gained the Milwaukee mile. They lost “15 Ovals” in the past ten or twelve years… THAT is what is wrong with the Indy Car Series, in my opinion.
Many excellent points. The reason the race is on USA network is NBC has to cover the French Open and Golf. Also back in the day ABC had to share coverage with ESPN. Finally if we increase this exponentially, many more people watch the Super Bowl than other NFL games. I still wish we had more ovals .
But, as time went on, especially in 2006-13, We had had to put up with Marty "Nail in the.... coffin" Reid as the play by play guy. But hey, we still had that banger of a theme song, though.
Put it on free to air Worldwide! The amount of uproar when Sky said they were showing the race for free on TH-cam in Britain but then back tracked on it when there was the rain delay shows that there is an interest. Being on free to air would attract more sponsors due to a higher audience and the series would get more money through that than any "TV deal". A TV deal is not a deal for the fans! There are at least 10 different nationalities competing in the sport at any one time so putting it on free to air in those countries would gain an audience. Especially Mexico and Argentina. There is an appetite for motorsport there. In Mexico there are posters of Sergio Perez that cover the full height of ten story office blocks. Yet barely anyone knows Pato O'Ward. Even in his home city! I wouldn't have another 500 mile race before the Indy 500 because it woukd ruin the mystery of who might be able to win it. I would make sure there were at least 2 of them after that. Including one as the season finale. Indycar needs to develop a chassis or tyres that will work on the Nascar ovals so that an oval circuit doesn't have to choose between being a Nascar or an Indycar only circuit.
In My Opinion: Indycar has regressed back to the 1970s, where the series basically only exists to serve The Indianapolis 500 and the rest of the calendar doesn't get any promotion at all or limited promotion at best for events like St. Petersburg, Long Beach and the Iowa Double-Header. Combine the fact that what the fans saw at Indy racing-wise isn't going to be replicated anywhere else this year, plus the next race a week later is some sketchy street track in downtown Detroit that basically only exists because some General Motors executives wanted a race outside of their offices and... Yeah... I wish I had a genuine answer as a fix to this, but honestly? It's incredibly difficult to try and market racing to more and more fans of non-motorsport activities, as there's more of them out there now than actual motorsport enthusiasts. The Indy 500 is a race that's going to go on regardless if there's a series, but the party aspect and non-racing stuff being marketed so heavily is going to hurt the sport of Indycar racing long-term.
I think when you have a marquee race you have to accept, to some extent, that you'll always get way more people tuning in for that race. In Australia there's lots of people who barely even care about car racing who will tune in for the Bathurst 1000, and won't watch any other races (even before most other races moved to pay TV only). Lots of people watch Le Mans and won't watch any other WEC race. Even in other sports, a lot of people will watch a grand final/superbowl type event without having watched 1 minute the rest of the year. I don't think it's necessarily a "problem", people can only care about so many things in their lives and it's good that at least you can get people to tune in for that marquee event. That all being said, I absolutely agree with you that more superspeedway races are necessary. As a foreigner who never used to watch oval racing at all, it was superspeedways that got me in to indycar because of how unique and exciting that type of racing is. Pocono and Fontana were some of my favourite tracks to watch and it's a shame they went away.
I go to St. Petersburg every year. Part of Indycar's problem is that it has completely become a B2B venture. It was a Friday. I was in the T1 stands. I listened to a sponsor rep explain to their guests in attendance that "These are the same cars, drivers and teams that run the Indy 500. We are they." I'd say about 2/3's of his group didn't understand what he meant. They didn't understand the concept of a racing series having a full season. They didn't know why anyone involved in the Indy 500 would bother showing up in St. Petersburg. One of them even asked, "Why isn't it an oval then?" These weren't idiots. They were guests who were given the VIP treatment by a company. They just had no interest in the series or the on track. They were there for the event, and the event in St Petersburg is solely about the on track. They were looking for a party and a race broke out.
My view about modern racing: It has become sponsor dominated--as with NASCAR. Drivers are expected to represent their sponsor by not being offensive, i.e. vanilla. Back then, the names of the drivers and even the owners were household personalities: Andretti, Foyt, Al and Bobby Unser, Rutherford, Andy Granitelli, etc. Even the same sponsors year in and year out became part of racing. How many people even care any more who sponsors a car? Back then, the drivers and owners had distinctive personalities which were part of the racing. My point, people might follow the drivers more than the racing: How did Foyt do this weekend? How many people could even name five drivers from the 500?
The MX-5 Miata cup that travels with IMSA is total proof that spec racing can be way more exciting than F1 in every way. Multiple races a season usually end with like 3 wide dashes to the finish and the top 5 always battle each other swapping spots like it’s MotoGP
Got to go to my first 500 this year. Got a perfect view of the winning pass in turn 3. I definitely want to go again In terms of the rating drop-off, Indycar appears to have very little promotion outside of the 500. Indycar needs more marketing which will bring in more fans. Another thing that will help would be a console game, which I hope Iracing can do now that Motorsport games has lost the license.
Here’s my perspective… I am a hardcore NASCAR fan. I typically watch all or almost all of the f1 races as well. Not because it’s the best or most captivating racing, but because I have things to talk about with my f1 fan friends, and it gives me something other than nascar to follow. I also occasionally watch imsa/wec, but not all the time. Indycar to me doesn’t have much more to offer that I haven’t already seen. Different tracks and probably better racing than f1, but as I said I choose an f1 race over Indy so I can talk to my friends about it🤣 I don’t have enough time to sit down and watch 3/4 races in one weekend, so Indy is the odd man out. That’s just my take though Also, I watched the Indy 500 all the way through, and was very interested. It is different, and I loved the idea you brought up of more ovals essentially, since that would be different. Even if it’s the same track as nascar, the car is so different the style of racing would be so drastically different it would grab my interest Finally, WHERE WAS A SINGLE ADVERTISEMENT FOR DETROIT?? I watched much of the Indy coverage even when it was on rain delay. I watched the entire race and some of the post race despite the coke 600 being on. I heard about Detroit maybe once, twice at max. I didn’t even know it was happening until I went on peacock and watched the last 8 laps or so because I was looking for a show to watch. There’s my perspective. That’s my opinion. Do with it what you wish.
It's the old USAC issue of the Indy 500 and the 7 dwarfs. And the CART/IRL issue of Long Beach race day attendance: 98,000 TV: 69,000. Nobody is watching. And my solution has always been simple: TV should reflect the fanbase. EX: Most people walk around in jeans. Not Hugo Boss. Great content, keep going, DL.
I’ve been telling people for a long time oval racing (especially super speedway racing) is what makes INDYCAR special. They should be capitalizing on that more in their marketing, branding and especially their scheduling.
Texas is trying to get them back. Hopefully they can work out a new date that works for everyone. So sad if our home race doesn’t come back. Bring back the night race. That’d be something different than other races, and old school fans will be happy.
I have great seats in Turn 3 and watch the Snake Pit event. I do not know if this occurs every year, but the Snake Pit concluded well before the race ended (maybe lap 150). The crowd dispersed and likely enjoyed the race during its final laps. I think the Snake Pit event is a big, big win. More profit is what drives IMS' steady improvements. It is a microcosm within a macrocosm.
During the 500, and all the races so far this year, there have been multiple ads for Iowa and Nashville (although those are still advertising it as a street race).
@@ramblinman4197 Okay, but if you're already watching a race, you're likely to tune in for more races. I see nothing either on TV or actual signs/billboards/advertisements re: races at other circuits. They're not bringing in the casual fan and turning them into a full-fledged fan of Indycar.
@@mikehergenroether6160 I agree you are correct here. I have not seen any advertising for even Iowa or Nashville during "regular programming." That said, I don't normally watch NBC but they are not advertising anywhere I do watch (including here on youtube!), and I actually live about 2.5 hours from Nashville so, yeah, that is not good!
The other problem is..... people don't fly halfway around the planet to see the Sonsio Grand Prix or the Detroit Grand Prix...... you need a whole event like the 500.... only thing close is Long Beach or the newcomer... Iowa with all the events
The problem is Indycar is only promoted on 1 network. Races use to be on multiple networks which meant that those networks would cross promote their upcoming races which in turn promoted the sport. Wide nets catch many fish, small nets catch few fish.
I like the idea of creating Triple Crown 1500 for IndyCar. Let’s say that Indy500 is the first step and then you make the Michigan 500, and Nashville 500 as the season finale. I would say that maybe 3/4 of field that finish can compete in the Michigan500, and Nashville just to up the ante. Maybe I’m wrong buts an idea.
Why?? Because they don't have hardly any oval track racing at all in the series. And if they ever have an oval track race they hardly ever promote it at all so fans will come out to whatever track it's at to watch it.
The IRL "Indy Racing League", "Indy Cars". You have a racing sanctioning body that is focused and built around one track, one event, "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing". No small wonder why interest drops off substantially afterward. You've essentially built your entire league around one race. Can you imagine NASCAR calling itself the "Daytona Racing League", ."Daytona Cars" etc? I don't know how you fix it without taking some of the shine off of the indy race, which frankly, I absolutely love for all the reasons you point out. I'll bwager there are casual fans that do not realize there is an indy car season!
I wish indycars would come back to australia .indycar on the gold coast in the old days we had indycar nascar and v8 supercars in the same race weekend .its was a great race weekend
The whole broadcast treats it as a one and done kind of race. There was no mention of points standings in the season, no talk of the races so far this year, no talk of the races ahead. There is only one race, THE INDY 500. And to a degree I get it, it is the crown jewel and thats how it is treated, but why would anyone care if they do everything in their power to not remind you that this is one race out of many that happen over the whole year?
I agree with the suggestions you made at the end. A different chassis and power plant would just be more interesting. Being able to hear and see the differences between manufacturers would be great. Have Oreca come and make a chassis and Dallara make their new chassis for Chevy. The ties are already their in IMSA.
Great points David. As a Canadian I head to Toronto for the race every year. When I attended my first (then Molson Indy) was to see in person the cars and drivers of the Indy 500. I appreciate it has always been marketed on 'Indy'. It wasn't the Toronto Grand Prix ... it was the Molson Indy, now Honda Indy Toronto. And yes, more 500s please. If not Indy, Michigan, Pocono then Indy, Homestead and Nashville SS or Michigan or Texas or wherever. But lean into and market the 'Indy' more.
i don’t think i heard anything about the rest of the series throughout the race on sunday, not even mentions of results at barber or championship positions, let alone what’s coming up next.
They never do and I can't understand why. NBC airs multiple races throughout the season, too. They had a ton of time to plug it waiting on the rain to stop. Wtf!
Why did they not advertise upcoming races, talk about the calendar, the championship at all during the broadcast? And there was so much social media content leading up to and after the 500, but radio silence for every other race.
@@NotSteveCook I must have missed it then, we get the NBC broadcast in Ireland with Sky Sports F1 but we don't have any of the ads, the Sky IndyCar team take over the commentary so sometimes things are a bit different. I still feel more focus could have been given to the overall championship, there was no real emphasis on the Indy 500 being part of something bigger than just this one race.
@@marcellakilgarriff This has been a problem for decades. The late Dan Gurney addressed this (and other issues) to the USAC board of directors in 1978, but it fell on deaf ears. Whether it's been USAC, CART, IRL, or the reunited IndyCar, the series remains a group of minor races no one outside the fan base cares about, plus the Indy 500. They need to think outside the 465.
As a Hoosier who has been to The Brickyard 400 and several instances of 'The greatest spectacle in traffic jams' Lifting the broadcast ban definitely had me tuning in. If I'm going to the race, I'm going to the race. I've never based my decision on whether it was on TV or not... This is a relic of closed circuit TV, Ali-vs-Frazier era. Watching the rest of David's video, I guess I kind of missed the point, but I don't like being race-blocked.
I may misunderstand what you mean by party, but I’m going to push back on the idea that 70% of the people at the Indy 500 are there for the party. Are most people there with friends, throwing back some cold ones, enjoying themselves at the race… Sure. But they are keeping up with the race. In the section that I was in - section A - I would say 90% of the people around me stayed in their seats the entire race. Plus for many families and friends there’s a decades long tradition of going to the Indianapolis 500. But as you said, it is a unique event. I agree with a person who said that it is like the Kentucky Derby. I watch the Kentucky Derby and don’t watch any other horse race the entire year. Many people are like that about the Indy 500..
SPOT ON David that said though how would you make the tracks like Homestead Texas Kansas which are 1.5 mile tracks to the equivalent of a 500 mile race like Indianapolis or Michigan?
Well David, figuring out what is good for IndyCar is way above my pay grade. So, thanks ever so much for all of your passion and love of the sport that shines brightly in all of your coverage. Maybe the series should strive to be as uniquely different from all others as much as possible. Back in Dec (sorry) I think you brought up one point that would do just that. New chassis with V-8, V-10, whatever. 100% biofuel- We're being eco-friendly. No hybrid, it's being done to death.
ITS THE UGLY CARS STUPID Who wants to watch these 12-year-old all-the-same crapwagons? The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made. Like watching paint drive! Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
It falls off because you dont have high speed ovals like you used to. Froget fan attendance its way more fun to see high banked ovals than short ovals and road courses
I think David your view is from an American prespective and you may need to look outside the box. I attended my first Indy 500 on Sunday with a tour group of about 50 kiwis. I am actually still in Indianapolis as we are staying on to watch New Zealand midget driver Michael Pickens compete in midget week and take in a few WOO races aswell. I also have attend Le Man's and the Bathurst 1000. My first impression of the Indy 500 was what I call the American culture of entertainment first. We came across many people who weren't educated on general motorsports and were clearly their for the party and entertainment factor. Up on the mountain at the Bathurst 1000 is very comparable to some who attend the indy 500, but at least up on the mountain at Bathurst mixed in with the alcoholic beverages, all the fans are motorsport knowledgeable and follow a driver or either Ford or Holden. The focus at the indy 500 needs to be in the drivers and motorsports more so Indycar. If you look outside of the US, Indycar has gained a larger following in New Zealand due to the 3 kiwis competing and Australia given Scott McLaughlins success in supercars and of course Will Power. In New Zealand Indycar races including practice, qualifying and the race are on live TV via Sky TV New Zealand. At indy there should have been a focus on the non American drivers including the country of origin. I thought it would have been cool to have had a Kiwi village set up onsite with Kiwi food being available, a pub and some rugby goal posts and a ball. Give American motorsport fans a taste of the Kiwi culture..Scott McLaughlin would be the first one their wearing an All Black rugby jersey walking around in shorts and jandels. It would have been awesome to have gone to an Agustin Canapino, Argentinean village and mix with some Argentinian fans... You could do the same for all the drivers who race under a different countries flag. Even at the Chill Bowl, Michael Pickens gets to walk around the track carrying the New Zealand flag at driver introductions. There are opportunities to make small changes at the indy 500 to make the overall experience better...
Once IndyCar exits the spec era then fans will start to educate themselves more about the engineering. I admit I’m not an expert but the engineering can be fascinating once we get out of the spec rut.
@@Jalrealthat's ok mate. We international sports fans and athletes including Driver are use to that whether it's a rugby game, rugby league, cricket or football game. It common for fans from the different countries to mix at the game and at the pub watching the game on a big screen. The chanting at rugby game between the South African supporters and Kiwi fans is something to behold. It's something Americans don't understand as you don't compete in sports that pit a nation versus nation in sporting competitions
@@mikehardy1912 Dump these spec Dallara's. Who wants to watch these 12-YEAR-OLD all-the-same crapwagons? The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made. Like watching paint dry! Scotty Dixon has been driving THE SAME CAR for 12-years in arow - with only a different paint job every year! Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
I’ve always thought David about Indycar coming here to the UK. At the British Grand Prix we get 400.000 people but for arguably the 2nd biggest motorsport event in the UK the BTCC you are getting tops 15k, if Indy came to brands hatch and trust me we want it, you would get 80k hardcore racing fans😊
Technically I think the second largest motorsport attendance would be the MotoGP with around 100k over the weekend. Anyway I think a fly-away race and certainly two could put a severe financial strain on some of the smaller IndyCar teams budgets, IndyCar as a series would need to subsidize some of the costs.
Man, hearing you discuss Le Mans makes me remember my early yrs of 500 attendance (1991-1995) where is was exactly as you described Le Mans. I truly hate that the 500 is a party that has a race these days...... This thing used to be so great, sadly it's really lost everything it used to be, for me anyway. A great finish isn't enough to make up for that deficit.
Indycar is unique compared to its closest competitions in that its biggest prize is not the series championship. The Daytona 500 for NASCAR and Monaco for F1 are marquee events for their respective series but I can't imagine that their drivers would say winning those races is a bigger deal than winning the championship. If there was a way to place more emphasis on the season-long championship without diminishing the importance of the Indy 500, that'd get more people to tune into the other 16 races.
I think your point is valid. I think in terms of packaging, there is more that can happen. In the 1990s, there was the magic of the commentary of Uncle Bobby and Sam Posey. In terms of "The Party Thing" Indycar needs Walkins Glenn. Indycar also needs Milwaukee to be treated more than just another race. There is more, but what needs to happen here is slow managed growth. I wish this could happen tomorrow, but no.
I attended my 33rd Indy500. I can say from my group of 15 that we met up with for the 500 you have a great point. Of the 15, 4 at most follow the series. My son and I went to Long Beach. Five people attended the GP. 3 attended the 500 because of the tradition that left with 70 laps to go, and we had 4 first timers. Im guessing 3 will watch Detroit this weekend.
Someone (something) needs to be on top. The tradition of the Indy 500 makes it special and remarkable. Disappointing I will admit as I love all Indy car racing. But, there can be only one number one.
Also an international race would be awsome. Bring indy back to the lauzistring in germany. Oval racing isn't a thing in europe, and racing fans like myself would definitely travel across the continent to see a superspeedway race. Same for the twin ring motegi in japan.
1 key attribute to the draw for the 500 that I have heard is the build up and fanfare for the pre-race festivities. The Purdue band, driver introductions, the delivery of the American flag, singing Back Home Again in Indiana, and more mean a LOT for the larger central Indiana area. It’s an identity that hundreds of thousands of people claim which cannot be replicated at Mid-Ohio, Toronto, or Gateway.
Is that a wired mouse?! I've seen only one of those in the last 10 years and he's past due for retirement! Great video, as usual. You're so passionate and knowledgeable I always like hearing your opinion.
We’re an Indy family, and we brought about 7 teens who never been to a race before this year. Well everyone of these kids are already asking about next year. There is something in the air, at the 500. It’s really a beautiful thing
I'm a big race fan. Grew up with IRL and CART and I don't care about Detroit. I don't care about majority of today's Indycar schedule. If we had more ovals then it would be a different story. It would be great to have Michigan 500 as US 500 again and put it around 4th of July!
At the end you talked about Indycar getting closer to where they want to be. I have been wondering for awhile now, if Indycar really knows where they want to be.
Tony George ONLY cared about "his" race, everything else was to promote Indy! So, he effectively killed one of, if not THE top racing series in the world and clearly the top racing series in the U.S.!
@@scsmith4604 I think Indycar teams care about more, but they want a big payoff for minimal investment. Indy is a big payoff that finances the year's operation. They need to get more money into the series. The way to do that is to open up the rulebook to get more manufacturers and chassis and tires into the series, instead they have done the opposite.
While not saying that it's the correct position, that was entirely what Tony George wanted! He didn't really care about the rest of the season, he just wanted "his" race to get the big spotlight. First off, pay double points for ALL the 500 milers. A second 500 mile race at the end of July and then end the season with a third 500 mile race, which if the points were anywhere near close would bring a lot of interest onto the final race -- ending with the California 500 at Fontana always made that an important race.
As someone who has been in the stands for 35 Indy 500s and was raised there, I can say that yes, the feeling around town was more all-encompassing in the 1970s and 1980s than today - half the TV and radio commercials involved racing, all gas stations had Welcome Race Fans banners, one local news channel spent the last 15 minutes of an hour newscast at IMS - but there were still plenty of fans at the race who didn’t follow it (especially in the infield) or were Indy 500-only fans. I think that percentage actually has dropped with the reduction of the infield crowd. Most of the people in our part of the track had on auto racing themed merch and followed the race. I have relatives, including my mother, who will listen to the race, follow everything all month, but won’t or might watch other IndyCar races. Why? Because it’s the Indianapolis Damn 500. It is The Super Bowl of auto racing. Just as you have people who’ll watch on Super Sunday but not Game 9 in November, people will watch this race but not Michigan (when they ran there) or Road America. Going to bet there was significant dropoff between the Indy 500 and Milwaukee back in the day.
Different manufacturers with different engine styles would be ideal. V8 Chevy vs v6 Ford vs hybrid 4 cylinder Honda with all cars having a max HP of 700. NASCAR also needs this
You nailed it my man! Dump these spec Dallara's. And two essentially identical engines. Who wants to watch these 12-YEAR-OLD all-the-same crapwagons? The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made. Like watching paint dry! Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
But ESPN uses the Sky UK feed instead of doing their own like how NBC and SPEED did back then. Meanwhile, Fox doesn't even TRY when it comes to their NASCAR coverage. Gone are the quality days of 2001-13, and here we are, 2014-later... the downfall of Fox as a tolerable NASCAR TV provider. And DON'T get me started on FS1's Craftsman Truck Series coverage.
Because the casual Nascar fan that turns on the Indy 500 for a few hours in May doesn't give a crap about the sport and the people who run Indycar have crapped all over their own sport for 25 years. It is supposed to be a technological series, but they have done everything they can to neuter the technology and they have been very successful in that neutering. To the point to where fewer and fewer people care and so it doesn't hold interest.
I really do not understand why the IndyCar head honchos cannot understand how actually promoting its races and drivers throughout the season helps ratings, not just the 500
I've thought about this subject recently. It'd be nice to see IndyCar have a resurgence after an unreleased video game, off iRacing then returning back, Honda maybe leaving, charters + locked in Indy 500 spots, TV ratings decline (other than Indy 500), and a cheating push to pass scandal. Hopefully the new TV deal is good for fans and the series. Michigan > Belle Isle > Downtown Detroit. Belle Isle was overhated, underrated, and underappreciated.
Interesting, I'm a very new Indycar fan (2021) living outside of the US, I'm getting the idea they're trying to be more like F1 but doing it in a bit wrong way that they don't get the interest of the F1 fan and lose a bit of their identity. When I got into racing (2019) I always thought the idea of oval racing was dumb and boring, now I think the oval races are the best.
Not too hard to figure out. In the 5 1/2 hour pre-race show was there: -A graphic showing the entire Indycar 2024 schedule? No. -A highlights package showing the action from the first 5 races of the season ( and, yes, show the crashes for those who only watch for those) and showing the race winner on the podium with their name on the screen to increase name and face recognition? No. -A graphic showing the point standings after the first four events? No. -An interview with the points leader talking about how the SEASON is going for them and what their confidence level of keeping up their winning ways for the SEASON? No. -Then an interview with driver in second place in points asking what it will take for the rest of the SEASON to catch the points leader? No. -Any ads during the commercial breaks for the next race in Detroit? No. -Any graphics for the next race in Detroit during the race? Only in the last 30 seconds of the broadcast. -Any live read by Diffey during the race saying, "Hey fans, if you like what you see, good news, there's another race next Sunday!" No. It's well and good to show live points during the race and the points standings after the race, but it doesn't do any good IF YOU DON'T SET THE TABLE BEFORE THE RACE AND EXPLAIN TO THE CASUAL VIEWER WHAT IT MEANS! Is it written in the TV contact that the SERIES can't be talked about at all during the Indy 500 coverage? (Dare I say, ABC did a better job of promoting the series and the race following the 500 than NBC does.) In your interview with Pato two years ago, he mentions people asking what he does for a living and he tells them - Indycar driver. And they reply with, "that's only one race, right?" If you don't talk about the SERIES when you have the largest TV audience of the year, HOW WILL THEY KNOW IT'S A SERIES AND NOT JUST ONE RACE AND THAT THERE IS SOMETHING TO COME BACK TO THE NEXT WEEK AND WEEKS AFTER THAT? Oh, and just watch - at Detroit, there will be a graphic showing the points standings going into the race within the first 5 minutes of the start of the broadcast. Something that couldn't be done in a rain delayed 5 1/2 pre-race show this year or the normal a 90 minute Indy 500 pre-race shows in the past few years. Update: In the FP1 session for Detroit on Peacock, we got the points standings AND the rest of the 2024 schedule within the first 10 minutes of the coverage. Update 2: So they decide to show a brief season highlights package from the first few races just before the Detroit race on USA network - but could not be bothered to do that before the 500 with the largest TV audience of the season. Unbelievable.
1) there was no mention of Detroit, or the rest of the schedule, at the indy 500. Plenty of yellow time and a 4 hour rain delay to advertise, but there was nothing.
2. 6 month off period, one race, then another month off.
3. If they don’t have Peacock they can’t even access the entire season.
4. Where are the Ovals bring back Pocono and Michigan. Triple crown.
I’m perfectly content to never see Pocono return again.
Agree but Pocono is a death trap. There's others that would be great!
Personally the absolutely intense amount of ad breaks ruins the entire rest of the season for me, I cancelled peacock last month because it was infuriating to try and watch a race. I can watch 24 F1 races with zero commercials this year for $10/mo 🤷🏻♂️ I would love to give that to indycar as well
I would rather Kentucky over Pocono. I would also be curious if they ran at Daytona.
@@MrBestshot33indycar has greatly improved over the years, so another race at pocono wouldn’t be as bad as the other years at the track
Sting Ray Robb can only lead so many races David.... this is the boost we needed
Sting Ray has improved a lot lately
@@ryanfraley7113if “lately” meant last race only, yea. He’s literally dead last in points among full timers still and just crashed into the wall two races ago at Barber. He had a good run at Indy but he’ll have to do it more to undo his bad rep 😂
@@LessGo7921 Stop interrupting my Sting Ray fanboyism
@@ryanfraley7113 nah I’m good 😂
I had a dad and his young daughter sitting behind me at the race and that girl was screaming for sting ray the whole race because of the puppy paw prints on the car. String Ray has a growing fan base, and it is weird to see, lol.
This sport needs to advertise themselves as a racing series instead of just the “Indy 500” event and we need better scheduling to engage the fans and make sure they tune in for more!
This sport has NO IDENTITY outside of the 500!
(Also the Detroit GP sucks, we have Michigan)
Agree.
Bring back the Michigan 500.
I know that that was a CART race and the IRL what is now Indy Car has only run a couple of 400 mile races there.
@@RobertDetert and the 500-mile Triple Crown
Indycar needs grow existing events like Long Beach, Road America maybe, and the finale. It needs traditions and spectacles that make people watch more than once a year. My brother is always excited for indy each year and then doesn't watch for another twelve months. He is a big (road) car guy as well, he watches f1 and some gt racing.
@@Gwackomoli those circuit tracks are classics whole the rest of the circuits are just randomly existing on the schedule.
Clearly your brother likes road course racing, which is great! But I hate the fact that we have to do IndyCar’s work. Have you ever showed your brother IndyCar racing outside the 500?
(Also he should give IMSA, WEC, and Trans-Am a try!)
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YTHe has seen me watch other Indy races. But he doesn't watch for long.
It's the Kentucky Derby of open wheel racing. Casual fans only care about it once a year. You can't replicate the lore and tradition of 100+ years. It also helps that the IMS provides a thrilling and high-risk brand of racing.
Indycar should bring back it's triple crown then. If there was a shot at one this year the Belmont would be packed
@@tylerensminger - interesting 🤔
I was gonna say Tour de France. Kentucky derby is better comparison
But they could have promoted Detroit or mentioned the next race during commercial breaks especially during the long rain delay instead of just show last years race.
I have always been frustrated with the lack of promotion of the other races. The Indy 500 is THE racing event in the US. Most of the other races are treated like a third tier monster truck event showing up at the county fairgrounds.
because thats what they are
@davidgrey1515...Found the casual fan.
Exactly. I'm a casual-ish fan, F1 and WEC are my true loves, but indycar is awsome and I watch every race I know is on. And I saw absolutely zero promotion for alabama or indy road course online, and I managed to miss both of them!
Your totally right! Some of the other tracks are awesome events as well. I had a blast at Laguna a few years ago still have the hangover. Went to Iowa last year love those farm girls had fun watching both races and the concerts, I am hoping someday they put Phoenix back on the map or head down to Long Beach since I live on the west coast. Going to Milwaukee this year for the double.
They had one of those at the fairgrounds in the county next to us last Saturday..
They were promoting it on local TV and radio.
Probably was being promoted better than an IndyCar Series race race.
They need more high speed speedway races. If they still ran Pocono, Michigan, Texas, etc. I feel like that would generate more interest.
This
Phoenix was nice!
All of this
I've heard this story before. Never seems to work out the way people who say this about ovals/superspeedways think it will.
@@F1jones I think it would help. Showing off that kind of racing then telling people “Guess what? You won’t see that again the rest of the year” is not a recipe for success.
Dave, you pretty much answered your own question. It's not one thing either. But here is something else. Years ago, Tony Kanaan made a statement on the difference between Brazilian sports fans and American sports fans. He said in Brazil, we have 2 sports. Football and racing. In America, you have so much going on the sports fan has a lot to choose from. Their attention spans are short and trends change rapidly.
Very true!
You are totally spot on. So many options but Indycar doesn't take advantage of that. After the Superbowl Indycar should be promoting like mad and get in more races after St. Pete to draw viewers before Baseball gets going or the NBA playoffs. There is a lull that indycar should be taking advantage of and it seems like they are too relaxed. The TV show should run the full season and be on a bigger platform nobody watches the damn CW. If your trying to compete against Drive to Survive get on Amazon or a platform that gets eyeballs like HBO.
Lift that ban forever some of us have kids , lives. I have been a Speedway IN resident for 52 years and alway tried to go but some residents cant go one reason or another. Lift the TV ban!!
But how else will Roger Penske be able to afford a second luxury private jet?
Never even knew this was a thing. What a moron.
I trekked my 3 year old from Oklahoma and camped out for 3 days at ims. He had more fun than all the adults in the stands
Zero empathy especially if you are a speedway resident I had to wait 25 years to go and had to drive 10 hours
Ok lift the ban and then see how long it takes for IMS to look like it does for the Brickyard 400! NOT LONG
i remember the big 3 back in the 70s..Pocono-Indy-Ontario!
Back on the day the next race after Indy was the next weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. It was heavily promoted as to see the same stars of the 500 in the Chicago market. It was routinely sold out. Same product racing on another oval builds momentum for the casual fan. Next race should be on a oval to grab the new/casual fans that watched the 500.
I’d go Milwaukee, Laguna Seca, Texas, Road America after Indy. Focus first on ovals but get folks to see the IndyCars can be entertaining on roads too.
Maybe also find a way back to Watkins Glen for Northeastern fans.
Milwaukee is a great track and great racing
I was at the Indy 500 in the late 80s and 90s; it was always a PARTY where the race happened to happen. The fans were not like Nascar fans. They were fallen down drunk, all the time. The golf course was a public outdoor pee course. And that was true in the golden era. The golden era was Michael Andretti vs Al Unser Jr.
I remember when the Milwaukee Mile followed the 500. It was an exciting track and continued on with the idea of oval racing. Street races lack the side-by-side that makes racing true racing.
I was thinking this - need another Midwest oval following up the 500
You may have a surprise coming, if they got the layout right.
The first mistake is having Detroit right after the 500. Going from 220 mph, wheel-to-wheel racing to tooling around streets designed for buses and taxicabs is the opposite of compelling. Then they put the race on the USA network. Not everybody has cable, so you lose a lot of casual fans right there. As an "old-timer", I wish they would go back to running at Milwaukee the week after the 500, the way they used to, then a Saturday night race at Texas. Put Detroit back on Father's Day weekend, where it was in the '90s. Then later in the season, return to Michigan Speedway in late July or early August for a 500-mile race. I know times are different than they were back then, but CART and NASCAR would both race at Michigan in the month of August, about two weeks apart, and the stands would be full for both races.
The 500 was almost a "perfect storm" situation, with the long rain delay, pushing the race almost into prime time, and then the race that people tuned into was one for the ages. NASCAR had a perfect storm with the 1979 Daytona 500, which did as much as anything to propel it from what it had been, into what it became. IndyCar should be doing everything they can to build off of this year's 500.
We need to get more of the casuals (or just Indy 500 fans) to be hard-core IndyCar fans. I have an idea more superspeedway ovals please. Also better promotion and marketing for all races would help. The 500 is awesome but IndyCar has so much more to offer.
Formerly a lifelong NASCAR fan. Attended my first 500 on Sunday. Not only will I be back next year, I’ll also be attending the Long Beach GP in 2025. I’m all in on IndyCar now.
Idk if super speedways would be safe for Indy car
@@TheJingles007nor would they be all that interesting. Daytona and Talladega are easy flat in stock cars, let alone in an IndyCar. It’s not a matter of driving skills at that point, but more about your spotter giving you good guidance and getting lucky with wreck avoidance.
@@happygster922 and indy isnt?
@@PazLeBon lol, no.
Amazing idea with the slate of 500 mile races on superspeedway ovals! Season opener at homestead, and going to Michigan/kentucky/texas/chicagoland at different points through the season. That idea combined with having 5 street courses, 5 road courses, 5 short ovals, and 5 superspeedways would be a great recipe.
It sucks how there was no promotion for Detroit. I'm from Detroit and have been going for the past 4 years. It's sad
INDYCAR needs to get rid of all the breaks in the schedule
Well I say have a break after the Indy 500! Indycar needs a few more races Richmond, Watkins glen, Kansas, lime rock, and New Hampshire!
This is absolutely correct. Why can't they run every week or every other week?
The worst one is after St. Pete before Long Beach get rid of Thermal and put in Phoenix or another oval somewhere in the warm weather states IMO. Prime opportunity since the Super bowl is over before baseball gets started and a lull in sports to watch.
@@bartsullivan4866 Thermal should have been a Kart race
@@scsmith4604 just unnecessary and no points just a waste of time really maybe racing in Brazil or Mexico or somewhere south of the border would have been a better option.
It took me awhile to warm up to road courses , but now I love the whole series .
BRING. BACK. ALLLL. THE. SUPER SPEEDWAYS!!! Michigan, Texas, Pocono. My eyes just welled up thinking about it! 🥹 I miss Michigan soooo much!! 😩
I go to the Nascar Cup Series race at Pocono every year. If Indy went to Pocono I would 100% go, and I am not a huge Indy fan. As an outsider I think Pocono would be an awesome track for Indy!
Excellent point about the economy crash in 2008 damaged Indy500. The 2010s didn’t go the way we thought. Then 2020 happened. I wish IndyCar was more successful
I honestly believe the way the reunification happened was as much of a problem as the economic crash. Reunification was supposed to fix everything but, by 2010, they were already dropping ovals for street courses and adding ChampCar things like push-to-pass. I enjoyed watching both series, but the biggest draw for watching CCWS, besides the fact that they raced at Road America, Cleveland, and Milwaukee (where the IRL didn't at the time) was to see who Paul Tracy would crash into, or what other driver would do something stupid. A lot of their events didn't really have much racing, and their TV audience by the point of reunification was not very large. The only one of those three venues I listed that IndyCar picked up right away was Milwaukee (which was on the schedule before reunification). Instead of adding Road America or Cleveland, they instead started events at such horrible street courses like Baltimore, Houston, a Chinese street race that never happened, and recently Crashville. It is like IndyCar picked everything that was wrong with CCWS and decided to adopt those things. I am shocked they didn't try to keep San Jose or the Streets of Vegas with their railroad crossings.
@@ramblinman4197 Agree 100%. The Indycar Powers That Be pushed gimmicks over cars. Push to Pass and the Red and Black tire compounds are gimmicks. They have never made for better racing. In fact, Push to Pass has become a major embarrassment.
Honda says that Indycar needs a third engine manufacturer or they are out. Penske, the owner of the series, runs Chevrolet who looks to be given an advantage and Penske's people don't seem to be listening to Honda. So what is going to happen when half the field no longer has an engine supplier?
@@hickoryhound I agree. Lots of gimmicks to try to make street racing more exciting.
You are spot on with the overuse of Grand Prix. It makes them sound like knock off F1. More Ovals more balance between all 4 disciplines that make IndyCar great
Bring back the U.S. 500 at Michigan and run it 4th of July weekend.
David, it's a bloody shame that you missed out on Indycar in the 80s to mid 90s, prior to the war. Racing as it should be, so much fan and media interest...it was beginning to rival f1 in terms of global popularity. And yes, you're perfectly correct...as an American living in Europe the motor racing landscape is completely different. No need for the big gimmick, the big party. The racing speaks for itself....race after race.
Who wants to watch these 12-year-old all-the-same crapwagons?
The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made.
Like watching paint drive!
Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
This is so true. I’m a member Purdues band and an avid racing fan. Many of my fellow bandmates wanted to just leave after the rain delay and not even watch the race or care about the race. I couldn’t understand why someone would attend the race and not watch. This analogy of the party that a race happens at makes so much sense.
You need:
- Good marketing
- A video game
- „Great storytelling“
- More OEM
- more races with standing: Bring back Texas, Michigan and Pocono (500‘s), Cleveland
Roger does a great job and has to play catchup because of the years of underinvesting from Tony George
The people in the infield are the partiers but everyone in the stands is there for the race.
Yes and no. I’ve brought family and friends who wanted to check the bucket list box who were there for the whole package. Have been unsuccessful at turning any of them into true IndyCar fans even though they loved the 500.
The interest is still high for a lot of us; in my opinion, our family still goes to ALL the OVALS. This year they lost Texas, but gained the Milwaukee mile. They lost “15 Ovals” in the past ten or twelve years… THAT is what is wrong with the Indy Car Series, in my opinion.
15:01. This is the most important point to me. There is no other racing as exciting as openwheelers on a superspeedway.
Many excellent points. The reason the race is on USA network is NBC has to cover the French Open and Golf. Also back in the day ABC had to share coverage with ESPN. Finally if we increase this exponentially, many more people watch the Super Bowl than other NFL games. I still wish we had more ovals .
But, as time went on, especially in 2006-13, We had had to put up with Marty "Nail in the.... coffin" Reid as the play by play guy. But hey, we still had that banger of a theme song, though.
Simple - The extreme lack of Ovals and consistent dates of races.
Put it on free to air Worldwide!
The amount of uproar when Sky said they were showing the race for free on TH-cam in Britain but then back tracked on it when there was the rain delay shows that there is an interest.
Being on free to air would attract more sponsors due to a higher audience and the series would get more money through that than any "TV deal". A TV deal is not a deal for the fans!
There are at least 10 different nationalities competing in the sport at any one time so putting it on free to air in those countries would gain an audience. Especially Mexico and Argentina. There is an appetite for motorsport there.
In Mexico there are posters of Sergio Perez that cover the full height of ten story office blocks. Yet barely anyone knows Pato O'Ward. Even in his home city!
I wouldn't have another 500 mile race before the Indy 500 because it woukd ruin the mystery of who might be able to win it. I would make sure there were at least 2 of them after that. Including one as the season finale.
Indycar needs to develop a chassis or tyres that will work on the Nascar ovals so that an oval circuit doesn't have to choose between being a Nascar or an Indycar only circuit.
In My Opinion: Indycar has regressed back to the 1970s, where the series basically only exists to serve The Indianapolis 500 and the rest of the calendar doesn't get any promotion at all or limited promotion at best for events like St. Petersburg, Long Beach and the Iowa Double-Header. Combine the fact that what the fans saw at Indy racing-wise isn't going to be replicated anywhere else this year, plus the next race a week later is some sketchy street track in downtown Detroit that basically only exists because some General Motors executives wanted a race outside of their offices and... Yeah...
I wish I had a genuine answer as a fix to this, but honestly? It's incredibly difficult to try and market racing to more and more fans of non-motorsport activities, as there's more of them out there now than actual motorsport enthusiasts. The Indy 500 is a race that's going to go on regardless if there's a series, but the party aspect and non-racing stuff being marketed so heavily is going to hurt the sport of Indycar racing long-term.
I think when you have a marquee race you have to accept, to some extent, that you'll always get way more people tuning in for that race. In Australia there's lots of people who barely even care about car racing who will tune in for the Bathurst 1000, and won't watch any other races (even before most other races moved to pay TV only). Lots of people watch Le Mans and won't watch any other WEC race. Even in other sports, a lot of people will watch a grand final/superbowl type event without having watched 1 minute the rest of the year. I don't think it's necessarily a "problem", people can only care about so many things in their lives and it's good that at least you can get people to tune in for that marquee event.
That all being said, I absolutely agree with you that more superspeedway races are necessary. As a foreigner who never used to watch oval racing at all, it was superspeedways that got me in to indycar because of how unique and exciting that type of racing is. Pocono and Fontana were some of my favourite tracks to watch and it's a shame they went away.
I go to St. Petersburg every year. Part of Indycar's problem is that it has completely become a B2B venture.
It was a Friday. I was in the T1 stands. I listened to a sponsor rep explain to their guests in attendance that "These are the same cars, drivers and teams that run the Indy 500. We are they." I'd say about 2/3's of his group didn't understand what he meant. They didn't understand the concept of a racing series having a full season. They didn't know why anyone involved in the Indy 500 would bother showing up in St. Petersburg. One of them even asked, "Why isn't it an oval then?" These weren't idiots. They were guests who were given the VIP treatment by a company. They just had no interest in the series or the on track. They were there for the event, and the event in St Petersburg is solely about the on track. They were looking for a party and a race broke out.
INDYCAR NEEDS MORE OVALS!
Amen!!!
My view about modern racing: It has become sponsor dominated--as with NASCAR. Drivers are expected to represent their sponsor by not being offensive, i.e. vanilla. Back then, the names of the drivers and even the owners were household personalities: Andretti, Foyt, Al and Bobby Unser, Rutherford, Andy Granitelli, etc. Even the same sponsors year in and year out became part of racing. How many people even care any more who sponsors a car? Back then, the drivers and owners had distinctive personalities which were part of the racing. My point, people might follow the drivers more than the racing: How did Foyt do this weekend? How many people could even name five drivers from the 500?
The MX-5 Miata cup that travels with IMSA is total proof that spec racing can be way more exciting than F1 in every way. Multiple races a season usually end with like 3 wide dashes to the finish and the top 5 always battle each other swapping spots like it’s MotoGP
Had a chance to watch the Mazdas 2023 during 24-hour Rolex week in Daytona and at the Indy Firestone Grand Prix in St Petersburg. What a blast!
Got to go to my first 500 this year. Got a perfect view of the winning pass in turn 3. I definitely want to go again
In terms of the rating drop-off, Indycar appears to have very little promotion outside of the 500. Indycar needs more marketing which will bring in more fans. Another thing that will help would be a console game, which I hope Iracing can do now that Motorsport games has lost the license.
Here’s my perspective…
I am a hardcore NASCAR fan. I typically watch all or almost all of the f1 races as well. Not because it’s the best or most captivating racing, but because I have things to talk about with my f1 fan friends, and it gives me something other than nascar to follow. I also occasionally watch imsa/wec, but not all the time. Indycar to me doesn’t have much more to offer that I haven’t already seen. Different tracks and probably better racing than f1, but as I said I choose an f1 race over Indy so I can talk to my friends about it🤣
I don’t have enough time to sit down and watch 3/4 races in one weekend, so Indy is the odd man out. That’s just my take though
Also, I watched the Indy 500 all the way through, and was very interested. It is different, and I loved the idea you brought up of more ovals essentially, since that would be different. Even if it’s the same track as nascar, the car is so different the style of racing would be so drastically different it would grab my interest
Finally, WHERE WAS A SINGLE ADVERTISEMENT FOR DETROIT?? I watched much of the Indy coverage even when it was on rain delay. I watched the entire race and some of the post race despite the coke 600 being on. I heard about Detroit maybe once, twice at max. I didn’t even know it was happening until I went on peacock and watched the last 8 laps or so because I was looking for a show to watch.
There’s my perspective. That’s my opinion. Do with it what you wish.
Need to re-establish the Triple-Crown and a High Stakes award for achieving it.
It's the old USAC issue of the Indy 500 and the 7 dwarfs. And the CART/IRL issue of Long Beach race day attendance: 98,000 TV: 69,000. Nobody is watching. And my solution has always been simple: TV should reflect the fanbase. EX: Most people walk around in jeans. Not Hugo Boss. Great content, keep going, DL.
I’ve been telling people for a long time oval racing (especially super speedway racing) is what makes INDYCAR special.
They should be capitalizing on that more in their marketing, branding and especially their scheduling.
Texas is trying to get them back. Hopefully they can work out a new date that works for everyone. So sad if our home race doesn’t come back. Bring back the night race. That’d be something different than other races, and old school fans will be happy.
I hope it happens... and I hope it's just like what Paul Page said in the 2002 Boomtown 500...
THEY'RE INCHES AWAY AT 214 MPH!
It’s a 6 hour drive for me and I want to come to that race!
I have great seats in Turn 3 and watch the Snake Pit event. I do not know if this occurs every year, but the Snake Pit concluded well before the race ended (maybe lap 150). The crowd dispersed and likely enjoyed the race during its final laps. I think the Snake Pit event is a big, big win. More profit is what drives IMS' steady improvements. It is a microcosm within a macrocosm.
We need like in the 90s, have the next race be a short oval to keep up the oval racing intrigue.
My 2 cents: I live within 3 hours of 3 tracks that host races. I cannot recall the last time I saw a race advertised other than Indy.
During the 500, and all the races so far this year, there have been multiple ads for Iowa and Nashville (although those are still advertising it as a street race).
@@ramblinman4197 Okay, but if you're already watching a race, you're likely to tune in for more races. I see nothing either on TV or actual signs/billboards/advertisements re: races at other circuits. They're not bringing in the casual fan and turning them into a full-fledged fan of Indycar.
@@mikehergenroether6160 I agree you are correct here. I have not seen any advertising for even Iowa or Nashville during "regular programming." That said, I don't normally watch NBC but they are not advertising anywhere I do watch (including here on youtube!), and I actually live about 2.5 hours from Nashville so, yeah, that is not good!
The old triple crown days, if Pocono wasn’t so dangerous I’d love to see Michigan and Pocono with 500 mile events.
The other problem is..... people don't fly halfway around the planet to see the Sonsio Grand Prix or the Detroit Grand Prix...... you need a whole event like the 500.... only thing close is Long Beach or the newcomer... Iowa with all the events
IndyCar at Gateway’s promotion is good thanks to Bommarito Automovie Group
We love the speed of Indy !!!
The problem is Indycar is only promoted on 1 network. Races use to be on multiple networks which meant that those networks would cross promote their upcoming races which in turn promoted the sport. Wide nets catch many fish, small nets catch few fish.
I like the idea of creating Triple Crown 1500 for IndyCar. Let’s say that Indy500 is the first step and then you make the Michigan 500, and Nashville 500 as the season finale. I would say that maybe 3/4 of field that finish can compete in the Michigan500, and Nashville just to up the ante. Maybe I’m wrong buts an idea.
Or it could be in reverse order with the Indy500 being the crown jewel but you would have fit in those 500s before Indy which would be very difficult.
Why??
Because they don't have hardly any oval track racing at all in the series.
And if they ever have an oval track race they hardly ever promote it at all so fans will come out to whatever track it's at to watch it.
A third of the races this year are ovals. Indy, nashville, gateway, 2 iowa, 2 Milwaukee
@jacobaxton6353 that's quite different from previous years tho
The IRL "Indy Racing League", "Indy Cars". You have a racing sanctioning body that is focused and built around one track, one event, "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing". No small wonder why interest drops off substantially afterward. You've essentially built your entire league around one race. Can you imagine NASCAR calling itself the "Daytona Racing League", ."Daytona Cars" etc? I don't know how you fix it without taking some of the shine off of the indy race, which frankly, I absolutely love for all the reasons you point out. I'll bwager there are casual fans that do not realize there is an indy car season!
i just remember Nigel Mansell, my boyhood racing idol :)
I wish indycars would come back to australia .indycar on the gold coast in the old days we had indycar nascar and v8 supercars in the same race weekend .its was a great race weekend
The whole broadcast treats it as a one and done kind of race. There was no mention of points standings in the season, no talk of the races so far this year, no talk of the races ahead. There is only one race, THE INDY 500. And to a degree I get it, it is the crown jewel and thats how it is treated, but why would anyone care if they do everything in their power to not remind you that this is one race out of many that happen over the whole year?
I agree with the suggestions you made at the end. A different chassis and power plant would just be more interesting. Being able to hear and see the differences between manufacturers would be great. Have Oreca come and make a chassis and Dallara make their new chassis for Chevy. The ties are already their in IMSA.
Great points David. As a Canadian I head to Toronto for the race every year. When I attended my first (then Molson Indy) was to see in person the cars and drivers of the Indy 500. I appreciate it has always been marketed on 'Indy'. It wasn't the Toronto Grand Prix ... it was the Molson Indy, now Honda Indy Toronto. And yes, more 500s please. If not Indy, Michigan, Pocono then Indy, Homestead and Nashville SS or Michigan or Texas or wherever. But lean into and market the 'Indy' more.
i don’t think i heard anything about the rest of the series throughout the race on sunday, not even mentions of results at barber or championship positions, let alone what’s coming up next.
They never do and I can't understand why. NBC airs multiple races throughout the season, too. They had a ton of time to plug it waiting on the rain to stop. Wtf!
Why did they not advertise upcoming races, talk about the calendar, the championship at all during the broadcast? And there was so much social media content leading up to and after the 500, but radio silence for every other race.
The NBC broadcast did. I watched it Monday evening after being there in person.
@@NotSteveCook I must have missed it then, we get the NBC broadcast in Ireland with Sky Sports F1 but we don't have any of the ads, the Sky IndyCar team take over the commentary so sometimes things are a bit different. I still feel more focus could have been given to the overall championship, there was no real emphasis on the Indy 500 being part of something bigger than just this one race.
@@marcellakilgarriff This has been a problem for decades. The late Dan Gurney addressed this (and other issues) to the USAC board of directors in 1978, but it fell on deaf ears. Whether it's been USAC, CART, IRL, or the reunited IndyCar, the series remains a group of minor races no one outside the fan base cares about, plus the Indy 500. They need to think outside the 465.
Nice job articulating what we are all feeling. Hope Detroit puts on a banger. I just love this series. And want more of it!!
As a Hoosier who has been to The Brickyard 400 and several instances of 'The greatest spectacle in traffic jams' Lifting the broadcast ban definitely had me tuning in.
If I'm going to the race, I'm going to the race. I've never based my decision on whether it was on TV or not... This is a relic of closed circuit TV, Ali-vs-Frazier era.
Watching the rest of David's video, I guess I kind of missed the point, but I don't like being race-blocked.
I may misunderstand what you mean by party, but I’m going to push back on the idea that 70% of the people at the Indy 500 are there for the party. Are most people there with friends, throwing back some cold ones, enjoying themselves at the race… Sure. But they are keeping up with the race. In the section that I was in - section A - I would say 90% of the people around me stayed in their seats the entire race. Plus for many families and friends there’s a decades long tradition of going to the Indianapolis 500. But as you said, it is a unique event. I agree with a person who said that it is like the Kentucky Derby. I watch the Kentucky Derby and don’t watch any other horse race the entire year. Many people are like that about the Indy 500..
SPOT ON David that said though how would you make the tracks like Homestead Texas Kansas which are 1.5 mile tracks to the equivalent of a 500 mile race like Indianapolis or Michigan?
It is however weird to go to the Indy 500 and no one around you had any idea who the drivers are. Like where do these people come from?!?!
Yeah...why put in effort to go to it knowing nothing about it!
Well David, figuring out what is good for IndyCar is way above my pay grade. So, thanks ever so much for all of your passion and love of the sport that shines brightly in all of your coverage. Maybe the series should strive to be as uniquely different from all others as much as possible. Back in Dec (sorry) I think you brought up one point that would do just that. New chassis with V-8, V-10, whatever. 100% biofuel- We're being eco-friendly. No hybrid, it's being done to death.
ITS THE UGLY CARS STUPID
Who wants to watch these 12-year-old all-the-same crapwagons?
The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made.
Like watching paint drive!
Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
It falls off because you dont have high speed ovals like you used to. Froget fan attendance its way more fun to see high banked ovals than short ovals and road courses
Pocono had a lot of the same qualities as the IMS for the cars and the race, but it couldn't draw a crowd either.
I would love to see Indycar go back to New Hampsire Motor Speedway, but I'm not sure if they ever would?
I think David your view is from an American prespective and you may need to look outside the box.
I attended my first Indy 500 on Sunday with a tour group of about 50 kiwis. I am actually still in Indianapolis as we are staying on to watch New Zealand midget driver Michael Pickens compete in midget week and take in a few WOO races aswell.
I also have attend Le Man's and the Bathurst 1000.
My first impression of the Indy 500 was what I call the American culture of entertainment first.
We came across many people who weren't educated on general motorsports and were clearly their for the party and entertainment factor.
Up on the mountain at the Bathurst 1000 is very comparable to some who attend the indy 500, but at least up on the mountain at Bathurst mixed in with the alcoholic beverages, all the fans are motorsport knowledgeable and follow a driver or either Ford or Holden.
The focus at the indy 500 needs to be in the drivers and motorsports more so Indycar.
If you look outside of the US, Indycar has gained a larger following in New Zealand due to the 3 kiwis competing and Australia given Scott McLaughlins success in supercars and of course Will Power.
In New Zealand Indycar races including practice, qualifying and the race are on live TV via Sky TV New Zealand.
At indy there should have been a focus on the non American drivers including the country of origin.
I thought it would have been cool to have had a Kiwi village set up onsite with Kiwi food being available, a pub and some rugby goal posts and a ball. Give American motorsport fans a taste of the Kiwi culture..Scott McLaughlin would be the first one their wearing an All Black rugby jersey walking around in shorts and jandels.
It would have been awesome to have gone to an Agustin Canapino, Argentinean village and mix with some Argentinian fans...
You could do the same for all the drivers who race under a different countries flag.
Even at the Chill Bowl, Michael Pickens gets to walk around the track carrying the New Zealand flag at driver introductions.
There are opportunities to make small changes at the indy 500 to make the overall experience better...
Unless you want obnoxious USA! USA! USA! chants breaking out and irritating all the international fans/drivers, I would avoid making these changes.
Once IndyCar exits the spec era then fans will start to educate themselves more about the engineering. I admit I’m not an expert but the engineering can be fascinating once we get out of the spec rut.
@@Jalrealthat's ok mate. We international sports fans and athletes including Driver are use to that whether it's a rugby game, rugby league, cricket or football game. It common for fans from the different countries to mix at the game and at the pub watching the game on a big screen. The chanting at rugby game between the South African supporters and Kiwi fans is something to behold. It's something Americans don't understand as you don't compete in sports that pit a nation versus nation in sporting competitions
@@mikehardy1912
Dump these spec Dallara's.
Who wants to watch these 12-YEAR-OLD all-the-same crapwagons?
The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made.
Like watching paint dry!
Scotty Dixon has been driving THE SAME CAR for 12-years in arow - with only a different paint job every year!
Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
What's the black and white picture with the mini Indy? Would make a killer slot car track!
I’ve always thought David about Indycar coming here to the UK. At the British Grand Prix we get 400.000 people but for arguably the 2nd biggest motorsport event in the UK the BTCC you are getting tops 15k, if Indy came to brands hatch and trust me we want it, you would get 80k hardcore racing fans😊
Technically I think the second largest motorsport attendance would be the MotoGP with around 100k over the weekend. Anyway I think a fly-away race and certainly two could put a severe financial strain on some of the smaller IndyCar teams budgets, IndyCar as a series would need to subsidize some of the costs.
Man, hearing you discuss Le Mans makes me remember my early yrs of 500 attendance (1991-1995) where is was exactly as you described Le Mans. I truly hate that the 500 is a party that has a race these days......
This thing used to be so great, sadly it's really lost everything it used to be, for me anyway. A great finish isn't enough to make up for that deficit.
Indycar is unique compared to its closest competitions in that its biggest prize is not the series championship. The Daytona 500 for NASCAR and Monaco for F1 are marquee events for their respective series but I can't imagine that their drivers would say winning those races is a bigger deal than winning the championship. If there was a way to place more emphasis on the season-long championship without diminishing the importance of the Indy 500, that'd get more people to tune into the other 16 races.
Exactly right it's just hard to figure out how they could do that without it feeling manufactured.
Still the only non gimmick 500 mile race in American motorsports. This was a real finish.
I think your point is valid. I think in terms of packaging, there is more that can happen. In the 1990s, there was the magic of the commentary of Uncle Bobby and Sam Posey.
In terms of "The Party Thing" Indycar needs Walkins Glenn. Indycar also needs Milwaukee to be treated more than just another race.
There is more, but what needs to happen here is slow managed growth. I wish this could happen tomorrow, but no.
I attended my 33rd Indy500. I can say from my group of 15 that we met up with for the 500 you have a great point. Of the 15, 4 at most follow the series. My son and I went to Long Beach. Five people attended the GP. 3 attended the 500 because of the tradition that left with 70 laps to go, and we had 4 first timers. Im guessing 3 will watch Detroit this weekend.
Someone (something) needs to be on top. The tradition of the Indy 500 makes it special and remarkable. Disappointing I will admit as I love all Indy car racing. But, there can be only one number one.
It’s crazy the race after Indy isn’t on network tv. How is that not a stipulation of the tv deal?
Thanks for the take David; the twitter discourse over this has been really killing me these past two days
IMSA GTP engines in the spec dallara chassis would be an easy button.
Also an international race would be awsome. Bring indy back to the lauzistring in germany. Oval racing isn't a thing in europe, and racing fans like myself would definitely travel across the continent to see a superspeedway race. Same for the twin ring motegi in japan.
They need to fire their social media team
1 key attribute to the draw for the 500 that I have heard is the build up and fanfare for the pre-race festivities. The Purdue band, driver introductions, the delivery of the American flag, singing Back Home Again in Indiana, and more mean a LOT for the larger central Indiana area. It’s an identity that hundreds of thousands of people claim which cannot be replicated at Mid-Ohio, Toronto, or Gateway.
Is that a wired mouse?! I've seen only one of those in the last 10 years and he's past due for retirement! Great video, as usual. You're so passionate and knowledgeable I always like hearing your opinion.
We’re an Indy family, and we brought about 7 teens who never been to a race before this year.
Well everyone of these kids are already asking about next year.
There is something in the air, at the 500. It’s really a beautiful thing
I'm a big race fan. Grew up with IRL and CART and I don't care about Detroit. I don't care about majority of today's Indycar schedule. If we had more ovals then it would be a different story. It would be great to have Michigan 500 as US 500 again and put it around 4th of July!
At the end you talked about Indycar getting closer to where they want to be. I have been wondering for awhile now, if Indycar really knows where they want to be.
Why Does IndyCar Interest Fall Off After the Indy 500?
Because IndyCar itself only cares about the Indy 500.
That, in a nutshell, is the biggest issue.
Tony George ONLY cared about "his" race, everything else was to promote Indy! So, he effectively killed one of, if not THE top racing series in the world and clearly the top racing series in the U.S.!
@@scsmith4604 I think Indycar teams care about more, but they want a big payoff for minimal investment. Indy is a big payoff that finances the year's operation. They need to get more money into the series. The way to do that is to open up the rulebook to get more manufacturers and chassis and tires into the series, instead they have done the opposite.
While not saying that it's the correct position, that was entirely what Tony George wanted! He didn't really care about the rest of the season, he just wanted "his" race to get the big spotlight. First off, pay double points for ALL the 500 milers. A second 500 mile race at the end of July and then end the season with a third 500 mile race, which if the points were anywhere near close would bring a lot of interest onto the final race -- ending with the California 500 at Fontana always made that an important race.
I went for the 'happening' aspect in 2017, and now im a huge motorsports fan
As someone who has been in the stands for 35 Indy 500s and was raised there, I can say that yes, the feeling around town was more all-encompassing in the 1970s and 1980s than today - half the TV and radio commercials involved racing, all gas stations had Welcome Race Fans banners, one local news channel spent the last 15 minutes of an hour newscast at IMS - but there were still plenty of fans at the race who didn’t follow it (especially in the infield) or were Indy 500-only fans. I think that percentage actually has dropped with the reduction of the infield crowd. Most of the people in our part of the track had on auto racing themed merch and followed the race.
I have relatives, including my mother, who will listen to the race, follow everything all month, but won’t or might watch other IndyCar races.
Why? Because it’s the Indianapolis Damn 500. It is The Super Bowl of auto racing. Just as you have people who’ll watch on Super Sunday but not Game 9 in November, people will watch this race but not Michigan (when they ran there) or Road America.
Going to bet there was significant dropoff between the Indy 500 and Milwaukee back in the day.
Different manufacturers with different engine styles would be ideal. V8 Chevy vs v6 Ford vs hybrid 4 cylinder Honda with all cars having a max HP of 700. NASCAR also needs this
Ford is never coming back to Indycar. They've stated this openly.
I say Toyota, and Alfa Romeo need to come to Indycar!
@miketwotwenty it's been 12 years, nobody is coming lol. Sad but true.
You nailed it my man!
Dump these spec Dallara's. And two essentially identical engines.
Who wants to watch these 12-YEAR-OLD all-the-same crapwagons?
The dumbest silly looking open wheel race cars ever made.
Like watching paint dry!
Villeneuve's Reynard/Cosworth - hold my beer while I weep!
Excellent podcast
So David… I watch every race, qualifying session and as many practices as I can. What percentage do I fall into? 😂
ABC/ESPN and FOX have sports networks and endlessly promote F1 and NASCAR respectively.
But ESPN uses the Sky UK feed instead of doing their own like how NBC and SPEED did back then. Meanwhile, Fox doesn't even TRY when it comes to their NASCAR coverage. Gone are the quality days of 2001-13, and here we are, 2014-later... the downfall of Fox as a tolerable NASCAR TV provider. And DON'T get me started on FS1's Craftsman Truck Series coverage.
NASCAR is barely promoted by Fox.
@@TheJingles007 Exactly what I said... They don't even TRY.
Because the casual Nascar fan that turns on the Indy 500 for a few hours in May doesn't give a crap about the sport and the people who run Indycar have crapped all over their own sport for 25 years. It is supposed to be a technological series, but they have done everything they can to neuter the technology and they have been very successful in that neutering. To the point to where fewer and fewer people care and so it doesn't hold interest.
I really do not understand why the IndyCar head honchos cannot understand how actually promoting its races and drivers throughout the season helps ratings, not just the 500
I've thought about this subject recently. It'd be nice to see IndyCar have a resurgence after an unreleased video game, off iRacing then returning back, Honda maybe leaving, charters + locked in Indy 500 spots, TV ratings decline (other than Indy 500), and a cheating push to pass scandal. Hopefully the new TV deal is good for fans and the series.
Michigan > Belle Isle > Downtown Detroit. Belle Isle was overhated, underrated, and underappreciated.
Belle Isle was a beautiful Street chorus, remind me of some of the F1 street races - very elegant compared to the downtown course!
Interesting, I'm a very new Indycar fan (2021) living outside of the US, I'm getting the idea they're trying to be more like F1 but doing it in a bit wrong way that they don't get the interest of the F1 fan and lose a bit of their identity. When I got into racing (2019) I always thought the idea of oval racing was dumb and boring, now I think the oval races are the best.
Not too hard to figure out. In the 5 1/2 hour pre-race show was there:
-A graphic showing the entire Indycar 2024 schedule? No.
-A highlights package showing the action from the first 5 races of the season ( and, yes, show the crashes for those who only watch for those) and showing the race winner on the podium with their name on the screen to increase name and face recognition? No.
-A graphic showing the point standings after the first four events? No.
-An interview with the points leader talking about how the SEASON is going for them and what their confidence level of keeping up their winning ways for the SEASON? No.
-Then an interview with driver in second place in points asking what it will take for the rest of the SEASON to catch the points leader? No.
-Any ads during the commercial breaks for the next race in Detroit? No.
-Any graphics for the next race in Detroit during the race? Only in the last 30 seconds of the broadcast.
-Any live read by Diffey during the race saying, "Hey fans, if you like what you see, good news, there's another race next Sunday!" No.
It's well and good to show live points during the race and the points standings after the race, but it doesn't do any good IF YOU DON'T SET THE TABLE BEFORE THE RACE AND EXPLAIN TO THE CASUAL VIEWER WHAT IT MEANS!
Is it written in the TV contact that the SERIES can't be talked about at all during the Indy 500 coverage?
(Dare I say, ABC did a better job of promoting the series and the race following the 500 than NBC does.)
In your interview with Pato two years ago, he mentions people asking what he does for a living and he tells them - Indycar driver. And they reply with, "that's only one race, right?"
If you don't talk about the SERIES when you have the largest TV audience of the year, HOW WILL THEY KNOW IT'S A SERIES AND NOT JUST ONE RACE AND THAT THERE IS SOMETHING TO COME BACK TO THE NEXT WEEK AND WEEKS AFTER THAT?
Oh, and just watch - at Detroit, there will be a graphic showing the points standings going into the race within the first 5 minutes of the start of the broadcast. Something that couldn't be done in a rain delayed 5 1/2 pre-race show this year or the normal a 90 minute Indy 500 pre-race shows in the past few years.
Update: In the FP1 session for Detroit on Peacock, we got the points standings AND the rest of the 2024 schedule within the first 10 minutes of the coverage.
Update 2: So they decide to show a brief season highlights package from the first few races just before the Detroit race on USA network - but could not be bothered to do that before the 500 with the largest TV audience of the season. Unbelievable.