Why The Freedom 100 Was Amazing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ค. 2023
- Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway means a huge amount. It's the last track action before the Indy 500, and it gives the pit crews a chance to shine in the pit stop competition. However, for well over a decade, the day also played host to one of the most exciting races of the year. In this video, I say why it should return..... despite it more than likely, never coming back.
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The Freedom 100 is probably the most American sounding race around. That and the Coca Cola 600.
The Paul Revere 250 was another good one.
The old US 500 and the Firecracker 400
The NRA 500
Lol you mean the World 600
My other 2 favorites were the Beef! It's what's for Dinner 300 and the Pork, the Other White Meat 125.
I can't wait until they start having cannabis sponsors. That's a perfect sponsor to express our American freedoms. Of course the feds don't agree but does anyone actually listen to the feds anymore?
My favorite Freedom 100 was 2016 when Dean Stoneman taking his first Lights victory after a long battle with testicular cancer... by 0.0024 seconds, the closest finish in IMS history. I was sitting on the front straight near Dean's parents and when he won, and they thought I was a track worker and asked me to guide them to victory lane. I was happy to assist them as much as I could. I really had never seen true joy and happiness like that ever before.
A few more insights on why Mr. Penske was not on board with continuing the Freedom 100
1. When the IL-15 debuted, average lap speeds shot up over 10 MPH with some Zach Veach unofficially setting the first average lap speed above 200 MPH in practice of '16. A first for any racecar besides an Indycar at Indy.
2. The Freedom 100 tyres were designed specifically for Indy and weren't used anywhere else during the season and any left overs were scrapped.
3. Penske really doesn't want to see a young driver get his career cut short in a bad accident in lights. While none of them came to pass, there were rumblings about families of drivers suing the track (which was stupid! It says motor racing is dangerous on every ticket sold)
Fun fact: The Freedom 100 had a sister race called the Liberty 100 that ran on the IMS road course as a support race to the Formula 1 USGP from 2005-2007
I love the timing of your release, as I sit here waiting through 90 minutes of dead space between the end of Carb day practice and the start of the pitstop challenge.
Great video and explainer for those who don't know why the Freedom 100 disappeared.
I think the primary reason is due to cost, it's the only race of the season that uses a speedway car as well as the crash=car and season destroyed
I hope this race comes back in 2024
I really used to look forward to the Freedom 100, it was an amazing race! The finish of the 2013 race shocked me and I've been watching races since the age of 5. There were many other great races too with close finishes and I enjoyed watching the future stars of the Indy Car series on their way up.
The best Freedom 100 for me was the 2012 edition. Esteban Guerrieri from Argentina won after starting last due to an engine change. It is the only time an argentinean won at Indianapolis, and it also happened in May 25th, which is a holiday for the May Revolution in Argentina.
Thank you for the information. At that time, I was not so enthusiastic about motor sports. It's nice that I was able to close a knowledge gap thanks to you.
Would love to see the race return, but short of that actually happening, a race at IRP would be interesting, and it'd be pretty cool to see them at North Wilkesboro, the series needs more ovals though (as do the big cars tbh)
Only got to know about this race last year after getting properly into Indycar, not just Indy 500 as a longtime F1 fan and man... It's such a shame that this isn't anymore in the calendar for Lights/NXT. Such a great race
I had no idea this even existed - but now I do - and YES I would love to see it return!
I miss the freedom 100 every year. Some of the best racing ever!
Many of these races were downright terrifying. Basically as soon as the second place car pulled out of line everyone behind within striking distance was piling up. Lest we forget that they dialed back the power level early in the IL-15 era to artificially pack the cars up.
Indy Lights/NXT/whatever is never going to have much in terms of sponsorship based on exposure (just reality). It’s grown healthier without the Freedom 100. Writing off multiple chassis, unnecessarily risking the injury or death of young drivers to satisfy what I would generally expect are frustrated IRL era fans isn’t worth it.
The potential for one of those crashes completely destroying a tub and bankrupting that driver's season is something Roger *really* wants to avoid.
Thank you for this video. I have been frustrated with the disappearance of this race as well. I really don't understand The Captain's decision to not have this race.
I sincerely hope it comes back. I would also like the Brickyard 400 to come back too but the Freedom 100 was a better race.
I love your videos man!
Same! One of my favorite channels!
1:33 I'm not an engineer and aerodynamicist or a race car driver, but my guess would be once he kind of got pointed in a straight line the car got more downforce on it and was able to help it grip and keep going straight again. I'm not sure if they have an underwing where it gets downforce from the floor of the car if so that would help even more. but when the car went sideways it didn't have any downforce on its wings but then when it pointed straight it did have the downforce and that's probably when he hit the throttle. what that was was an awesome driver
AG The Channel just ran the Freedom 50 a halfscale version of this in NR2003 and it was amazing. You should check it out.
The Indianapolis 500 gets about 40% of the IndyCar season's watch hours. Granted, given it's the longest race now that no other 500 mile oval races are on the calendar and having the longest pre and post show fanfare, but I would not be shocked if the Freedom 100 was similar for Indy Lights. I know it was the only race I particularly cared about, and this season of Indy NXT isn't helping with it having moved from TH-cam to a paid sports subscription streaming service in my country which has been a disaster for anything that has moved to that service. The fact half the races also conflict with F1 doesn't help.
I'd like to see it come back, but I doubt anything short of there being 25+ cars in the field and pressure from the teams and sponsors to do it will make the Captain fold.
Most F1 races are way before the Indycar races though.... and half of the viewers are asleep by lap 10 of the F1 race. Maybe they'll wake up in time for the Indycar races
As a lifelong Hoosier and 500 fan. There used to be a ton of support races for the 500 years ago. Not on the speedway of course, but on tracks around Indianapolis and the surrounding area.
USAC, Indy Lights, and Super Vee, to name a few. Probably forgetting some. Was never a fan of the Freedom 100 though.
The general consensus when the race was canned was due to the costs. Aero bits, tires, chassis changes, you name it. Without the race the teams are basically able to justify their season budgets being substantially smaller and allows for more drivers a chance to run a full season of Indy Lights. However, I think a problem that we have right now is the series isn't really marketed well enough, doesn't have a TV deal at all, unless you count Peacock, and half the field is fielded by one team. If Penske Entertainment did a better job marketing the series it might actually work out in a way to allow these teams to justify the costs of this race in the future. But there's only 2 IndyCar teams that field Indy Lights entries, Juncos, one of the smallest teams on the grid, and Andretti, ironically one of the LARGEST teams on the IndyCar grid. While forcing teams to field entries isn't a great idea, incentivizing them to back drivers on the Road to Indy ladder like F1 teams do with driver academies in their respective ladder may be beneficial to the health of the series.
tl;dr the race got canned due to cost. cost wouldn't matter if the series had better marketing and participation from IndyCar teams.
I always thought the "good racing" was because they were going so slow it was like doing a restrictor plate race at Indy. It was just artificially created pack racing.
It’s never coming back for the simple reason of costs. Yes, Indy NXT is running 2 ovals, Gateway and Iowa. Except both tracks you can get away with the road course body kit. Meaning teams have only one body kit to worry about and more importantly replace. Don’t get me wrong, I want the freedom 100 back but it won’t come back for the simple reason of that. Also, while I am being sarcastic, I can’t help but feel and joke that Roger Penske will one day try to justify turning the Indy 500 into the Indy 500K and run on the road course. Considering there are 2 ovals that use the true low downforce oval kit…..
I think they could do the Freedom 100 with the road course layout
Hi, could you please tell the name of the first track? I mean, the first music track.😊
That's because Indycar doesn't know how to market it's league. Formula 1 has obviously made it a priority to branch out into the United States. Meanwhile, Indycar remains idle and stagnant in it's effort to procure additional races, sponsors or engine manufacturers.
yet recently formula 1 isn’t even beating NASCAR in tv viewership.
the drivers lack experience on the indy oval so penske is gonna get rid of the only race that gives them an experience outside of the full indycars sure seems like a bit of a counter intuitive move.
I bet that the Freedom 100 returns the exact year after Roger kicks the bucket. Also Indy NXT has an even worse oval count than Indycar. Indycar has four, while Indy NXT has only two. That's borderline embarrassing!
Indy NXT cars with some aero changes for the Freedom 100 could work. Maybe bump up the grid with some extra drivers from junior formulas around the world.
I like the fact that these youngsters get a chance at a look at the big stage.
Indy NXT really need to include Texas and Indy onto the calendar one for more oval experience for the drivers, if you want drivers to not crash give them more of an opportunity to learn how to race on ovals. Also just out of a get them racing more. They have a nearly a 2 month gap between the first and second race this year and nearly a month between the Indy road course races until Detroit. Get the cars out there racing and show what the drivers can do and people will watch, if they arent racing no one is watching.
I feel like I'm in the minority as I am not a huge fan of the pack racing at Indy. Hopefully Penske opens up more body manufacturers and more engine manufacturers join.
The only thing they shoud've done was get rid of the stupid Bush-era name.