And in the end ... The 800-pound gorilla of CART, Roger Penske, bought up the IRL and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But rather than go back to the days of multiple car types competing, he's retained the IRL One-Design concept. So Indycar has become the automotive equivalent of sailboat one-class racing and Dallara's are the racecar version of the Catalina 22. What a shame.
I had high expectations when Roger Penske bought the speedway, and finally Tony George was gone for good, but it's been a disappointment, took me over ten years to start paying attention to Indycar again.
@@Mario_Ramirez Me too. I thought Roger would turn it into CART 2.0 (the kinder, gentler CART or maybe just "cheaper"). I don't care for One Design racing (except for junior formula's like Indy NXT, F2, etc). So, it seems like Indycar is a Junior formula now. I mean the Indy 500 was THE RACE for most of its history, until the Tony George years. What a shame that Indy has come to such a condition. Now we have 33, 34 or sometimes, if we're lucky, 35 entries. Big Whoop. In the "good old days" there seemed to always be 40+ entries plus spare, or T-cars, for every team.
Uh, CART became a spec series before the IRL did, I don't know if you realize that. Champcar went to a single chassis in 2005, Indycar was entirely full-time Dallaras in 2007, 2009 if you count Indy-only entries aswell. Engines too, the IRL was down to Honda in 2006, CART was down to Cosworth in 2003.
@@michaeldelaney7271 The reason there's no more 40 car entry lists is people aren't stupid anymore, sponsors know that Billy and his buddies aren't making the field, and aren't gonna pay much for him to plaster their name on his dumptruck of a car. To be the 40th entry of the field you basically have to put up a million dollars of your own money and pray that you're able to beat out 7 other cars, some of which will be organized by professional teams running the full season, with top level parts, and cars that are just as funded as you are. Maybe they have an experienced driver, or engineer. Then, if you qualify, maybe you find a sponsor and you'll break even on the whole thing, MAYBE. The prize money sure isn't gonna pay for it, you wouldn't make it very far up the field anyways compared to teams that have been running this track for decades and have 2, 3, 4, 5, sometimes even 6 cars gathering data for them. Sponsors realize how long of a shot that is, and pay accordingly.
A very different situation but with similar problems from long ago. In the 1960's (I think) Shelby took his sports car guys to Indy for the 500. They had a great driver (Revson, maybe) but just couldn't get up to speed at all. Later, the Champion Spark Plug guy stopped by and suggested a bunch of changes they should make. One of the veterans at the track, said the Champion guy really knew his stuff. The team had tried everything they could think of so they tried the spark plug guy's set-up ideas and picked a lot of speed. The teams problem wasn't aero, it was the set-up. They had championship-winning mechanics and a fine driver. Turns out road racing and oval track racing are just two radically different animals. Borrowing from Broadway; "Ya gotta know the territory."
Enjoyable podcast as always, delightfully offbeat. IMO, Tony George only deserves half of the blame for the "Split", the other half falls to CART. Neither side could find a compromise that was acceptable to both. The initial seeds were sewn back in 1978 with USAC's raging incompetency, the passing of Tony Hulman, and the plane crash that killed several of the USAC execs. Perhaps even earlier with the 1955 formation of USAC. Having been following Indycar racing since the mid-1980's, I remember that mid 90's time period, and it was not as good as many remember, cracks were starting to become fissures. I will also admit to somewhat of a retro-bias against CART for what they did to Gurney in their legislation against stock-blocks and BLAT in the early 80's (RIP to the Pepsi Challenger).
I love the shows and everything you guys are doing, but I can’t help but feel like your video title and thumbnail to this video is a bit slanderous to the Swiift .010. Clickbait to get people in?! “Surprise the worst race car is actually a crapwagon!” (And do I owe PT a royalty for that?) Kidding aside, keep up the good work and thank you!
It's criminal how few views your videos have because your content is terrific.
This is fantastic, just subscribed
Episode suggestion: Why engineers and designers build their own prototypes in after work hours
Great episode
And in the end ... The 800-pound gorilla of CART, Roger Penske, bought up the IRL and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But rather than go back to the days of multiple car types competing, he's retained the IRL One-Design concept. So Indycar has become the automotive equivalent of sailboat one-class racing and Dallara's are the racecar version of the Catalina 22. What a shame.
I had high expectations when Roger Penske bought the speedway, and finally Tony George was gone for good, but it's been a disappointment, took me over ten years to start paying attention to Indycar again.
@@Mario_Ramirez Me too. I thought Roger would turn it into CART 2.0 (the kinder, gentler CART or maybe just "cheaper"). I don't care for One Design racing (except for junior formula's like Indy NXT, F2, etc). So, it seems like Indycar is a Junior formula now. I mean the Indy 500 was THE RACE for most of its history, until the Tony George years. What a shame that Indy has come to such a condition. Now we have 33, 34 or sometimes, if we're lucky, 35 entries. Big Whoop. In the "good old days" there seemed to always be 40+ entries plus spare, or T-cars, for every team.
Uh, CART became a spec series before the IRL did, I don't know if you realize that. Champcar went to a single chassis in 2005, Indycar was entirely full-time Dallaras in 2007, 2009 if you count Indy-only entries aswell. Engines too, the IRL was down to Honda in 2006, CART was down to Cosworth in 2003.
@@michaeldelaney7271 The reason there's no more 40 car entry lists is people aren't stupid anymore, sponsors know that Billy and his buddies aren't making the field, and aren't gonna pay much for him to plaster their name on his dumptruck of a car. To be the 40th entry of the field you basically have to put up a million dollars of your own money and pray that you're able to beat out 7 other cars, some of which will be organized by professional teams running the full season, with top level parts, and cars that are just as funded as you are. Maybe they have an experienced driver, or engineer. Then, if you qualify, maybe you find a sponsor and you'll break even on the whole thing, MAYBE. The prize money sure isn't gonna pay for it, you wouldn't make it very far up the field anyways compared to teams that have been running this track for decades and have 2, 3, 4, 5, sometimes even 6 cars gathering data for them. Sponsors realize how long of a shot that is, and pay accordingly.
A very different situation but with similar problems from long ago. In the 1960's (I think) Shelby took his sports car guys to Indy for the 500. They had a great driver (Revson, maybe) but just couldn't get up to speed at all. Later, the Champion Spark Plug guy stopped by and suggested a bunch of changes they should make. One of the veterans at the track, said the Champion guy really knew his stuff. The team had tried everything they could think of so they tried the spark plug guy's set-up ideas and picked a lot of speed. The teams problem wasn't aero, it was the set-up. They had championship-winning mechanics and a fine driver. Turns out road racing and oval track racing are just two radically different animals. Borrowing from Broadway; "Ya gotta know the territory."
Enjoyable podcast as always, delightfully offbeat. IMO, Tony George only deserves half of the blame for the "Split", the other half falls to CART. Neither side could find a compromise that was acceptable to both. The initial seeds were sewn back in 1978 with USAC's raging incompetency, the passing of Tony Hulman, and the plane crash that killed several of the USAC execs. Perhaps even earlier with the 1955 formation of USAC. Having been following Indycar racing since the mid-1980's, I remember that mid 90's time period, and it was not as good as many remember, cracks were starting to become fissures. I will also admit to somewhat of a retro-bias against CART for what they did to Gurney in their legislation against stock-blocks and BLAT in the early 80's (RIP to the Pepsi Challenger).
IRL still exists. It is the legal entity
Great podcast! Great story! Btw you don't look 43, you look about 50. But it's ok because you do great at this😅. Thanks for sharing this story!
I love the shows and everything you guys are doing, but I can’t help but feel like your video title and thumbnail to this video is a bit slanderous to the Swiift .010. Clickbait to get people in?! “Surprise the worst race car is actually a crapwagon!” (And do I owe PT a royalty for that?) Kidding aside, keep up the good work and thank you!