A question for NASCAR fans.

[Pieter Dams]

I used to be a big Champ Car fan in the late 90s, but ever since they started putting all of these Formula 1 rejects in their cars in stead of homegrown talent, I've lost interest. Why get a completely disinteresting guy like Timo Glock, Robert Doornbos or Tonis Katsemis in your car who'll just leave as soon as F1 calls anyway, when outspoken characters like James Hinchcliffe or Alex Barron are left without a ride? I especially resent Newman-Haas for hiring Sebastien Bourdais. He may be a great race car driver but he'll dump the CCWS for F1 as soon as someone offers him a ride. They need to put more North American guys in their cars, who really want to be in the series and who won't leave as soon as they get a chance in a better paying series. It's very import the IRL don't loose Sam Hornish jr to NASCAR the way the CCWS did AJ Allmendinger. Besides, Toyta Atlantic is full of American Open Wheel hopefulls. The only interesting driver in the whole CCWS is Paul Tracy and he's the only reason I still watch their races, now that AJ has decided to give up being a championship contender in Open Wheel and become a well-payed also ran in NASCAR.
I think the IRL does a better job of supporting homegrown talent and creating an interesting mix of ovals, road courses and street circuits (I've been to the GP of St Petersbug a couple of times) but their cars are just butt-ugly. But they do have a lot better and more interesting drivers than their arch rivals. Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti are not only American but also very outspoken and can always be counted upon to make some kind of interesting comment, be it on Eddie Cheever's age of Robbie Gordon's and Bernie Ecclestone's male chauvenism. I also subscribe to Indycar Series magazine and get a better idea of which drivers have interesting personalities and some background on what goes on behind the scenes.
Still, the channels that cover NASCAR do a much better job of providing the fans with everything they need to know about the sport. They have a great pre race show and because of the length of the races they have ample time to explain how stock car racing works. I do think the races are a little too long, but Champ Car's timed events are just amateurish. They have dubious race calls, penalise the wrong drivers and more often than not make a complete fool of themselves when something unexpected happens (like a wet Road America race). Both the IRL and NASCAR are much more professional. To me, the ideal Open Wheel series would have the IndyCar drivers and Paul Tracy racing in Champ Car machinery on a mix of the IRL and Champ Car tracks. But both series definitely need to get rid of their European Formula 1 rejects. It used to be so that you had Formula 1 which was very business like, conceited when it came to picking race tracks and high tech. And on the other side of the universe, you had CART which was all about showmanship and racing on a spectacular mix of street circuits, road courses, short ovals and superspeedways. I wish we could go back to that. Until that time, I have to say that I have more fun watching 43 noisy stock cars racing wheel to wheel with some great characters behind the wheel that go at it both on and off the track and are not too uptight to lend a hand to fix their race cars and spend some time with the fans. These guys race 36 weeks a year and still take part in the Bush series, dirt and sprint racing when the oportunity arises. Those are real race car drivers. I hope American Open Wheel racing will some day get back to that level. Until that time, I'll just keep watching the IRL races and Paul Tracy and, more often than not, keep getting frustrated.

[slorydn1]

I used to be a huge fan. I still watch the Indy 500 every year, religiously, as part of the Sunday Double ( the 500 followed by the Coke 600)....

Other than that, I believe the split killed the sport.

[cyd]

My Dad was a NASCAR fan and I used to laugh at what I perceived as "bumpkin" racing. The first race I ever saw live was F1 at Watkins Glen in.....err, let's just say a few years ago. I went to a couple CART races at Pocono and got really hooked. Then drivers retired and the split happened and I started losing interest. I sort of fell into NASCAR by helping someone do a fanstasy team and became totally hooked. I learned so much from "RPM Tonite" when it was on ESPN with John Kernan and Benny Parsons (R.I.P.) and found all the strategies and interviews really interesting. I was fortunate enough to meet Darrel Waltrip, Jeff Hammond, Junior Johnson and Richard Petty at Goodwood here in the UK---what a thrill!

I think the CART/IRL split has been a disaster for the open wheel series in the US; just take a look at the half-empty stands. Dover tried having IRL for a couple years but ended it because they were only selling about 20,000 tickets. While Danica may be irritating (and the media circus that follows her) I think it's great for the sport. And she's not too shabby of a driver, along with Katherine Legge and Sarah Fisher.

[oily oaf]

I'm a big fan of IRL. I love the gladiatorial aspect of oval racing compared to the bore fest that is F1 and other road based series.
I watched a couple of CART races at Rockingham Motor Speedway a few years back and loved it.
It was bloody cold though

[RaikkonenRules]

I watch all kinds of motorsport equally.