Is it better?

[Granatelli]

That's too bad. Was better than Monaco IMHO. What put u off of indy car?

[LaFerrari]

The real question that I'm wondering is why NASCAR has received so much funding and has become so popular despite Indy almost being equal in performance.

[Starter]

The real question that I'm wondering is why NASCAR has received so much funding and has become so popular despite Indy almost being equal in performance.

1) The France family are marketing geniuses compared to anyone connected to IndyCar.

2) NASCAR didn't have a fifteen year civil war, driving all but the most devoted fans away.

[Nem14]

Is the Indy 500 better than NASCAR?

Better than which NASCAR? The Brickyard 400?

The Brickyard 400 qualifying record is - Casey Mears, 186.293 mph, 48.311 seconds.

The Indy 500 qualifying record is - Arie Luyendyk, 237.498 mph, 37.895 seconds

Arie Luyendyk would pull away from Casey Mears by 10.4 seconds every lap Arie runs.

Arie would lap Casey every 4.65 laps Casey runs.

So driving his Indy car and assuming each runs every lap at the record speeds (no pit stops), Arie would finish the 400 mile Brickyard 400 race
> 36 LAPS < (90 miles) in front of Casey Mears.

[mr nobody]

I saw ***** circling the toilet bowl and it was better racing then anything NASCAR has had in 20 years. Yes Indy 500 is wat better then anything NASCAR can even hope to ever have.

[mr nobody]

^ Sad, very sad.

[Rex Monaco]

The real question that I'm wondering is why NASCAR has received so much funding and has become so popular despite Indy almost being equal in performance.

There was a time, before the megalomaniac ruined the sport, when Indycar was mentioned in the same sentence as Formula One and not NASCAR.

Now the series, and many of the fans, seem to have given up hope that it can ever return to the top rung of motorsports. Their lack of vision doesn't allow them to see a pathway out of spec racing.

[zako85]

To be honest, the timing of the Indy 500 to be on the Memorial weekend is kind of unfortunate. Therefore, I would take the TV ratings with a grain of salt. A lot of Americans travel on weekends. I visited the gulf coast, and it was hard to book a room in some places. I spent the Sunday at a beach as many other people. The way I watched Monaco GP and Indy 500 is have both recorded on my DVR, and then not checking any news media for a couple of days until I watched them, which was hard.

[Jag_Warrior]

All of the comparative Nielsen data for the Indy 500 ratings are from Memorial Day weekends or that Monday. So the comparison from one year to another is valid. And there's no reason why the Memorial Day weekend would affect Indy and not Monaco or the Coke 600 - both of which either got the same or higher ratings compared to previous years. Monaco posted some very good numbers, especially when you consider that a large portion of the F1 fan base is on the West coast.

When sponsors begin doing their annual budget reviews in about 5 months, it's almost assured that they will not be taking these declining Indy numbers with a grain of salt. And that is too bad. But it is what it is.

For the people who have been here about as long as I have been (when CART still existed even), what have I said over & over & over when teams and these various series would whine about only costs? Value! It's fine to get your costs in line. But you should not be obsessed with cutting costs at the expense of delivering a product that has value to the market and consumers. I won't rehash the past (again). But remember when I posted the ratios of sponsor $ spent to $ returned (sponsor exposure value)? Just like with stocks or anything else, people often get too enamored with the number and ignore the percentages. Why do people sponsor NASCAR when Indy Car is "cheaper"? Would you rather invest $10 mil and get a miniscule return or invest $20 mil and get a return of 400% (Mars, Inc. in NASCAR). From the one sponsor event I was able to attend in Charlotte years ago, I came away with the knowledge that these guys aren't just winging it. Sponsors expect the teams and the series to deliver the eyeballs if they expect to keep getting the checks. And they don't want excuses about the weather, holidays or sunspots.

[musyarofah]

I think Tony George was sent by NASCAR to ruin CART, just like Gary Bettman did with NHL by NBA's order

LOL just kidding :
well I'm a big fan of Indycar no matter how boring they are so, obviously...