By finally learning to adapt. Champ Car kept moving closer to the European model and hoped that fans who had shown no interest at all would finally pay attention. Never happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by tbyars
By finally learning to adapt. Champ Car kept moving closer to the European model and hoped that fans who had shown no interest at all would finally pay attention. Never happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by tbyars
As another poster said all it really did do was survive and that is because it has the 500.Quote:
Originally Posted by CARTDM15
As far as rules go, the IRL cut-off its nose to spite its face, for all practical purposes.
The current optimistic rhetoric about open wheel racing, is really because it has replaced all the: you ****, no you ****, no you *****-- rhetoric which died with CC--that has been more prevelant than either series was.
If Mr. George thinks he can stick with some quasi-spec rules crap simply because the 100th anniversary of Indy will get press, he is a moron, but remember this is the gent who crapped on his own "vision."
well it had Danica stomping around like she was wanting to engage in some serious fighting, like a real pro wrestling champQuote:
Originally Posted by CARTDM15
Too bad, it did not happen, cause it would have been fun stuff for sure.
Too bad it was not some other female driver involved!! Could have been a real hair puliing cat fight
MEOW
:D
Limbs can be dangerous places.Quote:
Originally Posted by FormerFF
http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com...ox-office.html
Would this be the case if there were never a split?Quote:
Update: NASCAR did end up winning the ratings battle with the Indy 500. The Coca Cola 600 drew a 4.7 final rating (up 7% from the 4.4 overnight) while the Indy 500 finished with a 4.5 (down 12% from the 5.1 overnight).
Can the sport still be fixed (in our lifetimes)?
IMHO the main reason CART failed was because of mismanagement in the late 90's that pi$$ed off the manufacturers to the point where they jumped to the IRL and took most of the top teams with them.
Until that point, the IRL was irrelevant apart from the Indy 500. Tony George simply new that he wanted control, which he didn't get with CART running the series so he created his own, much the same way as a spoilt child behaves.
The IRL of the late 90's had several ex backmarker teams from CART plus some new teams, with Z grade "stars" such as Billy Boat and Eddie Cheever. Compared to this, CART had some of the top teams in American motorsports with much higher quality drivers such as Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracy, Alex Zanardi, Juan Montoya, Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Dario Franchitti, etc...
If you look at the Indy 500 in 2000, 2001 where some top CART teams "raided" it, they literally blew away the competition in the IRL. In 2002, Penske (who had jumped ship that year) won it from Team Green (who were full time CART at that point) in a very close finish.
I think this speaks volumes for the level of competition in the IRL at that point for the regulars. Panther Racing is one exception. If it wasn't for them in 2002, Penske would have had a much easier time of it.
After CART lost the big name teams, the momentum swung to the IRL and quickly went bankrupt (only to be ressurrected in a foolhardy move by the "three amigos"). However, along the way many of the smaller teams in the IRL dropped out (or in the case of Conquest, jumped the other way to CART). From that point I think it was pretty obvious that the IRL would eventually win.
However, this "victory" is not through anything that Tony George has done IMHO. When the big name teams came in with the support of their big name manufacturers (Toyota and Honda), they started to exert their obvious influence on the league to remake it into the type of series they preferred racing in.
Fast foward to 2007 and the IRL looked much more like the CART of the mid to late 90's than the significantly weaker CCWS. I was a big CART fan of the late 90's, but I didn't even watch most races in the 2007 season, simply because I didn't care anymore. I'm guessing that many other people felt the same way and ultimately (and for the good of the sport), CCWS was folded up, leaving the IRL as the only top level open wheel series in North America.
So where does this leave us now. Yes the IRL IndyCar series is on an upswing, but it's only just coming off life support IMHO. Yes there is momentum, but there is still a long way to go. I won't really say that IndyCar is back to full strength until there is more than one competitive chassis manufacturer and more than one engine manufacturer.
This is only the case because NASCAR for all practical purposes, has its own network.Quote:
Originally Posted by Miatanut
NASCAR is losing viewership and attendance, even with its own network, but that makes the rating for Indy even better.
THat is only if one holds a myoptic opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieV8
CART did not have better drivers, CART had big buck teams.
Any semi-compentent driver can win when the drivers team outspends the competition ten to one.
So much for momentum
http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com...ox-office.html
NASCAR did end up winning the ratings battle with the Indy 500. The Coca Cola 600 drew a 4.7 final rating (up 7% from the 4.4 overnight) while the Indy 500 finished with a 4.5 (down 12% from the 5.1 overnight).
The NASCAR ratings slide stopped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Riebe
NASCAR has been posting ratings gains at every race so far this year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieV8
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Riebe
In the context of the list of CART drivers that was part of the message that you didn't include in your quote (and I am including above for clarity), can you with a straight face really say that those drivers were not better than what the IRL offered at the time? None on that list would fall into the "semi-competent" classification.
Gary