Quote Originally Posted by Scotty G.
1. Yes Marky, more ovals are needed. The series has to be oval dominated and American driver dominated AGAIN (like it was for about 50 years), if it ever wants to be relevent again. Argue it all you want, but the current formula of foreign ride-buyers with NO fanbase and more and more Euro-centric racing, only leads to fewer and fewer folks giving a damn and more and more potential fans staying away. F1 isn't popular (and never will be) here for a reason.

And you do realize that NASCAR Trucks are their AA level of racing. If you want to compare Indy Cars with AA baseball, go right ahead. I don't think that makes a good point for you though.

NASCAR's top 2 series, are almost all American and race on almost all ovals. And they have millions of more fans then Indy Cars. Wasn't that way in the 70's and 80's, when Indy Cars had almost all American drivers and raced primarily on ovals.


2. No, its more a legacy of the entire LEADERSHIP of AOW during the past 25 years. With the #1 culprit in the whole mess being the CAR OWNERS, who replaced the Mears's, Sullivan's, Andretti's, Rahal's, Vasser's, Sneva's, Rutherford's and Unser's of the sport with a bunch of unsellable, unmarketable drivers who helped drive the sport right into the gutter and where it may never get out of.

Blame TG all you want. Its what some of the "one trick pony" posters do best here. He certainly deserves blame for being a part of this complete mess. But also blame Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske and Carl Haas and Gerry Forsythe and Pat Patrick and Derrick Walker and all of those who aspired to make CART and Indy Car Racing into a F1 feeder series and aspired to take on F1, instead of realizing NASCAR was taking off right in front of them and taking their lunch money. Blame them for not building a series that better linked with the majority of American Open Wheel Racing and its crown jewel race. TG had nothing to do with that ball being dropped.
Primarily ovals in the 70's and 80's? Checking up on history: between 1979 and 1982, ovals did dominate road courses, but there were only 15 races a year. 1983-84 ovals and road courses were tied. By 1985 road courses dominated ovals and this trend continued until the split.

As to the notion that "the #1 culprit in the whole mess being the CAR OWNERS, who replaced the Mears's, Sullivan's, Andretti's, Rahal's, Vasser's, Sneva's, Rutherford's and Unser's of the sport with a bunch of unsellable, unmarketable drivers", I declare bull****! Those were the drivers you grew up with, they got old and retired, and these were the guys that replaced them. The only reason you don't like them is because they weren't the drivers you grew up with. It is like the Star Wars prequels: kids born after the prequels were made love them and people born before the prequels hate them. I started watching AOWR in 1998 and the names Ray, Franchitti, Sharp, Brack, Lazier, Papis, and Dismore do resonate with me; I didn't know who Buddy Rahal was until Graham started qualifying for races.

NASCAR's boom is over, but it is certainly not in a bust. Stagnet, yes; bust, no.