Sparse Kansas crowd illustrates need to improve "The Show"
by Tony Johns on May 3, 2010 1:24 AM EDT
in Blog Posts
5 comments
I hear a lot of criticism in IndyCar circles of NASCAR and their deference to "The Show."
Lucky Dogs, green-white-checker finishes, "phantom" debris cautions... you know the litany. If you're an IndyCar fan, chances are you have your own laundry list of things that allow you to snicker derisively at stock car racing - "professional wrestling on wheels," as it were.
We covet the idea that IZOD IndyCar Series racing is "more real" than stock car racing - that our discipline is a truer test of man and machine, and that our sport doesn't need all that fakery and frou-frou crap that often gets ladled on top of motorsports like a sickly-sweet glaze to whet the hoi polloi's appetites.
That kind of thinking really boosts the ego... but as we learned in Kansas this weekend, it doesn't do squat to boost the gate.
Kansas represented everything that IndyCar was supposed to be good at. After weeks of road and street racing, IndyCar was back where many believe it belongs - high-speed oval racing in America's heartland. Add to that the biggest field of the season, the first day of May and the final prep before the Indy 500... hell, Danica was even there. That should have been a recipe for success.
It wasn't.
You can (and many people already did) blame the less-than-sunny weather or the possibility that folks might have been staying home to watch the Kentucky Derby (A.J. Foyt even missed the race to vacuum up a few mint juleps at Churchill Downs, after all) for the fact that the Kansas Speedway crowd could have been bested by the audience of a kazoo-based Lawrence Welk Tribute Band.
But whatever the excuse, it seems pretty clear that steps need to be taken to improve The Show.
IndyCar can start by solving two persistent, aggravating issues:
- Shorten the caution flag periods after wrecks. Look, we all know that IndyCars are made of carbon fiber and that when one of them wrecks those little splinters can go everywhere. Further, I appreciate the hard work of the Holmatro Safety Team in making sure that everyone is okay after a hard shunt. But seriously - I can't be the only one who has noticed that yellow flag periods at oval tracks take FOREVER, even when the incident in question seems innocuous. When your average non-Indy IndyCar oval race is between 300 and 400 miles, you want to have as many green flag laps as possible. Much as I love the spirited banter between the guys in the booth, it's no replacement for on-track action. And if you're watching at the track, if you can fit a bathroom break and a snack run in and still have time to hit souvenir row before the lights go out on the pace car... that's just a bit too long.
- Adopt a new restart procedure. I get it. Folks don't want to sacrifice the race for the sake of The Show. But when you have a late-race restart with fifteen lapped cars between the leader and second-place, both the race and The Show suffer. I complained last week about IndyCar restart procedure, and this race did me a huge favor by showing exactly what I was talking about. Simply put, we're at a point now when it's time to make a concession to The Show. Modern-day racing is a spectator sport, not an engineering contest where spectators are simply grudgingly-tolerated fringe elements. The "accelerate to race speed on the backstretch" crap needs to stop. The idea of a baker's dozen or more lapped cars between drivers racing for position on a restart is ludicrous. Sure, in an ideal world, navigating through obstacles like Milka Duno to get to the leader would be a fine test of a driver - but in an ideal world, we also would have more than one car builder and engine manufacturer and a series that pays more than lip service to the principle of being the greatest show on a racetrack. So move the restart line up to the frontstretch in front of the fans, and then put lapped cars on the outside line to get them out of the way of faster cars.
There are more issues with IndyCar oval racing that need to be dealt with, but many of them won't be addressable until a new chassis and engine spec is selected. So until the tech side gets the attention that it is (over)due, the fixes need to come in other areas.
Or IndyCar can just continue doing what it has done in the past - blame the track, blame the promoter, pull up the stakes and move to another venue. But all that does is slap a Band-Aid on the injury, not treat it the way it needs to be treated.
It's not necessary to manufacture entertainment; but it is also not necessary to force boredom on people in a misguided nod to keeping the sport unsullied by artifice.
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In addition to what you’ve mentioned I believe that the pits should be closed under the yellow flag except for cars that are damaged. By allowing pit stops only during the green flag it will also reduce the number of laps spent under yellow. Ridiculous that debris cautions take more than 5 laps and it’s due in large part to facilitating pit-stops.
And two, I believe on re-starts that the Pace Car needs to remain on the track until the exit of turn 4. Having the Pace Car pull off in turn 1 allowing the field to govern themselves back to green has failed due to the leader taking off too soon. Ridiculous too that re-starts are waved-off due to alignment issues with the cars, especially after 5-10 laps spent under yellow.
I agree 100% about restarts, which were painful this weekend. When I see vintage (“vintage” as in 80’s and 90’s) footage, an image that sticks out in my mind is that low-angle, head-on shot of 25+ cars accelerating together down a front stretch, with the engine heat making the back half of the feel look like Dali paintings.
More than maintaining “race integrity” and The Show, I think there should be some responsibility taken for maintaining some of the small, but timeless and iconic aspects of Indycar racing — awesome starts and restarts being one of them. Same with donuts in celebration, and shots of drivers’ wives on the pit wall (that’s just a personal favorite ;]).
But I just want to make one last point: If F1’s shown us anything, it’s that on-track action can mean very little if you bring a good enough overall package to an area. Showing up, unloading cars, going in circles, and leaving after can’t sustain local interest, no matter how amazing your on-track product may be. Everyone weekend should have the weekend-long atmosphere that Long Beach had. Thursday through Sunday you had something for the surrounding areas to gnaw on. Every race should have a concert associated with it, held at or near the track on the night before the race. Include local bands/groups/acts with a super strong headliner to anchor the show. Have the bands at the track the next day, in the pits with the teams and with the cars. Have high-profile street demos the week leading up to the race. Have drivers show up to in-stores and colleges and schools to promote the race connect with the younger audiences.
Basically what I’m suggesting is that the series deepen its roots at each event and region it goes to. We can’t just arrive and drive. The series has to be more tangible to the people. Do that and people will go simply because it’s “the thing to do” that weekend. That’s how Long Beach is so successful. There has to be a buzz and excitement for their to be a following. Otherwise we’re just going to keep rocking out to half-packed houses.
EASY FIXES
Yes, shorten yellow periods and adopt new restart rules. Have the lead lap cars out front, followed by -1 Lap cars, then -2 Laps, etc. Also standing starts at roadies as said before.
Also, MORE SPEED with LESS AERO. Make ‘em drive the cars again and be able to follow other cars through corners. Lola and Swift have the right idea in modernizing the old 90’s chassis with newer age safety tech and cheaper pricing with better racing (in theory, of course).
….and either DUMP the P2P or make it more powerful (20HP for ovals, 30+HP for roadies).
Tell me...
…if I’m hallucinating this, but I swear that somebody did exactly this a few years ago. Was it ChampCar? I’ve been dismayed to realize this year that it wasn’t IndyCar, who have had this “lapped cars mixed in with the leaders” thing crop up a couple of times in the first few races of the year. It’s the simplest thing in the world to wave the lead lap people past the lapped traffic in order to assure that they’re all in a bunch, and that way you get a chance at a decent finish. F1’s got a rule like this now, but what they do is like a supersized Lucky Dog rule, where all the lapped cars get waved by the leaders and then get a lap back, regardless of how many laps down they are or how many cars behind the leader they are on track. That’s a bit too NASCAR for my taste, but putting all the leaders in one bunch seems like a no-brainer of the sort that the League could be doing it for Indy and beyond.
by The Speedgeek on May 3, 2010 9:59 AM EDT up reply actions
It's all about marketing at this point
If you want excitement, passing for the lead, etc., then yes, lining up cars on the lead lap needs to happen.
Even if it’s done during yellows in the final 1/4 of the race (this way you’d theoretically be giving lapped cars all the chance in the world over 3/4 of the race to get their lap back), it creates more exciting racing for both the fans at the race and those watching on TV. And with exciting racing, in theory, comes more viewers and spectators, and with that, you can increase ad rates. It makes too much sense not to happen.
I love to play baseball. I'm a baseball player. I've always been a baseball player. I'm still a baseball player. That's who I am. - Ryne Sandberg
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