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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Miller’s Mailbag, 8.2
Always genuine, never lite: It's Miller time. Here's the latest Q&A from SPEED.com's IndyCar guru.
Always genuine, never lite: It's Miller time. Here's the latest Q&A from SPEED.com's IndyCar guru. (Photo: LAT)
Hello open-wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just email me at . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.
~Robin Miller
Q: Do you think the IMS 'brand' is being weakened by all of the various racing series who are being allowed to race there? The sports car crowd looked terrible and the Nationwide attendance looked like a typical Carb Day gathering. IMS used to be a unique place in the world of racing and the world of sports. It used to really mean something, to be allowed to compete there. They don't allow the Hooters Cup tournament championship to be played at Augusta National. The NCAA tennis championships aren't being played at Wimbledon. Now, you've got Indy Lights, Nationwide, GRAND-AM, Continental Tire and MotoGP all there. In my opinion, none of them truly belong there. Why don't they just put a bulldozer to that fourth-rate road course and put the character back into the place? Get the inside of Turn 1 back to the way it was intended. Think of all the infield parking and potential infield crowd that has been lost because of that road course. It’s time to move on from road racing at IMS. IMS needs to get back to hosting the Indianapolis 500 in May and the Brickyard 400 in July. And that's it.
Jim, Willow Branch IN
RM: There’s little doubt the lure of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been tainted by all the races and that’s why Tony Hulman always felt it was imperative to have only one big race a year. Your analogies are spot on: a Miata running 80 mph at Indy?
Q: I was at the Speedway last Friday and Saturday. You said all along that the GRAND-AM and Nationwide cars wouldn’t draw a crowd. You were right. Question? Which had a greater attendance: this year’s Carb Day or the Super Weekend’s Thursday, Friday and Saturday combined?
Mark in Carmel
RM: I’d say that NASCAR’s “announced attendance’’ of 125,000 for the Brickyard is closer to the total for all three days with 6,500 on Friday, 20,000 on Saturday and maybe 75,000 on Sunday. If there are 250,000 seats at IMS, every other one needed to be occupied to have 125,000 and at least four grandstands were closed so why try to kid anybody?
Q: So what's going on? The attendance for the Brickyard 400 was embarrassing for NASCAR and the Speedway. The Speedway never gives actuals so when their estimate of 125,000 was published it was a farce. I know the track intimately and unless masses were in the bathroom all day long, forget it. Guess it really doesn't matter as racing as a whole is in trouble. I used to blame the IRL for all OWR problems but then I began to remember. I've lived most of my life on the West Coast. I can remember Ontario floundering, my beloved Riverside tanking, Ascot disappearing. When I use to go to Laguna Seca for CART races it started out impossible to get choice seating until you connected with someone. Way before the IRL, the stands were half empty and it got worse. I was living in Portland when the CART race at PIR was the hottest ticket in town. The Rose Festival helped no doubt but again I saw the crowd disappear. Fontana is today's latest example of WTF were we thinking. It's across the board. The Trucks are non-existent for attendance. No one shows up for an ARCA race, the Nationwide race at Indy was a non-event even with Danica there. The sports car events fare no better in turnout. So what's going on? Is it total market saturation or are people just fed up with all the BS? My wife's observation may be dead-on. Racing used to be an everyman’s sport. You could afford to go and have a great time. Then came all the new tracks with the preferred everything. It's now an elitist sport for the wealthy.
Grumpy Gary
RM: First off, IMS didn’t put out the crowd figure it supposedly came from NASCAR. The general malaise in racing today may be the fact young people just don’t care like we did – about cars or racing. The IMS prices were reasonable enough but why would anybody want to pay to watch stock cars at Indy? GRAND-AM put on the best race, by far.
Q: I'm sure others are noticing the distinct lack of bodies in the stands. It looks like the Indy 500, four or five years ago. I've always judged attendance by how well populated the stands by Turn 2 and Turn 3 look. I know the Nationwide race looked like you could shoot a cannon through the place. At some point Jeff Belskus has to answer to the board if the attendance isn't worth the likely significant sanctioning fee NASCAR demands for holding this event. Anything you can publicly share?
Mike McDonald
RM: I can assure you the Indy 500 crowd never fell off like the Brickyard’s has but with the big TV payment and only 75,000 people there live, IMS is still making money. And, we should remember that anywhere else (except Bristol, Daytona and Texas), a turnout of 75,000 is a damn fine sports crowd. It just looks puny at IMS.
~Robin Miller
Q: Do you think the IMS 'brand' is being weakened by all of the various racing series who are being allowed to race there? The sports car crowd looked terrible and the Nationwide attendance looked like a typical Carb Day gathering. IMS used to be a unique place in the world of racing and the world of sports. It used to really mean something, to be allowed to compete there. They don't allow the Hooters Cup tournament championship to be played at Augusta National. The NCAA tennis championships aren't being played at Wimbledon. Now, you've got Indy Lights, Nationwide, GRAND-AM, Continental Tire and MotoGP all there. In my opinion, none of them truly belong there. Why don't they just put a bulldozer to that fourth-rate road course and put the character back into the place? Get the inside of Turn 1 back to the way it was intended. Think of all the infield parking and potential infield crowd that has been lost because of that road course. It’s time to move on from road racing at IMS. IMS needs to get back to hosting the Indianapolis 500 in May and the Brickyard 400 in July. And that's it.
Jim, Willow Branch IN
RM: There’s little doubt the lure of Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been tainted by all the races and that’s why Tony Hulman always felt it was imperative to have only one big race a year. Your analogies are spot on: a Miata running 80 mph at Indy?
Q: I was at the Speedway last Friday and Saturday. You said all along that the GRAND-AM and Nationwide cars wouldn’t draw a crowd. You were right. Question? Which had a greater attendance: this year’s Carb Day or the Super Weekend’s Thursday, Friday and Saturday combined?
Mark in Carmel
RM: I’d say that NASCAR’s “announced attendance’’ of 125,000 for the Brickyard is closer to the total for all three days with 6,500 on Friday, 20,000 on Saturday and maybe 75,000 on Sunday. If there are 250,000 seats at IMS, every other one needed to be occupied to have 125,000 and at least four grandstands were closed so why try to kid anybody?
Q: So what's going on? The attendance for the Brickyard 400 was embarrassing for NASCAR and the Speedway. The Speedway never gives actuals so when their estimate of 125,000 was published it was a farce. I know the track intimately and unless masses were in the bathroom all day long, forget it. Guess it really doesn't matter as racing as a whole is in trouble. I used to blame the IRL for all OWR problems but then I began to remember. I've lived most of my life on the West Coast. I can remember Ontario floundering, my beloved Riverside tanking, Ascot disappearing. When I use to go to Laguna Seca for CART races it started out impossible to get choice seating until you connected with someone. Way before the IRL, the stands were half empty and it got worse. I was living in Portland when the CART race at PIR was the hottest ticket in town. The Rose Festival helped no doubt but again I saw the crowd disappear. Fontana is today's latest example of WTF were we thinking. It's across the board. The Trucks are non-existent for attendance. No one shows up for an ARCA race, the Nationwide race at Indy was a non-event even with Danica there. The sports car events fare no better in turnout. So what's going on? Is it total market saturation or are people just fed up with all the BS? My wife's observation may be dead-on. Racing used to be an everyman’s sport. You could afford to go and have a great time. Then came all the new tracks with the preferred everything. It's now an elitist sport for the wealthy.
Grumpy Gary
RM: First off, IMS didn’t put out the crowd figure it supposedly came from NASCAR. The general malaise in racing today may be the fact young people just don’t care like we did – about cars or racing. The IMS prices were reasonable enough but why would anybody want to pay to watch stock cars at Indy? GRAND-AM put on the best race, by far.
Q: I'm sure others are noticing the distinct lack of bodies in the stands. It looks like the Indy 500, four or five years ago. I've always judged attendance by how well populated the stands by Turn 2 and Turn 3 look. I know the Nationwide race looked like you could shoot a cannon through the place. At some point Jeff Belskus has to answer to the board if the attendance isn't worth the likely significant sanctioning fee NASCAR demands for holding this event. Anything you can publicly share?
Mike McDonald
RM: I can assure you the Indy 500 crowd never fell off like the Brickyard’s has but with the big TV payment and only 75,000 people there live, IMS is still making money. And, we should remember that anywhere else (except Bristol, Daytona and Texas), a turnout of 75,000 is a damn fine sports crowd. It just looks puny at IMS.
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