MILLER: Short Ovals Are The Future

IndyCar

MILLER: Short Ovals Are The Future

Sunday’s Iowa Corn 250 IndyCar race was not only the best race of 2010, it was one of the most combative and competitive shows in recent history.

Robin Miller | Posted June 21, 2010 Indianapolis, IN

Short track racing draws a special kind of fan -- one who supports all forms of the sport -- and the IndyCar Series would be smart to embrace this them. (LAT)

There’s always a lot of grumbling in the IndyCar paddock about coming to corn country: it’s in middle of nowhere, no fancy restaurants and no 4-star hotels are among the annual complaints.

But there are two reasons that Iowa Speedway should always be a fixture on the schedule.

It’s real racy and it draws real fans.

Sunday’s Iowa Corn 250 was not only the best race of 2010, it was one of the most combative and competitive shows in recent history as almost 35,000 people were treated to a pass happy 250 laps and one helluva drive by Tony Kanaan.

Kanaan DROVE from 15th to victory lane without any pit strategy, debris yellows or help from the elements. He stormed to the front with outside and inside passes on a 1-mile oval that rewards aggression, chassis setup and handling traffic.

“This is what fans want to see, hard racing and lots of passing,” said Kanaan, who broke a two-year victory drought and snapped a 16-race oval win streak by Penske and Ganassi.

“I’m not saying this just because I won but not only do we need to keep Iowa on the schedule, we need more tracks like this.”

Of the 17 lead changes, all but one came on the track -- at speed. Teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon battled each other for first place like their jobs were on the line while Kanaan and Franchitti went side-by-side and swapped the top spot five times in 25 laps.

E.J. Viso started 19th and DROVE to a career-best third place to salvage the afternoon for KV Racing.

“This is a crazy place,” he exclaimed afterwards. “You have to deal with the traffic, save your tires, play with your bars and really concentrate. But I could pass people high and low and we just kept getting quicker and quicker.

“I wish we had more places like this because if you get your car working, it doesn’t matter where you start.”

While the 1.5-mile cookie cutters on the IZOD IndyCar series circuit are usually an exercise in aerodynamics, the lone short track left on the schedule is more about driving and dealing with the bump in Turn 1 and all the traffic.

“I didn’t have a very good car until the end but this place is so much fun,” declared Ryan Briscoe, who wound up fourth for Team Penske. “You have to keep making changes and working with the car and I was hanging on for the first half of the race.

“That’s why it was a very satisfying fourth place, if there can be such a thing.”

Despite cloudy skies and a forecast that called for 80 percent chance of rain, the 30,000-seat grandstands at Iowa Speedway were only a couple thousand shy of being full and the usual hillside crowd and suites were packed.

Not only is Iowa’s attendance much better than Kansas City, Chicago and Homestead every year, the paying customers come early, stay late and actually seem to know the drivers.

“These are some of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic fans we have and it’s a pleasure to come here and put on a good show,” said runner-up Helio Castroneves. “It’s nice to see full grandstands and the people are always so friendly.”

The standard line is that well sure there is a decent crowd, what else is there to do on a Sunday in Iowa? But this state “Gets it’’ about motorsports, like few others.

“We’ve got 59 active race tracks in this state and our population is only 2.9 million,” said Craig Armstrong, the vice president and general manager of Iowa Speedway. “We get 55,000 for our NASCAR Nationwide show, 35,000 to 40,000 for IndyCar, 17,000 for ARCA and we had 13,000 for our USAC tripleheader.

“I think this is the racingest state in the union.”

Randy Bernard has talked about racing on Saturday nights at as many ovals as possible and Iowa Speedway would seem to be a perfect candidate. Hell, there were 12,000 people here Saturday night to watch a 13-car Indy Lights race that took the green flag shortly before 9 p.m.

And TK is going to get his wish because next week there will be a press conference to announce IndyCar’s return to Loudon, N.H. in July of 2011. It was the sight of some great CART races before the IRL took over and it’s a racy place for open wheel cars.

Milwaukee and Phoenix were both bastions of Indy car racing that drew loyal fan bases before the split ruined them. But both are on Bernard’s radar for the future and, based on what he saw here Sunday afternoon, maybe they’ll become a priority.

It might take some time to re-claim all the folks who use to make Milwaukee and Phoenix a staple of their entertainment dollar. But a few shows like the one here Sunday and tickets just might be a little easier to sell.

Robin Miller became an Indy-car junkie in late 1950s and stooged for his hero, Jim Hurtubise, at the 1968 Indy 500. He went on to work as a vent man and board man on Indy pit crews from 1971-77. Miller bought a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli in 1972 and raced it in SCCA until 1974 when he purchased a midget from Gary Bettenhausen, competing in the USAC midget series from 1975-82.

Robin flunked out of Ball State College in 1968 and began working at The Indianapolis Star sports department in 1969, covered motorsports there from 1969-2000.

In addition to his broadcast work. Miller's also covered IndyCar racing for Autoweek, Autosport, Car & Driver and On Track magazines over the past 35 years.