Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Yesterday, I was watching practice for the 500 on the Speedway's live streaming....over the internet.  

I had to print the entry list with the car numbers so I could tell who was driving each car. There are only 34 cars entered in this year's race.   Of the 34 cars, there are only 14 teams. Andretti has 5 cars, Gannassi has 5 cars, Penske has 4 cars and many teams have 3 cars. I thought the idea with the IRL was to make it more affordable to encourage more participation and to have grass roots racers get a shot. As soon as the big teams got involved again, it seams that pretty much stopped. Now it is called INDY CAR.

There are 12 American drivers. Bryan Clauson and Ed Carpenter have a dirt track background. I wish we could still see Tony Stewart, Sam Hornish, Ryan Newman, Billy Boat, and there are so many more guys like that, and it would be really neat to watch Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu and Christopher Bell get a shot there.....but alas, Nascar is the top destination anymore. 

The racing is good and the majority of the cars make it to the finish nowadays. There have always been foreign competitors and this is truly an international race and that has always been a good thing. The practice leading up to qualifying is not always on TV anymore, unless you buy a special cable channel. The qualifying used to have more coverage than it does now. The 500 is on ABC and then this series seems to fade out of the spotlight after that. I don't ever see another oval INDY CAR race that is broadcast, even on regular cable stations. Sometimes you see a road course race. YUK! 

The announcers yesterday said that they have had 30 cars "on track" for practice so far. Is "on track" the proper way to say "on the track" now? 

I love Indy. It seems to be losing it's momentum and popularity. I know the economy is tough for everyone and everything. I just hope this survives and thrives....I am worried about it for sure. 

I love Indy too, but this has been the case for many many years. Indy Car is not that much more popular than dirt track racing outside of the 500, and many of their crowds for the races other than the 500 are probably less than what Knoxville gets for the Nationals.

The IRL/Indycar uses a certain chassis for 2-3 years then moves to a new package and outlaws the previous gen cars... there are only 2 or 3 engines ever allowed to be used, and all are on a lease program from the factory.

Oh how I wish for Indy and the other oval that Indycar would allow previosly legal cars and any naturrally aspirated engine to attempt to qualify. Put enough aero deficit in them to make sure they aren't faster than the current car but let them try to race. Can you imagine how much easier it would be for Darland or Hines or Schatz to get a ride at Indy if somebody could buy one of the mega teams retired/show cars, throw a sprintcar engine in it and take a shot. Somebody could spend a similar amount of money as what a new sprintcar or midget costs to build and actually participate in the 500. Much better option than the half million dollar one race ride leases that currently have to happen to get a rookie a shot at getting in the show.

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

Indy sucks now....Just another fender series race...

Member of this message board since 1997

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If they want to breath life back into Indy Car racing and Silver Crown, bring back the Champ Car point championship. The old Champ Car point championship was Indy Cars and dirt Silver Crown (Dirt Champ Cars) combined into one point championship. Separating those, and the Cart/IRL split was the beginning of both series' downfall. No Nerf Bars, you mentioned that there has always been foreign drivers. You're right, they were part of the "atmosphere" that made the 500 great. A few of the best from the rest of the world would come and try to beat the best from the United States. Do you consider this year's 12 American entries the best race car drivers America has to offer? I don't, because the best American drivers no longer get a shot, or if they do, it's usualily in some shitbox that can't get out of it's own way. If homegrown American drivers, that the American race fan got to watch work their way up from the local weekend tracks to the national spotlight, were the norm, and not the minority, fan interest would once again increase. I'm not trying to be bigot. Just being honest. I grew up watching Foyt, Andretti, the Unsers, Rutherford, and etc. race Indy Cars, Dirt Champ, and Sprint Cars. That was part of the Indy mystique. The same guys you could go watch sling dirt at a local track were the same guys on the top stage. Yeah, yeah, I know, that was the good ol' days, and they're gone. Maybe if they wouldn't have tried to fix what wasn't broke, it would still be flourishing. If all American entries qualify, that's 12 of 33. Sad. That number should be more like 25 of 33. I'll still watch it, but that "hair standing up on the back of your neck" and "goosebumps" excitement, that I used to get before the start, won't be there, and hasn't for decades. 

That is exactly true! 

There are a few exceptional people at USAC capable of bringing Champ car racing back to being the premier open wheel series.  Maybe they will get their shot some day no matter the series.  Drivers running local tracks & the big tracks is a greatly needed part of racing.  I might even go to a pavement race if I know a driver running the 500 also runs a Champ car on dirt.  Put the engine back in front of the driver and run something between a supermodified and a silver crown with or without wings that can run on a half mile dirt or paved and on a superspeedway dirt or paved.  NO FENDERS.

I completely agree, we should blame Tony George. There is a lot of hype surrounding the commonly held belief that it is the loss of the American drivers that sunk the 500. Truthfully though it was Tony George and his desire to control Indycar racing that did the deal in. We went to one weekend of qualifying (generally Pole Day weekend), or the race depending upon the year, from the mid 1980s through 2002 consecutivley. To be honest the turn out of spectators for Pole day qualifying as well as the record race day attendance all pretty much happened during the Cart years. 1984 was the first year that the 500 eclipsed any single day of the olympics in viewership.

The first year of the IRL attendance was abysmal. In 1993 when Foyt retired they claimed there were 250,000 people there on Pole Day (That was a day to remember, that is for certain). Pole day from 1995 on has been abysmal, and I suspect that it will not be bouncing back any time soon. We will continue to go to the speedway, and we will be there on Saturday, but it almost seems like we are going to say good by to an old friend. Tony George seriously hurt the 500 and Indycar racing. 

Never hit stationary objects!

The cars look like shit....who the hell are driving these damn things? Want to bring interest back then have open wheel stars drive them...Chevy, ford, dodge and Toyota are the motors and take them damn fenders off

The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" goes backgate...without the car counts associated with actual backgate racing.

why would any self respecting race fan buy a ticket to see these turdmobiles race let alone qualify weeks befor ethe event?

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

The Indy 500 is still the biggest race in the world.  I would love to see the Roadsters as the Indy 500 cars but it will never again happen.  They used to be able to try alot of different things like a turbo NASH engine, a 12 cy in a row engine, 2 Poerche engines on and on.  I guess you can call todays racing cars progress.  They used to have 50-60 cars entered every year, but now it just costs to much money to race.  You have to admire the drivers who are willing to drive 230 mph on straights without lifting for corners.  I will watch the Indy 500 any day over a NASCAR race.

Cookie cutter cars and zero patriotism ruined it years ago.  At least sprint car racing doesn't have this problem........... or at least not as bad................ or a little less perhaps.............. we're hosed.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

The cars are butt ugly these days. But I have to admit that last year's race was the best 500 that I've seen since I started going in 1984. More than 150 consecutive green flag laps and a crazy amount of passing.

I sure wish there was a way for the best American drivers to get to Indy -- not just guys named Andretti and Rahal. It would do Indy a world of good if Larson, Rico, Christopher Bell, Bobby Santos III, and a few other young guns were in the field with Clausen and Carpenter.

Clausen was on the Bob and Tom radio show this morning talking about him doing the "Indiana Double", racing the 500 during the afternoon and Kokomo that night.   Bob asked him if he would still race Kokomo if he won the 500.....Brian chuckled and said "sure!".

It would be the best thing that could happen to both forms of the sport....can you imagine the traffic jam of media trucks running up Hiway 31?   

+1

Looks like their flipping like Sprint Cars this year. Indy 500 is still a must see . Too bad Nascrap has taken so many Sprint guys instaed of Indy Cars. Follow the money I guess.

Final practice this morning Ed Carpenter flipped, major rules changes just before qualifying.

They changed the qualifying rules back to what they should have been in the first place.

They have these new cars with big wings and a wide body, body panels all over the place and they wonder why they get airborn when they spin.....duh!

Indy Car should just go back to the car they had two-three years ago and leave it...

Qual will be on espn News at 3pm est

Long Live  20 Time  World Of Outlaws Champion Steve 
Kinser #11