Indy 500

[PhantomOnTour]

Does anyone watch this race anymore?
Not me; totally lost interest.

Used to watch it all the time.
Never forget Danny Sullivan's 360 near wipeout when he won it in the mid 80's.
Also liked the Flyin Hawaiian, Danny Ongais.

Formula One, open wheel, whatever you call it; it's dead in America.
I am watching some of the 1st round of the French Open instead of this race.
Anyone watching today??

[ArlJim78]

Yep, it's the one and only car race that I'll watch every year.

[cj]

I watch the beginning and the last 10 laps, not much else.

[Marshall Bennett]

Used to love the event. Now only watch for the wrecks. Who are these drivers anyway? :cool:

[TJDave]

We can thank the CART-IRL feud and Tony George in particular for ruining Indy racing. :mad:

[headhawg]

Totally agree TJDave. For me IndyCars represent the best in racing because they use both ovals and road courses. (Please don't tell me that NASCAR does the same thing as there is no balance between the two.) I enjoy auto racing in general, but F1 is more about the team than the driver. NASCAR hasn't been the same to me since they added all of the safety features. Don't get me wrong -- I believe in driver safety. But now those cars seem so safe that the drivers appear to take more (stupid) driving risks that ruin the actual race.

I really hope that IndyCar makes a big comeback.

[JustRalph]

I watch the beginning and the last 10 laps, not much else.

Ditto. They have basically only 3-4 teams that can win. Just like Nascar. Only 5 teams are there every week in Nascar.

Why watch?

Tonights race at Charlotte was boring as hell. The highlight of the Indy race was listening to the fans boo Ashley Judd as she strutted down pit road.

Franchitti being torn apart on twitter for his wife's showboating about his win.

We can thank the CART-IRL feud and Tony George in particular for ruining Indy racing. :mad:

I knew a few people who worked at Rahal racing back during the Cart George feud. They told me that it was the end of Indy car racing. They were right.

[HoofedInTheChest]

It hasn't been the same since the early 90's, i agree, Tony George is a complete boob. I wonder what he is up to these days? It spoke volume's when he was ousted out of the IRL, this man couldn't manage a convenience store, the F1 experience at Indy worked out real well for him. At one time they had higher TV ratings than F1 around the world, the loss of tobacco and beer money certainly didn't help, but i point my finger solely at Tony George, wtf was he thinking? Not even Danica's driving expertise could save the IRL, it's all downhill from here.

I flicked the race on for a second today, and was floored how incredibly ugly the car's have evolved. The designer of those chassis deserves a real pat on the back, they remind me of those tacky kit cars from back in the day.

I miss PT out there, it just isn't the same without him there, he was one entertaining driver. The good ol days......

[Robert Goren]

I actually watched the last half of the race for the first time in years. I enjoyed it. I think if you watching a NASCAR car race and an Indy car for the first and didn't know anything about either you would like Indy car racing better. The NASCAR race was enjoyable too last night. It is at best when they race at places like Charlotte. I hate it when race at road courses and most of all I hate restrictor plate racing. I do like some road car races when they are running cars that designed to run on them. Stock cars are not. I amazed at how popular motor sports are with little or no organised gambling on them. In this part of the country there is bevy of small track that race almost every week end during the summer. There has to be 8-10 within 100 miles.

[melman]

Lot of negative comments here but the national TV ratings are in. Not bad, matter of fact the 4.34 rating for the Indy 500 was the best since 2008. This according to Nielsen. That's not a bad number for a niche sport at all. I have no bias in this as I never watch an auto race of any kind. It's also been reported that the NASCAR ratings are up this year also. On the flip side I predict that this years NHL finals will have very low ratings. Kings/Devils not what the newtwork needed. And I do like hockey. Watch some regular season games and the playoffs. It's just the way it is. Horse racing has the TC races and BC day which do solid numbers. Aside from those few races you could not find horse racing TV ratings with a microscope.

[cj]

Lot of negative comments here but the national TV ratings are in. Not bad, matter of fact the 4.34 rating for the Indy 500 was the best since 2008. This according to Nielsen. That's not a bad number for a niche sport at all. I have no bias in this as I never watch an auto race of any kind. It's also been reported that the NASCAR ratings are up this year also. On the flip side I predict that this years NHL finals will have very low ratings. Kings/Devils not what the newtwork needed. And I do like hockey. Watch some regular season games and the playoffs. It's just the way it is. Horse racing has the TC races and BC day which do solid numbers. Aside from those few races you could not find horse racing TV ratings with a microscope.

Kings / Devils isn't too bad, considering the market size of the regions involved. The lack of any superstars will hurt though.

[melman]

cj--Yes good market size for Kings/Devils but for national TV ratings I think they will be way down. Also dispite all the negative comments on Indy and NASCAR don't you find the national ratings surprising?? One thing for sure that I do know cj is that at Dover and Pocono auto racing is a cash cow. Huge live attendance and "buzz". And the ticket cost is anything but cheap. Remember now I really enjoy horse racing and ice hockey but let's deal with reality, the old days are gone. The big three used to be baseball, boxing, and horse racing. Baseball is holding it's own, boxing is dead, and horse racing is next to dead. You were around my area at one time. People used to look forward to the Garden State Park spring and fall meets. Looked forward to the Atlantic City Race Course summer of turf racing. Race results were on KYW every 30 min. No problem hearing live race calls on the radio. We can debate the reasons for that but the total amount bet on racing by year just keeps dropping. Yes NYRA is up some this year in handle and Balmoral harness is up a lot for well over a year now but overall the handle numbers are dismal. Whenever I talk with young people about racing the thing I hear the most is "there crooks" Not fixed per se but the trainers use of drugs is rampant. We can debate that also but that is the perception that I see as being out there. That perception IMO really killed boxing.

[melman]

Well I was right about the NHL Finals. Viewership down 20% from last year. They checked in with a 2.2 rating with a 4 share. If you think the 4.3 for auto racing at Indy was bad what does this tell you about hockey?? It's a shame for me at least as I watch and enjoy some hockey. Never watch a auto race. Also the Belmont Stakes while getting an increase in viewers did only a 4.6 just barely better that the auto race. I think many very casual fans tuned into the Belmont without even knowing I'll Have Another was not running.
On the other hand the "Lets' hate Lebron" club did very well for the NBA. Game one nationals rating were 11.8 the highest for a Game one ever on ABC. That's a good solid number and shows that in this country at least the big three are still football, baseball, and basketball. Let's be honest however football is so far out in front of the other two it's amazing.