Ideal Sports League: IRL

[Drillbit Taylor]

This is another not so popular one. But Im going to do a few of these 2nd and 3rd tier ones for a while to see what needs to be changed. These are the ones that need to most help to move up.


With that said, This installment is IRL, or Indy Racing League.

What would you change to make the MLS better?

Would you add cars to the track?
Add more races?
Remove some?

Have better TV times?


As it is now they are 2nd fiddle to NASCAR. So there is plenty that can be changed. What do you think needs to be done?


Past ones
NFL
NHL
MLS

[BR329]

Id take Kansas, Homestead, and Sears Point of the schedule for starters. (Watkins Glen, and Iowa can go too)
Bring back Cleveland, Portland, Loudon and end the season at Vegas (Bruton Smith seems to dislike the IRL less then ISC)
Get more engine and chassis manufacturers (VW/Audi and FIAT might come in 2011 or 2012)
Start the season in March not April

[T Vang is a HO-DADDY~!]

OK, I'll preface this by saying I'm not a big racing fan so if I say something dumb forgive me.

I think with NASCAR being uber-popular and the choice for racing, IRL should in essence become a niche product in the US.

I would do this by making all the races except the Indy 500 Grand Prix's. I just think that at this point if racing fans want to see a car race on an oval, they're going to pick NASCAR.

And of course they need to increase marketing and try to make people care but this is harder than it sounds.

[The Booty Disciple]

Indianapolis is hardly indicative of the sort of ovals that NASCAR loves so much. In fact, prior to SMI and ICS purchasing and building tons of 1.5 mile tri-ovals, there was a far greater majority, ranging from small bull-rings (Milwaukee being the finest example) to the huge, sweeping super speedways (Michigan produced far better racing without having to artificially enhance it with horsepower robbing restrictor plates).

NASCAR is currently in decline, and the IRL can't get much more niche than it already is (.17 rating for the Kansas race, which was, no matter how you cut it, a dismal figure for a horrible race). BR329 covered most of what I'd change (but, you see, I'd have kinda NOT STARTED F***ING OPEN WHEEL WAR IN 1996 IN THE FIRST PLACE SIMPLY BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET VOTED IN AS PRESIDENT OF CART!), though I have to agree with Andretti, Foyt, and Mears with the assessment that there's also a definite need for higher horsepower (650? Puhleeze! The Illmor-Mercedes Penske engine from '94 was easily 900 HP and rumored to be in excess of 1,000) and less downforce. Make the drivers, well...DRIVE the car into the corners rather than being able to stand in the throttle all the way around. Increased horsepower would have a dramatic effect on the road courses and street courses, since if you have the HP up, you'd be able to catch a guy in the corner and outbreak him, resulting in more chances for overtaking (NASCAR does passes on the plate tracks, real racers overtake) and an overall better racing product. The best way to start? Bring back the turbochargers, baby!

As a personal preference, if I ever come into serious money, I'll see about widening Laguna Seca and vastly improving the runoff areas. Right now, if someone goes over the curb in a corner, they'll find themselves in a pit of kitty litter about 24" off the track, and it doesn't make it easy to extract the car. Since the last time IndyCar (or Champ Car, since the IRL has never been to Monterey) raced there, the chassis are wider and lower to the ground, and there's hardly room for them to get wide open with the narrow (by today's standards) track. It's a moot point, though, until we have significantly higher horsepower and/or turbocharged power plants, because with the significant elevation changes and hard braking zones (since most of the corners at Laguna are at the beginning or end of an uphill or downhill incline), no one would be able to catch anyone else anyway.

Sorry if a lot of that seems like a rant, but when you've been watching American open wheel racing as long as you can remember, you feel pretty strongly about the travesty that the previous twelve years have produced. It's amazing that the IndyCar realm in 1995 was the series to beat, and now, people ask me if they're even still racing. The IRL didn't win the 12 year open wheel civil war, and Champ Car didn't lose. Both the IRL and CART/Champ Car lost, and NASCAR won.

That's not to say I don't enjoy NASCAR, but their lowest common denominator style of racing that they've been working so hard at for the last decade is stale, and in general, U.S. racing series are considered a joke everywhere else in the world. Something's gotta change, and given that IndyCar had the reigning F1 World Driver's Champion defect 16 years ago, and Ayrton Senna testing for Roger Penske the following year (and rumored to be headed to CART after the '94 season, had Imola not claimed his life), it's really sad to see the state of American racing.

[Drillbit Taylor]

May 6, 2009 22:12:31 GMT -5 The Booty Disciple said:

Indianapolis is hardly indicative of the sort of ovals that NASCAR loves so much. In fact, prior to SMI and ICS purchasing and building tons of 1.5 mile tri-ovals, there was a far greater majority, ranging from small bull-rings (Milwaukee being the finest example) to the huge, sweeping super speedways (Michigan produced far better racing without having to artificially enhance it with horsepower robbing restrictor plates).

NASCAR is currently in decline, and the IRL can't get much more niche than it already is (.17 rating for the Kansas race, which was, no matter how you cut it, a dismal figure for a horrible race). BR329 covered most of what I'd change (but, you see, I'd have kinda NOT STARTED F***ING OPEN WHEEL WAR IN 1996 IN THE FIRST PLACE SIMPLY BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET VOTED IN AS PRESIDENT OF CART!), though I have to agree with Andretti, Foyt, and Mears with the assessment that there's also a definite need for higher horsepower (650? Puhleeze! The Illmor-Mercedes Penske engine from '94 was easily 900 HP and rumored to be in excess of 1,000) and less downforce. Make the drivers, well...DRIVE the car into the corners rather than being able to stand in the throttle all the way around. Increased horsepower would have a dramatic effect on the road courses and street courses, since if you have the HP up, you'd be able to catch a guy in the corner and outbreak him, resulting in more chances for overtaking (NASCAR does passes on the plate tracks, real racers overtake) and an overall better racing product. The best way to start? Bring back the turbochargers, baby!

As a personal preference, if I ever come into serious money, I'll see about widening Laguna Seca and vastly improving the runoff areas. Right now, if someone goes over the curb in a corner, they'll find themselves in a pit of kitty litter about 24" off the track, and it doesn't make it easy to extract the car. Since the last time IndyCar (or Champ Car, since the IRL has never been to Monterey) raced there, the chassis are wider and lower to the ground, and there's hardly room for them to get wide open with the narrow (by today's standards) track. It's a moot point, though, until we have significantly higher horsepower and/or turbocharged power plants, because with the significant elevation changes and hard braking zones (since most of the corners at Laguna are at the beginning or end of an uphill or downhill incline), no one would be able to catch anyone else anyway.

Sorry if a lot of that seems like a rant, but when you've been watching American open wheel racing as long as you can remember, you feel pretty strongly about the travesty that the previous twelve years have produced. It's amazing that the IndyCar realm in 1995 was the series to beat, and now, people ask me if they're even still racing. The IRL didn't win the 12 year open wheel civil war, and Champ Car didn't lose. Both the IRL and CART/Champ Car lost, and NASCAR won.

That's not to say I don't enjoy NASCAR, but their lowest common denominator style of racing that they've been working so hard at for the last decade is stale, and in general, U.S. racing series are considered a joke everywhere else in the world. Something's gotta change, and given that IndyCar had the reigning F1 World Driver's Champion defect 16 years ago, and Ayrton Senna testing for Roger Penske the following year (and rumored to be headed to CART after the '94 season, had Imola not claimed his life), it's really sad to see the state of American racing.

Another thing I think needs to change is the guys that are big in Indy that jump over to NASCAR. Yes its a bigger payday, but if you (the Driver, Owner and Leauge) help put time into better exposure then it can be a good payday in Indy. It just hurts me as a fan of Indy to see drivers who are good there, go to NASCAR and just get chewed up within a year. Giving people the idea that they can not race.

[The Booty Disciple]

Hornish is the only one who was really "big" (which is clearly relative when you're talking about the IRL) that's remaining. Allmendinger had a couple wins in Champ Car, but no one was watching (Champ Car had a nasty habit of getting thousands and thousands to the track at their Festival of Speed approach, but no one watched on TV).

Montoya went to F1 and has offers still on the table (or did as recently as last year regarding Toro Rosso), and the paychecks in F1 are, at the very least, comparable to NASCAR, and he'd only have to race 17 races a season. His motivation is clearly something other than the payday.

Who else can you count? Jacques Villeneuve? When did he race last? Patrick Carpentier? He trashed open wheel after he couldn't quite make the cut. He's a lot like Robby Gordon in that he's his own worst enemy, though Gordon at least had the raw talent and would've been considered one of the absolute greats if he'd had the discipline to put it together.

Am I missing anyone? I know Scott Pruett made a couple of starts, but he's nowhere to be seen now. Max Papis? A washout in F1, and a never was in CART/Champ Car.

I think I covered most everyone. There are guys who got their start in the IRL after coming up on the dirt tracks and jumped, but guys like J.J. Yeley and Casey Mears weren't racing in the IRL when it was the only game in town, and in fact was still very much considered second tier. They didn't exactly light the world on fire with their driving or their teams either (though with Yeley, I think you can blame Eddie Cheever plenty, since he was clearly out for his own interests rather than that of his team).

Insofar as Danica is concerned, she's not allowed to even negotiate until the end of June, and I don't see Michael Andretti letting her go without a fight. She's also stated that she's not interested in a 36+ race season or the travel involved. That's not to say NASCAR won't try and get her, but I think her heart is still in IndyCar, since she's raced open wheel for her entire career (remember, Rahal gave her the seat in Atlantics a few years back).

You're right, though. Until purse money improves drastically, it's going to be hard to not want to go where it pays better finishing 25th rather than winning. The purses in the mid '90s CART races dwarfed NASCAR purses of the day. But Tony George has a Vision, I guess...

*le sigh*