The Brickyard 400.............

[jog49]

Of course it's boring but you people aren't suggesting the Indy 500 isn't as boring, if not more boring, are you? Need to just shut the entire track down and expand the golf course!

[CIRF]

I've been in the grandstands for the last 29 Indy 500's and of all 29 the '13 & '14 were the best I've ever seen and right up there with the best racing we watched during the whole season of both years. 68 official lead changes among 14 drivers in '13 and at one point there were 7 different leaders in just 7 laps and the lead changed more than once in the final 3 laps. In the '14 race there were 34 lead changes among 11 drivers with the winning pass taking place on the final lap.

The 500 is still, and has been for a very long time, the largest 1 day sporting event in the world.

I'm not suggesting anything, I'm stating facts.

However, I would strongly suggest that you don't know what your talking about. No, I don't suggest, I know you don't know what you're talking about.

[kidrock]

I would agree, and add that this race should never have happened. When Tony George was running Indianapolis Motor Speedway he needed funding for other ventures and one way to get it was bringing NASCAR to Indy. On the same token, NASCAR wanted to race at Indy which, at the time, advanced the credibility of the stock cars series.

Remember, 1994 was 2 years before the Indy Racing League was created and the Indianapolis 500 was drawing 100,000 people just for pole day qualifying and with the infield crowd there were upwards of 350,000 for the Memorial Day Classic. Now, it seems, the chickens have come home to roost.

Plus, even during green flag racing the taxi cabs look like they're running at pace lap speeds compared to the open wheel cars.

Hopefully Tony George and company squirreled away plenty of money from the first 10 years of the Brickyard 'cause they sure aren't makin' much on it now.

I agree they had no business going there in the first place. Nascar has their grand daddy of them all and they should have left alone at Indy.

[kidrock]

Of course it's boring but you people aren't suggesting the Indy 500 isn't as boring, if not more boring, are you? Need to just shut the entire track down and expand the golf course!

I have been watching Indy for over 40 years and yes they have had some not so entertaining races but, they have also had some pretty entertaining races and like CIRF the last 2 were pretty good and entertaining races.

I remember back in the day we would sit around and listen to the radio of the live event and then later that night watch it on tape delay.

[mudslinger47]

I disagree with the "traditional" argument, its a load of you know what..... I hear purists whine about Late models at Knoxville and Eldora and Williamsburg....bull pucky if you can put a show on for the fans then try it, if it doesn't work, then that's fine, move on to try something else....but the "purist" argument is bunk....JMO

[CIRF]

I disagree with the "traditional" argument, its a load of you know what..... I hear purists whine about Late models at Knoxville and Eldora and Williamsburg....bull pucky if you can put a show on for the fans then try it, if it doesn't work, then that's fine, move on to try something else....but the "purist" argument is bunk....JMO

I would agree on the "purist" thing, Mud. There are no sacred venues but dirt late models will likely always play second fiddle to the 360's and 410 Nationals at Knoxville.

That having been said, we were in the grandstands for the very first laps NASCAR ever turned at Indianapolis in June of 1993 the Monday following the Michigan Cup race, in fact we drove down from MIS Sunday night, stayed in a Speedway motel to make sure we would see this first tire test.

And, after watching about an hour of tire testing a group of about 5 of us setting together there in Tower Terrace came to the conclusion that a NASCAR race would be a huggy pole snoozer with no side by side racing. Anyone could see that from the get go and this was over a year prior to the first Brickyard 400.

It took about 15 years to sink in but the inevitable has now come to fruition in the form of little or no interest in NASCAR racing at Indy.

[mudslinger47]

We rarely ever see a good race on a big track...well, other then the tandem racing some years back and that looked like to much fun so NASCAR outlawed it...

[buster83]

i quit going to indy when they put all them grand stands in the infield which is just totally unacceptable.

[blackford]

i quit going to indy when they put all them grand stands in the infield which is just totally unacceptable.

Wasn't that about the dumbest thing to do? Lets completely block the view of the back stretch so more fans can be on the front to see the finish better??? WTF??? Lol

[Clayton_Wetter]

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/26/perception-of-sparse-brickyard-400-crowd-isnt-necesarily-reality/

[SuperEight]

Maybe they should try running the road course... Just a thought, I mean Indy is synonymous with racing. If I remember right, the tire fiasco went hand in hand with that levigating nonsense some tracks tried and it was terrible. Screwed Charlotte up and Indy. What they don't seem to understand is Faster, Better handling cars don't make for better racing. The cars need to be a hand full, tracks shouldn't be perfectly smooth, tires need to blow and engines should come unglued randomly too. Personally I think it'd be better if NASCRAP went back to a stock based engine, not a purpose built, bullet proof, twist to infinity number. Narrower tires and less purpose built parts, I mean seeing who could last was half the bragging rights... JMO

[Clayton_Wetter]

The truth is, is that most people can not even see 10% of the action going on, on the track. And the rest of them were drunk and saw nothing!!

[LITE-INN]

clayton are stilll in the stands waiting on bloomer to show up and 10 precent if that the truth I was there years ago on the second weekend of tiime trails we were at the very top of the grandstands on the main straight and we saw chit road course does sound good

[CIRF]

Just to set the record straight, our seats for the Indy 500 are in B Stand Penthouse and we can see about 1/2 of turn 4, the whole front straight away, all of turn 1, all of the South short chute and about 1/2 of turn 2. Although that is nowhere near the whole track, it's considerable more than 10%.

Indy is one of those tracks that is so historical and is such hallowed ground that those that love it, and there are many, don't care that the sight lines are horrible. I for one would rather watch an Indy Car race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet. You can see the whole track from any seat in the place and the racing was as good or better than any track on the circuit but it would be half empty despite all of that. Indy, on the other hand, draws over a quarter of a million people every Memorial Day Weekend. Many who have been to decades worth of Indy 500's.

Chicagoland just didn't have the history, mystique, aura and magic that Indianapolis Motor Speedway has. I can't explain it but it's fact, nonetheless.

[LITE-INN]

I disagree with the "traditional" argument, its a load of you know what..... I hear purists whine about Late models at Knoxville and Eldora and Williamsburg....bull pucky if you can put a show on for the fans then try it, if it doesn't work, then that's fine, move on to try something else....but the "purist" argument is bunk....JMO if it wasn't for late models coming to Eldora the track wold be just a track dont believe ask Earl