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Indy 500

drubendall

Assistant Head Coach
Apr 18, 2004
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Who watched? Incredible race with a lot of strategy and very few yellow flags. Congrats to Helio Castronevas who joined the four-time winner club. Got to love his passion. Pretty good for an old guy too.
 
good to hear folks have interest in indy again, I remember the aj foyt days.
then some owner of indy ruined it by trying to control the drivers.
and it all switched to europe
hopefully it comes back big
 
Never understood the fascination with turning left over, and over, and over, and over.....

Boring.
I was on the edge of my seat for the last 10 laps with my heart beating out of my chest. Super exciting. Castroneves and Palau were exchanging the lead several times. I think tire freshness and slower traffic were the biggest factor at the end. Rahal was a favorite until his rear tire came off. Not sure if that was a bad pit stop or equipment malfunction. Either way it cost him the race and his tire nearly took out Daly who hit it dead on. Newer safety technology to the cockpit saved Daly's life. Years ago it would have decapitated him. Being there in person is far superior. Seeing those speeds up close is unreal
 
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When they opened the California Speedway in in 1997 at Fontana I got two season tickets, They were $100 a ticket for NASCAR, plus you also had to purchase the CART race, which was also $100 a pop. Other than watching NASCAR on TV occasionally and the Indy 500 every year, I wasn't what you would call a big race fan, so I entered into the deal without a whole lot of bias. After the first year I decided the NASCAR races were much better. NASCAR runs 43 cars and when the pack came around it was amazing. Plus a lot of the racing was in a pack and the maneuvering was exciting. The Indy cars had half as many cars running and after a few laps all the cars were strung out around the track so it seemed the fastest car won without a lot of strategy. Plus, since I wasn't willing to fork out $10,000 per seat for a 20-year Personal Seat License, my seats were low and while I could see the NASCAR cars on the backstretch, I couldn't see the Indy cars. After three years I sold the Indy tickets for what I could get, which wasn't much. After five years I stopped buying tickets because the novelty wore off and I wasn't into it that much.
 
Last time I went to Indy was 1991 and saw the great Rick Mears win it once again. I always watched IndyCar growing up until they split into two. And they did a piss poor job of connecting with the fans. That's one area that NASCAR totally kicked their butts.

Started to watch Formula One after that. Some great years with Hakkinen, Schumacher and Villaneuve battling it out. And then Alonso too. Sadly, they got rid of fuel stops and the whole series has been a giant bore-fest in the last decade. Is Lewis really the best driver? He has the best car for sure and he should win every race unless he screws something up. It was the same deal with Vettel before him.
 
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Last time I went to Indy was 1991 and saw the great Rick Mears win it once again. I always watched IndyCar growing up until they split into two. And they did a piss poor job of connecting with the fans. That's one area that NASCAR totally kicked their butts.

Started to watch Formula One after that. Some great years with Hakkinen, Schumacher and Villaneuve battling it out. And then Alonso too. Sadly, they got rid of fuel stops and the whole series has been a giant bore-fest in the last decade. Is Lewis really the best driver? He has the best car for sure and he should win every race unless he screws something up. It was the same deal with Vettel before him.
Yeah, I tried to watch some F1 until I figured out Mercedes wasn't going to lose. Whoever got to the front (Lewis) wins. Passing is nearly impossible. Lewis is great and all, but he's stupid if he leaves Mercedes.
 
I used to say if it's on espn it's a sport. Yes I know hot dog eating and spelling bee.....

Espn doesn't carry NASCAR anymore just NBC and fox.

Never been to a NASCAR race in person but hopefully someday. I have been able to go to Kansas speedway for Indy car which also brought along NASCAR truck and ARCA. It was a blast.

Got to go into the pit areas. Met Rusty Wallace and Roger Penske. GREAT people and more than willing to take the time to talk to"regular" people
 
230 mph. Hyper tuned everything. Aerodynamic manipulation to gain advantages over your opponent mid race. The smallest mistake can be catastrophic. Just like any sport or motorsport, it's the details that make it exciting.
I found it exciting riding a school bus around the indy track
 
I used to say if it's on espn it's a sport. Yes I know hot dog eating and spelling bee.....

Espn doesn't carry NASCAR anymore just NBC and fox.

Never been to a NASCAR race in person but hopefully someday. I have been able to go to Kansas speedway for Indy car which also brought along NASCAR truck and ARCA. It was a blast.

Got to go into the pit areas. Met Rusty Wallace and Roger Penske. GREAT people and more than willing to take the time to talk to"regular" people
I watched a show that said nascar went down hill a bit cause the cars became so expensive to make and maintain. and the drivers were no longer products of old school driving, and working their way up....they would just throw some rich guys kid behind the wheel.....I guess I understand most folks not being able to scrape together sponsors for multi million dollar operations...but as far as dads kid driving, (unless he was good) wouldn't turn out so well as far as wins/accidents..
 
the coolest thing I ever seen in racing was when I was in the goodyear pit at topeka, and I decided to walk up a hill to get some exercise (too much beer in the tent)...so going up this hill all there was was blue sky, lush green grass, and a road of brand new black top....then all the sudden...kenny bernstein started driving down the hill in the budweiser car...and on each corner of the car was a budweiser girl in the budweiser swimsuits walking......so it's just me, 4 bud girls, the budweiser car, and kenny ( on a gigantic hillside with nobody else in sight)...I thought I must've died and went to heaven...and kenny is just giving me this look like don't touch the car or the girls...lol

that and watching bob hannah race in herman nebraska
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I used to say if it's on espn it's a sport. Yes I know hot dog eating and spelling bee.....

Espn doesn't carry NASCAR anymore just NBC and fox.

Never been to a NASCAR race in person but hopefully someday. I have been able to go to Kansas speedway for Indy car which also brought along NASCAR truck and ARCA. It was a blast.

Got to go into the pit areas. Met Rusty Wallace and Roger Penske. GREAT people and more than willing to take the time to talk to"regular" people
I went to a winston 400 in richmond virginia.....I figured it would be boring.....well I hand the guy my ticket walking in thru the grandstands....and I walk up to the fence and a tire hit the fence right in front of me at musta been 90 mph..(that woke me up).it was like one of the worst crashes in the history of the track right in front of me....so I went found my seat and watched the rest of the race and I was surprised by the amount of gals there also. it was quite entertaining.

so then I'm watching tv in richmond months latter and they have richard petty on a caterpillar tearing up the track, saying it was the worst track ever...because of the wrecks...I think that was the end of that race
 
NASCAR used to have rules that the cars were really 'stock". What raced on Sunday could be purchased on Monday, minus a different carb, cam, boring, head work, etc. That's why Dodge came out with the Superbird and sold just enough for the car to be a production car. Now NASCARs are some weird common car and not stock at all.
 
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