While I’m not sure Dario Franchitti’s semi-dominance is all that good for the IndyCar Series, his emergence as
an outspoken personality is.
Last week in Texas, Franchitti complained loudly during a television broadcast that the blind draw for the second race at
Texas Motor Speedway was garbage.
During his post-race TV interview Sunday in Milwaukee, while complimenting Tony Kanaan on the way he raced, the Scotsman
derided Helio Castroneves for blocking.
“Helio I guess jumped us on the pit stop … then preceded to block on the re-start as usual,” Franchitti
said. “Typical Helio.”
Franchitti would have raged longer, had the ABC telecast not cut away.
Franchitti inherited the lead with 25 laps to go when Castroneves was forced into the pits with a left rear tire pressure
problem. Castroneves finished ninth. Franchitti told media members after the race that Castroneves got what he deserved.
In a series where the drivers are often vanilla and unwilling to speak their mind publicly, it’s refreshing to hear
Franchitti’s candor. Race fans can only hope the series may actually develop some rivalries to spice things up.
Things seem to be heating up between Franchitti and Castroneves. After the race, Franchitti indicated that Castroneves is
a habitual offender and has been warned before.
It feels like piling on to write about attendance at Sunday’s IndyCar Series race in Milwaukee. But it was hard not
to miss all those empty seats on ABC’s national telecast.
Estimated attendance was 13,000, and that might be generous. The two-for-one ticket deal offered in the days before the race
apparently came too late to make much of a difference. But it was the first major motorsports event at the Milwaukee Mile
in two years, and IndyCar officials (at least some of them) still think they can build an audience in this once race-crazy
town.
On the upside, there were 26 cars on the grid. Remember, not too long ago there was talk of not having a 33-strong grid for
Indianapolis, and fields for other racer were flirting in the 20 range.
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Welcome to The Score, your place for hard-hitting sports business news, fast-breaking updates and fuel-injected debate. Buckle up. I'm your host, Anthony Schoettle, IBJ sports reporter.
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Laura-the festivals and tastings are free. What does is strengthen the sense of community with activities. What are those empty lots doing for the Village? it's sad you can't see the good that this progress can do for the area. No one is requiring anyone to shop there. I guess you'd rather see a Dollar store move in or no, we'd rather see the property stand empty b/c change is out of the question.
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Read down to the part about Brizzi. Someone needs to subpoena his "purchases" of Red RockPictures and Cellstar and his corresponding bank records, I mean c'mon, I'd like to see his alcohol usage records, too. http://diana-vice.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
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Wonder if my neighborhood can advertise our "retention" pond and act like it is a beach too?
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a new record at the '11 salebration until they realized that it was a futile effort to get their crapwagon moter and crapwagon car up speed. And then they just quietly slunk off into the night and never spoke of it again. Nothing to see here folks.
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millions for putting a company's bumper sticker on one of its Lolas. But you gotta take what you can get.
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I was in a San Diego sports bar yesterday and the race was not even on one of the six or seven screens in there, and that was on ABC.
No, Anthony, we'll have to disagree. Nice effort, but "Dario" is part of the problem.
Stating the truth is piling on???
The race was a dismal failure. Nobody showed and IMS/.1rl has their hands all over the promotion of this one. It was all hand picked Indiana folks trying to sell their lousy series, and they faied EPICALLY.
http://www.avocadomotorsports.com/avocadomotorsports/Blog/Entries/2010/9/18_Avocado_To_Promote_Milwaukee_Mile_2011.html
"The 2011 race will be managed and promoted by AB Promotions, LLC, a joint venture between two companies, Avocado, LLC and BMG Event Productions. The two companies combine strong IndyCar marketing and event management backgrounds. Additionally, Avocado has strong roots to the Milwaukee Mile and the State of Wisconsin.
Both companies are headquartered in Indianapolis metro and will be using complementary areas of expertise to develop and promote race activities and associated community events to provide an excellent, affordable way for families to celebrate the Fatherâs Day weekend."
Last year, iman and his cronies said it was evil NASCAR tracks keeping crowds down. Well, this result proves that it's the lousy product that nobody wants to watch.
TFF
If you want more of my tips on making your IRL weekend less unprofitable, follow me on the Twitter
The forming of the IRL was the start of the downfall. You deserve all of it.
That can't help in negotiations for the new TV deal...
http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2011/06/indycar-at-milwaukee-get-a-09-overnight-tv-rating-on-abc.html
So what happened in Milwaukee? Did the promoters not promote? Obviously. Is Milwaukee no longer a viable location for racing? Obviously. Did IndyCar miss a huge opportunity to boost their series. Uh, that would be obvious.
But then, when you don't have the Indy 500 winner in the field and the racing is pretty boring (thanks in part to Helio's blocking), there's no reason to stay.
Really disappointing to watch IndyCar try so hard (at least in spirit) to re-capture some relevance in racing circles and have very few fans care outside of Indianapolis.
I want it better, you want it better, but the actual folks who need it better IGNORE the facts. This whistling by the graveyard approach is what's killing the sport and you are professing it yourself.
US OPEN got a 5.1 rating by a kid who had a runaway lead. Face it, no one cares about the Indycars since Tony saved the sport.
Don't like what I have to say??? Don't read it. Seems pretty simple to me...
F1 in Canada packs em in @ full price after losing their race in 2009. They packed em in this year @ full price even in severe thunderstorms that caused a 2 hour rain delay.
It rained in the morning and was clowdy for the Milwaukee race, and some place fans will say that the weather kept people away. F1 in Canada proves that if people want to see it, they'll show up in droves.
Obviously, not many think the Indiana product is worth watching.
Well, maybe there were 30,000 people hiding under the stands to escape the overcast sky...
-Crowd was not bad considering there was virtually no promotion, very little media, and whacko pricing that included nickel and diming customers not only for parking but also no coolers so they are forced to buy the overpriced junk food there.
-Crowd was not bad considering it rained all morning.
-Ratings aren't bad considering the clueless hack job ESPN on ABC continues to do.
The series put on a show that featured all the ladder rungs they are trying to build. That is fantastic.
The Milwaukee Mile is a racy flat oval that has a history that stretches longer than IMS. It is my sincere hope Randy and crew give it the time it needs to recover.
2)Real race fans don't care a bit about a driver's nationality.
3)Anthony, the car count problem returns next year with the new chassis, unless arrangements are made to grandfather existing cars for a year or two or give teams money to field cars (which ain't gonna happen.)
4)Quit whining about Tony already and give Randy a chance.
5)PLEASE stop making comparisons to F1. There just aren't any to be made.
As for Anthony's comments...yes, a foreigner or two enhances the sport. A foreigner or two. When Teo Fabi or Emerson Fittipaldi showed up, it brought international flavor aganist a backdrop of red, white, and blue, burgers, beers, and Saturday night racers and New Mexican and Texas open-wheel superstars. The sport was popular then. Milwaukee has two races a season. Michigan was a sell-out. The sport was popular then. Not so much anymore. Hhhhhmmmmmm......
J.E. must therefore, concede the sport is miniscule and niche. Which it is. Reason being, Americans are not interested in gusy from Scotland and New Zealand.
As for Dicsiple's comments....they make our argument. Discipe....note: Excuses do nto cut it any longer. We all love the same sport you do. But the fact remains: It is dying. Milwaukee is simply the latest evidence. Sad.
Once again, I applaud Anthony's thoughts on Dario. It bares consideration. But overall, I think that gusy like Dario, Power, Dixon, even Helio, do nothing to move the proverbial needle. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBMBoO8QTxw
:lol:
says you are." USOpen 5 Indycar 1...and golf
did it with a Euro in a runaway without Tiger.
this looks really really bad + Red Bull is
quitting NASCAR. won't be long now.
Yet, at Indy someone clouts the wall and it takes 8 seconds to throw a caution flag that decides the winner.
You see, the IRL can't apply rules consistantly...here's another example...Dario hits a tire and gets no penalty, yet Sato hits a tire and get a penalty.
IRL continues to be a sham and real race fans know why. That's why this series is undergoing DEATHBLOW 2011! Fortunately no one saw it, at track or on TV.
The officiating and organization of the IndyCar Series is circumspect and amateur. It is obviously an entity is disarray and with many inept decisions in the past and present that make it a psuedo-sport with the end result being little to no interest outside the approximately 300,000 people in the country who follow it.
A complete and total overhaul of the sport, making in more in line with other sports entities such as MLB, NFL, and NBA, is needed to save it. Otherwise, it is doomed in today's world of sports and entertainment.
And further, no there are allegations the league may have been dishonest in the tech lines in both the Lights and IndyCar series, long suspected. Contrivance, ultimately, may be what finishes the sport off. Randy, if you are reading, unless integrity and professionalism is restored and advanced, there is nothing you can gimmick and contrive to make anyone outside the small, very small, group of hardcores care an iota about what you have to offer. And that is hard fact. Make it a real league, professional, organized, efficient, with the owners in check, or call it off.
-Milwaukee concessions stunk and overcharged for it
-Milwaukee crowd stunk
-Milwaukee had limited media coverage
-Milwaukee had limited promotion
-ABC coverage stunk
-Mother Nature hates the IRL/Speedway/Series
-TV ratings for race stunk
-USAC feeders didn't put butts in the seats
-You know you suck when free tix can't even save an event
remember when it was about the cars speed and the drivers. Now everyone thinks the right drivers from the right country on the answer...and no one seemsto figure in the cars and the speed.
And I do not mean spec cars with add on doodads to make them appear different...let them build to a set of rules and then race.
The verdict is out on Iowa this weekend. But it cannot help to have 20 of 26 drivers being foreigners in Italian-made cars with Japanese engines, sponsored by the likes of Telemundo and Brazilian companies nobody even knows what they do in the cornfields of the Heartland of America. No, can't help at all.
An Oriol is a bird. An Helio is a chopper to those folks.
To that end there is a reason the Brickyard racem while poorly attended, draws a great Indy TV number. The traditional Midwestern racing fan likes Americans and red, white, and blue racing. They most likely would prefer the much sleeker, faster, and exciting IndyCars, but they can't get into whiny crybabies like Dario, personality-plus cats like Dixon, fakes like Helio, and crappy officiating, and ugly cars and foreign left right left twisty-turn this and that.
The whole thing is a mess. The Indy 500 somehow, amazingly, sustains. Honestly, the series needs to go away. In needs to be replaced with a six or seven race oval season at venues that are fast and furious such as Texas, Chicagoland, Fontana, Michigan, and Vegas if it works, if not, maybe Kentucky can hang in there. If that doesn't work, they need to buy Pikes Peak, fix it up, and run a double-header out there in the Summer. Six, seven races, eight if they can stretch it. Don't expect some of these venues to get more than 20,000 early on. More will come. And some may even get 50,000, but the glory days are over. It is back to the 70's all over again, with the Indy 500 being everything, as it should, and fie or six decent races spread out over the April to October time frame.
Mostly American drivers, better looking cars, American engine makers, along with a Lotus or a Honda, and better officiating and business decisions that realize a downscale economic model and not some world-wide, super series concept. That will not happen.
More Dave Darland's, fewer Dario's. When the occasional Bertrand comes along it adds color and intrigue. Focusing on the current cast of weenies is not getting it.
Milwaukee is heartland. Dario's and Helio's do not resonate. Nobody cares. Case closed.
Why it won't work now? :D
They'll have to get behind Beatriz now but trouble is, think about it, not a bad race car driver, but she looks like TK in drag. Could be problematic.
Who is responsible for this IRL mess up? Combine that with the Indy lights mess up's and the non-penalties for Dario and the Japanese driver and the Indy mess up's and you got some spurious application of rules that lends NO CREDIBILITY to this series at all.
On to mess up the next market....Road America.
Does ANYONE at the SPEEDWAY understand that NO ONE wants the IRL? WHY is it SO hard to understand you have a dead product that NO ONE is buying?
SELL the series IMMEDIATELY to someone who'll bury it and start fresh. The track rental cost someone $$$$. Now over $700M by best estimates.
Apparently Jenkins, one of the few remaining IRL/George dingleberrys, apologized for the Iowa sellout not looking like a sellout...cause, you know they had rain in the morning (or some-such).
Now, that will convince the fans this is major league racing....all 0.19 of them.