Indy 500: 1984 vs. 2009

I enjoy watching Dave Despain's Sunday night TV show Wind Tunnel on SPEED TV. I've been a fan of Despain ever since the good-ol' days of Saturday Night Thunder over on "the other network".

With Indy 500 qualifying just a month away, Robin Miller was on the show to help alleviate fears that we won't see a full field of cars to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this May. Miller proposed a variety of car and driver combinations that are likely to fall into place in time for qualifying. As I listened attentively, I was reminded of just how much it tears into my heart that year after year in recent memory they've had to piece together a driver field for "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing".

I remember a time when Indianapolis 500 Pole Day Qualifying drew the second-largest crowd in the US for a sporting event, second only to the race itself of course. These days there isn't a crowd to even speak of. Once televised on ABC and ESPN, pole qualifying has shifted to the Versus network this year. And although the race remains a sell-out -- or near sell-out -- television ratings have slid markedly over the past decade. There's no way to whitewash it: interest in "The 500" has clearly waned.

And what to make of it?

Indy 500 Qualifications: Not much interest these days.
(Photo by cmakin from flickr.com / CC 2.0. May 19, 2007)

I decided to take a step back 25 years and scan over the starting lineup for the 1984 "500". What becomes immediately evident is the number of "household names" in the field that year. Names that I think any non-racing fan would easily identify with Indianapolis: Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Mears, Rutherford. Broaden it out to "casual sports fan" and many more names are familiar: Sneva, Johncock, Rahal, Sullivan. Draw in the average race fan and names like Bettenhausen, Ongais and Pancho Carter surface.

Should we compare that field with what's expected in 2009? Who would be the "household names"? The names of drivers we'd get if we randomly asked people on the street, "Who drives at Indianapolis?" Well we might get Danica Patrick, thanks to GoDaddy.com's heavy promotion and, well, obvious other reasons. They would probably identify with Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti because of the last names, but wouldn't know a thing about them. But other than that, I can't think of any other drivers that permeate the American psyche. And even when you get down to the average racing fan, you don't come up with much more. Race fans will know Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon most likely. However, our 2009 field is likely to contain Mike Conway, Mario Moraes, Robert Doornbos, Raphael Matos and the like. I'm sure these are great people and good drivers... but what can I say? I have absolutely no idea who they are or what they've accomplished in racing. And I'm inclined to believe that I'm not the odd man out. Why do they bring so little fan following? Probably because they cut their teeth in the forms of racing that generate virtually no fan interest in America.

So here it is: Somewhere along the line, somehow, "Indy" cars turned into "Formula" cars. That's what they race now. They can call it whatever they want, but they're formula cars -- expensive and designed for road racing, not oval racing. The driving styles of America's short-track racers -- you know, the guys who actually have fan followings in this country because people watch them week in and week out -- are totally incompatible with road racing formula cars. So "drivers" like Milka Duno from God-knows-where buy rides into the most prestigious race in world history while racers like Chad Boat and Jerry Coons, Jr. watch on TV. And the result? Nobody cares. It really is that simple.