Plyman438

New engines are coming next year from Chevy and Lotus which should help. IMO however, more American drivers are needed. Hard to believe there are no American drivers in Formula 1 and hardly any in IRL that are super competitive. Looked like Marco Andretti may be one, but he has struggled this year. Couple new rookies look promising, but for now Danica is pretty much it as draw. I don't know that Dixon, Franchitti, and Power are big attractions to American fans. No Mears, Unser brothers, Rutherford, Parnelli Jones, and the like anymore.

When is the last time an American Indy driver was offered a ride in Formula 1? Michael Andretti back in the early 90's? Dang, that is almost 20 years ago. It seemed back then if you dominated the Indy circuit, someone from Formula 1 would come calling. The IRL IMO needs a super competitive American driver that is a threat to win any IRL race, oval or road course. Jimmy Clark and Dan Gurney were good at both. Even A.J. Foyt won LeMans for Ford as he won the Indy 500 four times. Yes, I know Jimmy Clark was a Scotsman. Mark Donahue was good at both also.

BlueRiver86

Marco has always struggled. He used to crash A1GPs on the warmup lap

TexasRider

Yeah I meant to add that about the American drivers too. I had put that abut the American manufactueres and American drivers in another post here about Indy not too long back.


But good observations by you and right on.

I had said they needed another Mario Andretti to come to the top of the heap and get it moving again. Indy 500 was excellent this year but as you had noted the rest of it has not been as good of a draw. I know IRL was saying they had a better year coming. But that is relative.

NASCAR has them beat. But NASCAR beter have their eyes open on this too.

ltc

Once again, Tony George stated on several occasions the IRL would be an " all American, all oval series"... Since he had such disdain for CART and foreign road racers.

Until he is gone, this is what you get ... And I doubt any of the CART principals want to try and correct all of TG's F-ups.
TG is the problem. He owns the Indy500, which is the problem.

Do a Google search for IRL ... Look at the bottom for the first related search...Danica. She is more marketing tool than racer, just like her boss in NASCAR, Dale Jr.

As for American drivers, I can think of 2-3 F1 prospects who are currently in development in Europe.

BlueRiver86

Rossi and?

Jim Child

Tony George was excommunicated from Indy racing at the end of the 2009 season. He's been completely out of it ever since.

Land Jet

I don't think racing fans watch IRL because of Danika, I think the TV networks cover it because of her. Racing fans see Danika for what she is, an also ran.

hacker-pschorr

Considering the current state of open wheel racing in America, I think the average DE has a higher paying purse.