Indpls Motor Speedway going down.
 

Joie Chitwood is stepping down as president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He's taking a job in Florida. This does not surprise me at all seeing that he seemed to be in that job short time. The track is still going to be around, but the inner-workings that have kept it viable are going away, replaced by bean counters. Mary Hulman George says as long as she's alive, it will be in the family. Comment's?

Joie Chitwood is from Tampa. Can he drive a car on two wheels like his dad and grand dad?

Yes, his Wiki page says he worked as a stuntman with his dad.

If you lived in the Indy area, you could see the state of affairs the 500 is in. Lower attendance each year, same cars, no intrigue, no headlines, etc. It's getting boring, very boring. I could see the family selling the track to somebody but I don't know who.

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I really wish Champ Car had won in the end.

+1

It was the better series. Better cars, better drivers, better circuits. But alas, didn't have the marketing and money-making support the IRL did.

At the end of the day, racing is all about money anyway. The team that wins is usually the one that can throw the most $$$ at their team, not necessarily the best car or driver.

Auto racing as a whole peaked out long ago. The early innovation that set venues like Indy apart is no longer meaningful, much less allowed. We know how to make cars go faster than they should by all rights be raced, so there is no room left for creative ideas that add to their speed. That, and the daredevil nature of it, used to be the attraction at Indy in particular, and racing as a whole. That is all gone now, replaced by generic cars regulated to specific performance levels. The only thing different is the paint jobs. Drivers are no longer perceived as being at much risk, so the heroic daredevil aura that used to surround them has vanished. People yawn at 200+ mph laps at Indy; it all take place in such a sterile, cookie-cutter clone car/team/driver environment today. There are no more Andy Granatellis, Smokey Yunicks, et.al. sparking public interest with wild innovation (and personalities to match). The luster is gone from Indy, and probably won't ever return.

Went to the Glen over the 4th to watch the IRL race finding the Speed Challenge series more interesting to watch (virtually no attendance for Speed). The IRL formula is fun to watch one time only from an open wheel perspective but it's got a very short half life in fan sustainability IMHO. W/ Patrick leaving next year, there's even less. However, because the Glen is such a great circuit, I could watch pigs racing and enjoy it.

87 blk coupe

ALMS and Grand Am series are all I'm passively interested in these days. I guess I could watch IRL or NASCAR all the way through now and then.

I don't know: if race cars bore me, what's that say about regular street cars? :(

Let MotoGP come in along with WSBK and generate some excitement

WTCC. Much more entertaining than NASCAR could ever hope to be.

ALMS and Atlantic are about the only U.S. races I can bear to watch anymore. Is the Rolex series even still around? It was neat a couple years ago but seems to have evaporated into obscurity with the funding for the teams...

I wish the Audi TDIs were still in the ALMS. Those were awesome to watch.

All true until you stand near a funny car or TF car. And, those, while not so much regulated AFA performance, only go 1000 feet now. Some grandstands are longer than that.

I've said for a long time now that if you take all wings off all cars, you'd see some racin'.

That might not be a bad idea.

I'd give him two months before he was found dead in an Indy hotel room with a little fake mustache...

LOL! Really. He's a little freak. He sure knows how to make himself billions of dollars - but he's still a freak.

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With the ex...

+1000 on the Top Fuel or Funny Cars. If there is one racing series left that has the bang for the buck, it NHRA. It's raw, loud, and final. Run what "ya brung". This is the best IMHO right now for the dollar. I cant wait until the US Nationals in Indy because it is a sound you will never hear anyplace else.

We don't get to see the lower classes on TV, but I'm told it's every bit a difficult to hold on to a 10 second street coupe as it is to drive TF or floppers.