While NASCAR proceeds to get the masses lathered up for its own Super Bowl, IndyCar is still snoozing. That can’t be good when you’re trying to boost your proverbial “Q” rating.
I’m reminded of a poster on Miller’s latest SPEEDTV.com mailbag who posed the novel idea of starting the IndyCar season before NASCAR with a series of races in warm-weather climes such as Las Vegas, Texas, or Phoenix. Miller’s response: He’d have the series racing “anytime there was a captive audience”—i.e. Thanksgiving Night or Christmas Day.
Or how about New Year’s Day? At 12:01 a.m.?
My daydream (er, nightdream?) was vivid: A good-sized crowd at Homestead-Miami Speedway thanks to reduced ticket/concession prices and free party favors. The 1.5-mile oval awash in lights and the cars getting the one-to-go signal at midnight. Fireworks would go off all around the speedway in a dazzling display and when the cars came around Turn 4, the green would fly at 12:01 a.m.
Wouldn’t that be a fun way to start the season? IndyCar’s own little version of “Midnight Madness?”
It could be one of several dash-for-cash “icebreakers.” A Thanksgiving race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama? A Christmas Eve event at Texas? If the NBA and NFL can play on holidays, so can the IndyCars.
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