NASCAR-Only Writer Shoots Down Indy 500
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May 21, 2008
Ron McQueeney/IMS
“Don’t believe the hype.”
You know the hype, all of this manufactured hubbub about Danica Patrick racing, and maybe winning the Indianapolis 500, on Sunday.
Yeah, you’ve seen it. The cover of Sports Illustrated, the stories about her chances, they’ve been everywhere already and will continue into the weekend. We’ve been down this road before.
Sure, if she, or any of the other women in the race win it will make headlines the world over, as it should.
Aside from that, though, there’s not much reason to care about the Indianapolis 500. Fact is, there hasn’t been much reason to care about the race for years.
Truth is, the best race Sunday won’t be at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but rather in Concord, N.C., at the Lowes Motor Speedway, the site of the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race of the season.
Indy certainly has the history and all that. And fans will argue that the crowd there will be massive. But, let’s not forget, the crowds are massive at Churchill Downs every year, too, no matter what horses are running.
“It is the greatest venue in motor sports in my opinion,” Mark Martin said earlier this week about the Lowes Motor Speedway.
Martin said he’s never been an open-wheel driver or even a go-karter. But, he remembers when Indy was big, really big.
“The Indy 500, when I was 10 years old, was a more recognizable race than the Daytona 500 to a kid from Arkansas,” he said. Martin is 49.
But, as he grew up in stock car racing, Indy faded out in his world.
“So I think that the Indy 500 still is a little bit more recognizable name than the Coca-Cola 600,” Martin said, “but I sure believe the racing is better over in North Carolina.”
