Poll the Fans - Indianapolis 500 Needs Moved-Up to Allow “The Double”
Jason Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR
Indianapolis Motor Speedway officially opens practice for the 93rd Indianapolis 500 today.
And once again, the racing fan gets hosed.
No, I’m not blasting the legendary 500. But I am blasting IMS officials for their stubbornness of not moving up the start of “The Greatest Spectacle In Racing,” so as to allow drivers to once again compete in “the double,” namely, racing in both the 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 later that day at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.
Poll both IRL and Sprint Cup fans and I’m sure the vast majority of them would once again love to see the “double, perhaps the ultimate test of man and machine: one driver, two radically different vehicles and race series, and 1,100 total miles of racing.
When IMS pushed the start time of the 500 back to 1 p.m. ET several years ago, thus ending the chance of any driver to attempt “the double,” track officials claimed they wanted to make things more convenient for fans, giving them extra time to flow into the 2.5-mile Brickyard.
Lost in all that, however, was that Indy had been a show that had been slipping in terms of attendance, TV viewership and popularity for several years. Ever since the IRL came into existence in 1996, along with the celebrated split at the time with CART, IMS folks did everything they could to attract folks back to the hallowed facility at 16th Street and Georgetown Road.
If you’re a fan of most forms of racing and have your choice of going to Indy or Charlotte – especially during NASCAR’s boom era in the late 1990s and up until about 2005 – the decision was pretty easy to make: Charlotte.
And as guys like Robby Gordon, John Andretti and Tony Stewart attempted the “double,” it built up a cottage industry of fans that made a quick exit at Indy and caught a quick charter flight to Charlotte to catch the 600. It was a racing fan’s dream to see both races in one day.
NASCAR’s hands are tied in this situation. It can’t start the longest race on the schedule any later than it currently is. I remember quite well several years ago that a rain delay kept us at the track very late, and that the 600 didn’t finish until well after midnight, as a result.
So, the onus is on IMS to change things. How can its officials not want to see guys like Stewart, Sam Hornish Jr., and others take part in the “double”? Instead of taking away from the 500, it would only serve to enhance the race, it’s popularity and once again become part of the greatest test of man and machine in any form of racing.
It’s a no-brainer. Oh wait, given some of the missteps they’ve made since 1996, one has to assume some IMS/IRL officials have brains to begin with – which I really have to question sometimes.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/06 at 03:54 AMI have been to the Indy 500, and to a NASCAR race at Talladega…. undoubtedly the NASCAR race provided much more excitement.
It would be cool to see the “double” attempted again. If the IMS/IRL officials won’t budge on the start time, maybe Tony can move the Prelude to the Saturday night before the Coke 600? Not apples and apples, and not on the same day, but who wants to watch a dirt track race in the morning? :)
People are making too much of this. There are only a few guys that would even think about doing the double. Stewart, Hornish and Robby Gordon. It’s not worth changing the start time of the 500 just to accommodate a few drivers. Robby and Sam should be running Indy cars full time any ways and I think that Stewart’s days of doing the double are over even if they moved the start time of the 500 up. So to me, this is much to do about nothing.
.jpg)
| 
|