Indycar Sponsorship War - BRUTAL (1 Viewer)

[The Counterfeiter]

If you think there have been bad feelings among NHRA team owners over sponsorship, wait until ya see this! Penske somehow lures (trying to be diplomatic here) Indycar title sponsor Izod away from Andretti Autosport.
And . . . Andretti Autosport Indy Lights sponsor AFS bails in search of an operation that can get them a viable entry in the 2011 Indy 500. Ouch!

AUTO-RACING - INDYCAR: IZOD Joins Team Penske -

Chris, Barry - I'd love to hear your take on this!

 

[Mike]

Jim, if you were a sponsor who would you want you name on? A Penske car or a Andretti car?

 

[BF]

If you think there have been bad feelings among NHRA team owners over sponsorship, wait until ya see this! Penske somehow lures (trying to be diplomatic here) Indycar title sponsor Izod away from Andretti Autosport.
And . . . Andretti Autosport Indy Lights sponsor AFS bails in search of an operation that can get them a viable entry in the 2011 Indy 500. Ouch!

AUTO-RACING - INDYCAR: IZOD Joins Team Penske -

Chris, Barry - I'd love to hear your take on this!

Here's my take, I wrote this on another message board. "The rich get richer and the series gets poorer." I guess if any sponsor wants to be on a winning car in the Indycar series they have to be with Penske or Ganassi. It is bad enough that only those five, soon to be six, cars are the only cars with a legitimate shot at a win every week. When they have all the sponsors too, there won't be many people showing up to see a six car race. My interest in all major motorsports has been killed by chases, countdowns, 1000', cot's...etc. I guess INDYCAR will have to be ruined for me too eventually. I have plans to keep going to the INDY 500 every year until at least the 100th running in 2016 (God willing). I hope the series isn't completely ruined by then.

 

[mick]

which kind of proves what i believe jim head has said in the past......
something to the effect he feels the pro classes in the nhra are possibly
the last opportunity in major USA motorsports for an independent to
actually have a chance to compete and possibly win along side much
greater funded efforts...........perfect example bob bode.

it is too bad the indy car series has struggled so much over the years; not
sure why they are so hell bent on keeping their ovals (it's what american's
perceive as racing i think); i would think they'd be much better off running
majority road courses, selling it hard to america and become a great driver
feeder to F1 - maybe even have struggling F1 drivers/teams looking at
the american series as an option...........america wants lead changes
and close finishes.........just once i'd like darrell waltrip to say,
'oh boogity, look at dat' gordon overtaking stewart!'

i know the series used to run more road courses, both permanent and street;
but thinking popularity of nascar thru 90's swayed the likes of tony george
and his IRL to mimic that style with open wheels; maybe it's time they
look at road courses again.

 

[BF]

There's passing on road courses? Oh, yeah, I forgot...plenty during green flag pit stops. They are about 50-50 road courses to ovals now. The problem is the ovals they run at for the most part and there is no American driver competitive in the series. Once upon a time (in their heyday) the INDY cars had a triple crown of 500 mile races. Those were the days.

 

[DrRocket]

There are very good, historical reasons why America has favored ovals, while Europeans have always favored road courses. It goes way back, to the beginnings of auto racing around the world.

Here's a very good read as to why things turned out the way they did.