B&W at the Indy 500

I felt bad for the rookie mistake, but the overall race was a sleeper. It reminded me why I only watch Indy about once a year. NASCAR is so much more exciting. I had to laugh when it was "news" when a car got passed in the 500.

Part of the reason NASCAR has such a huge fan base is that it has always been a home grown sport compared to the world wide sport that Indy is. The old CART series was fun to watch, but ovals are only fun to watch when bumping is involved. The new Indy series only has a few road races and they are fun to watch, but the majority of the drivers really are not world class. Forumula One even got the the point that passing was so difficult that they went to the grooved tire to reduce traction.

I've been interested in watching the open wheel drivers take their shots in NASCAR. I'm a Juan Pablo Montoya fan and he's about the only one that's really been a success. AJ Almendinger (spelling?) is starting to be impressive as well. They are showing how difficult NASCAR really is. I do wish they had more road races.

Another interesting thing about open wheel vs. NASCAR is that while a NASCAR isn't as advanced with technology, there are a lot more changes to be made during a race to improve the cars handling. At Indy I saw a couple of wing adjustments, in Formula 1 nearly everything is electronic and they have to even require different tire compounds to make it interesting while NASCAR can adjust a ton of different things. Sometimes state of the art is limiting in actual practice.

One of the biggest things that the open wheel drivers have to learn in NASCAR is how to communicate what the car is doing to the crew chief for changes. This isn't required at the same level in open wheel where it's primarily a down force adjustment for speed or grip.

Open wheel racing hasn't been the same since the Indy League started and pushed CART out.