Yes, it would be better to not use up most of August going to China. However, oval tracks (the ones that you and many, many other fans, myself somewhat included, are screaming need to be kept on the schedule) are requesting lower sanctioning fees. This is one avenue toward making that work. Yes, it will get little media coverage. Um, like 15 of the other 16 races on the schedule (seriously, ESPN only lowered itself to put anything about the Vegas race by Sunday morning of the race…IndyCar was freaking invisible there for thw whole week leading up, and the race was even on its parent network). Yes, street courses are boring. However, they routinely outdraw and outrate the ovals on the schedule (hey, I don’t get it either). Yes, we need better TV ratings. However, like I’ve tried to explain to you about 15 times in the last two years, there is no magic wand to make that happen. Not going to China isn’t going to result in instant 1.2s and 1.4s. However, the money earned by going over there could be put toward extra promotion, extra ads that feature the drivers, extra just about everything that could bring in more fans down the road. One more time: you tell me another way that IndyCar can pull in a payday like this is looking like it’s going to be in 2012. Not 2014, when hopefully better TV ratings are the rising tide floating all the IndyCar boats, not 2016, when the next car comes around (hopefully, again), 2012. The Series needs cash now. This is the best way to get it.

You do put forth an interesting list of sponsors there, but then are you saying that Randy and IndyCar a lying when they say stuff like “our sponsors want this race”? With the history of team owner led hissy fits from the last 12 months, I can assure you that if Randy is making this up, we will hear about it, loud and often (likely in the form of a Robin Miller column on SpeedTV, which would be posting just about any second now). Have you actually talked to anybody connected with any of IndyCar’s or any of the teams’ sponsors, or are you just guessing here? And again, I ask you, if the local government and/or local businesses (like the major local brewery there, which is hosting a beer festival that same weekend) are going to pay everybody’s way over there, give IndyCar as a whole a giant pallet of cash, make it as painless as possible for all the teams, financially, and allow the sanctioning body some leway when it comes to wheeling and dealing sanctioning fees at other tracks (including, possibly, some of the tracks that you bang on endlessly about wanting on the schedule, maybe?) who is IndyCar to turn down the money? And I’ll ask you one more time, where is IndyCar going to find a payday one half as lucrative as the one in China? If you can replace that check that is liable to sit in the high 7-figure range, then you have a valid argument. I’m all ears.

IndyCar didn’t just make up the whole “our sponsors want to be in China” thing. Nor did they probably get a request to go to China from one sponsor and say “all right! Get on Expedia and look for cheap tickets to Qingdao!” This is at the behest of MANY of the Series’ sponsors. The ones that IndyCar is trying to keep happy and keep in the Series long term.

Also, could you (and the other critics of the China race, for that matter) explain where else IndyCar can score $5-10 million (the rumored sanction fee, since Curt Cavin says it’s rumored to be in the region of 10 times higher than it is for a normal race) in one fell swoop? God forbid you HAVE to sit through a 2:00 AM race (to which I’ll again say, nobody is holding a gun to your head and making you IV drip Red Bull to stay awake) so that IndyCar can attempt to stay financially soluble for a whole season on the back of one single race. You don’t want to watch this race? Fine, there will be 16 others that you can watch.

Amen! That’s something that just needs to be said. And it’s something that too many “purists” are ignoring.

But I held that wish about the Australia race too, and for the same reasons. When there’s nothing to be done about a cancellation, what can you do?