Complaining about the presence of foreign drivers in Indycar is ignorant.

On top of that, what’s more American than a foreigner coming to the states and having success based on merit?

Indycar isn’t American enough? Bull. The fact that foreigners and native born drivers compete under equal rules with no consideration for their birthplace is to me the EPITOME of what’s American. And enforcing homogeneity as well as penalizing for success (a-la phantom yellows to reduce hard earned leads), is, to me, eminently unamerican. Which oddly enough are the hallmarks of the supposedly Mom & Apple Pie All-American race league.

Indycar and the Indianapolis 500 are the EPITOME of being American. And the all-inclusiveness of the series is a FEATURE of that.

Alberto Ascari 1952
Jack Brabham 1961
Jim Clark 1963
Billy Foster 1965
Graham Hill 1966
Jackie Stewart 1966
Denis Hulme 1967
Jochen Rindt 1967
David Hobbs 1971
Graham McRae 1973
Eldon Rasmussen 1975
Vern Schuppan 1976
Cliff Hugul 1977
Clay Regazzoni 1977
Dennis Firestone 1980

The late sixties averaged three to four foreign drivers each year. That doesn’t come close to today’s numbers, but you’re a bit off when you claim we don’t know our history. Maybe it’s just that we realized things have changed since the 1950′s and we also realize that those days aren’t coming back. Step away from the ledge and hop on board the train headed forward. There’s still plenty of room.

OK, what’s this tell us? Yes, obviously, the 500 has been less “American” since remergification. However, are you going to tell me that the 2004 through 2007 fields were better, and had more potential to grab fans because they sported the likes of Jon Herb, Jacques Lazier, Roger Yasukawa, Jeff Simmons, Larry Foyt, P.J. Jones and Robbie McGehee? Because to my mind, having people like Bourdais, de Silvestro, Power, Hinchcliffe, Barrichello and Pagenaud sounds like just as marketable a grid, if not moreso, than the ones we had just a few scant years ago. Very true, the grids back in the ’50s through the early ’80s were nearly the sole domain of American drivers, but for 90% of the American public, those races might as well have taken place a million years ago. The average SportsCenter watcher doesn’t know anything about that era, and doesn’t care.

I’m convinced that with hockey (with all those goofy Eastern Europeans and Sweedes and the like) regaining momentum in the American sporting landscape, and with the rise of the international players in the NBA, and with international sports like English Premier League soccer starting to catch on, most American sports fans don’t give a crap where somebody comes from. They just want to see a winner. Show me somebody who can consistently appear in the highlights on SportsCenter (which assumes that IndyCar actually appears there, which is a whole separate rant), and I’ll show you somebody who gains a following, regardless of where they were born.

Yes, look at all of those foreign-born drivers in the Indy 500 from 1950-1980. The field was just jammed packed with non-Americans.

Some of you don’t know your Indy 500 history very well. Its only duing the F1-junior series era of the Indy 500 (1990-today) that Indy has become less and less an American driver’s domain. Culminating with new record low’s for American participation in 2009, 2010, 2011 and again this year.

Some of you might not think it matters much, but your wrong. The lack of interest of this sport tells the story. And a big reason for it? Not American enough.

As long as there’s good racing, I don’t care what nationality they are. However, I think an American winning the Indy 500 would gain more media attention (particularly if its Andretti or Rahal)