I say this in all sincerity. I have thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every race I have ever been to, but I’m willing to bet that, for some of them, my enjoyment was not always shared by the television audience. The 1998 Grand Prix of Houston and the 2012 spring NASCAR race at Texas come to mind.

A lack of passing for the lead, Viso maintaining his position after totally losing grip on several occaisions, and a two-hour delay for track disintegration likely hurt the television audience’s opinion of the race far more than they did for those in attendance.

Honestly, if they put half the effort into _______ (insert U.S. track here) that they put into trying to pull off this boondoggle in China, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting 16 races onto the schedule.

More and more I get the feeling this series is devolving back into a spec and special interest series. What I mean by special interest is that it exists mainly for the benefit of ‘the few’–in this case the team owners. I do not pretend to be an insider, or know all the intricacies of costs, technology, etc., but I believe the main motivation behind teams even getting involved in this series is 80% the Indy 500 and the prestige/money to be made if someone should win it; and 20% just the love of racing and competition (the rest of the schedule). I do not get the sense that the owners truly give a rip about the fans. They may say that they do when interviewed on a broadcast for 10 seconds, but I seriously doubt they really care.

Though I would love to see variety in the cars (I loved the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s when there seemed to be genuine competition in getting an edge through design), and would love to see new aero kits deployed, I wonder if the ‘casual’ fan really cares. If they did, I don’t think NASCAR would be as popular, since their cars are all the same (except for the paint schemes-which I do believe have a strong appeal to kids). This aero kit variety may just matter to those of us that are dedicated fans of the sport.

I think they should go ahead and let someone develop alternative kits. As you say, they don’t have to buy them. My guess though, is if someone thought they’d have even the slightest advantage in using an alternative kit, and they might win that Indy 500, they’d be all over it. Then one has to wonder if the team owners are not following the lead of owners in the NBA, MLB, and NFL–who routinely decry the big, outrageous contracts given to players, then turn right around and hand out even bigger contracts when they have the chance to sign the “star”….

There’s a reason that Dan Gurney’s White Paper was more than a handful of quotes from Gurney, Penske, and Patrick printed in a National Speed Sport News column.
(This is simply an example of racing team owners making a cohesive official statement about their positions, not an attempt to make a point about either open-wheel split)

Fans familiar with American open-wheel’s history understandably do not trust the sport’s owners. Their failure or disinterest in communicating with fans exacerbates this lack of trust.

Allowing Dallara to exceed price points = bad thing. Breaking promises to fans = bad thing.

This series needs to start swimming instead of just keeping it’s head above water. At the top of a long list of improvements is aero kits, for many reasons including activation, recognition, publicity, competition etc. Maybe the owners are hoping Tony George will buy the aero kits for them.