Comments on: The Slowest Silly Season In Years

By: Daniel R.

Daniel R. — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:59:21 +0000

I think the 22 teams that applied for TEAM funding give us the best idea of where silly season is going. The fact that Ganassi did not apply for a 4th car, but Penske applied for a 3rd tells me Briscoe has a better shot with his old ride than a new one. From what Curt Cavin has said, it seems additional cars at Dragon for Katherine Legge and some other team for EJ Viso are fairly likely. That should make car count 24, which would be a healthy number for the series.

By: Savage Henry

Savage Henry — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:07:27 +0000

To follow on some other points, it has to be very difficult to sell a potential sponsor on Indycar when nobody (outside of George) has talked about it for 4 months. Add in the .2 TV ratings and you have a near-impossible sale. It is kind of unnerving to have the top, big-name teams hanging back to see if any money shows up.

The series needs something to create a buzz. “Turbo” sounds great, but does anybody think that Indycar has a plan to make the most of it? I don’t. Hopefully the new brain trust is behind the scenes working up some boffo marketing blitz to capture the public interest. Unfortunately, I think that instead they’re sitting around waiting for their high-priced consultants to come back with the silver bullet. Those kind of consulting shops aren’t known for creativity or media savvy. Instead, they are known for org structures and accounting tricks.

Ok, I’m bummed now. When is the Daytona 24? I need to see some racing soon.

By: The Speedgeek

The Speedgeek — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:25:37 +0000

Just saw Curt Cavin’s post outlining 22 cars worth of teams have applied for the Leader’s Circle spots. Among those 22 cars were a TBD third Penske team (a landing spot for Briscoe or Roger trying to keep some other team from getting that cash somehow?) and a TBD second car at Coyne (be that Jakes or otherwise). Not included in that 22 were a 4th Andretti car (which I’d be sort of surprised to see as a full season effort, anyway, after the success of a consolidated 3-car operation last year), a second Dragon car (Katherine, we can all imagine) potential second cars at Schmidt/Hamilton, RLL or Foyt (be they part- or full-time, should they happen), or a potential 4th car at Ganassi (not that I see that happening, anyway).

So, just for the record there, we have 20 drivers confirmed for 2013 and potential seats for 8 more. Should even half of those “potentials” come to fruition, we’ll see a grid almost exactly the same size as what we saw last season. I think we can put off worrying about 15 car grids for another season or two…

On the other hand, point taken about being a slow off season. It’s sort of an interesting thought exercise to think about how IndyCar could be in the news for these few months, should Randy not have been fired, leaving a months long hole in the PR area while new folks are brought up to speed. Time will tell if that was a good idea or not (I think not, since I just have a very hard time imagining 2010-2012 going a whole lot smoother in anybody else’s hands), but changing horses midstream like that sure did IndyCar no favors in any aspect.

By: JohnMc

JohnMc — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:19:06 +0000

I agree with Tad, the teams should “each” have a marketing guy to call on potential sponsors. Frankly, the marketing dollars of a corporation like Mars is huge and 5 to 6 million is not much in the sheme of things budget wise. They just have to believe in it. Has anyone tried?

A question that I have is, if you give Chip the money to run his car does he still tell you what to do or can you chew HIS ass out? Just asking.

By: billytheskink

billytheskink — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:11:40 +0000

So it’s really more of a “sensible season”.

By: SkipinSC

SkipinSC — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:46:24 +0000

From what I am reading in many many blogs, “Turbo” had better not be a flop!

By: BP

BP — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:45:37 +0000

And …….. What if Ryan lands at Andretti and then wonder what Ryan could bring to Andretti technically from Penske ?

By: redcar

redcar — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:02:26 +0000

Not only a lack of driver news, but a lack of buzz about Indycar in general. I realize this is the slowest time of the year, but talk about falling off the map. I could see the new leadership at Indycar meeting for coffee and donuts each morning to reassure themselves that everything will be just fine when Turbo is released.

By: madtad1

madtad1 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:36 +0000

The slowness of the Silly Season brings us to something you are not really touching on, George: car count for 2013. Don’t really have a dog in this fight, but this is starting to look like an indictment of the “pay to play” process that has been evolving in IndyCar. I think we are going to have a fairly low car count this year.

What I mean is team’s are no longer bothering to try to secure sponsorships to fund their cars. The prevaling attitude seems to be, “eh, ya wanna drive? SHOW ME THE MONEY!!” (Yes, gratuitis Jerry Maguire moment) I can see telling a driver to bring some money with them, if for nothing else it shows the driver’s commitment to the sport. However, telling a driver “Hey go out and market yourself and bring me $6 million” is another matter entirely.

Imagine this scenario, “Hello, M&M Mars? Yes, my name is Conor Daly and I race in IndyCar and I need $6 million to sponsor my ride. Conor Daly. C-O-N-O-R…hello? Hello?”

When teams turn down an international star, who brought a lot of outside attention to the sport, telling him he needs to bring $4 million to be considered for a ride at all, that tells you all you need to know. How can some of the much less known drivers stand a chance?

Yes, the economy sucks and times are tough, but your team should have a marketing/sales person/team out there hustling for you. Sponsorships aren’t going to fall from the sky and having only 15 cars running around the tracks isn’t going to attract a large viewership or more sponsors either. The teams need to rethink how cars are funded so as to keep not only an attractive number of cars zooming around the tracks, but also how to have the best drivers in those cars.