Anyone else watch this? I caught mostly the last hour, and it was actually pretty good drama with guys getting in and out and back in or just near missing down to last trial going down in flames as the closing gun went off.
It didn't really occur to me watching, but reading coverage afterwards pointed out how there still weren't that many drivers involved despite the CART/IRL merger - there were only 3 drivers actually in cars who didn't make it at the end. I'm thinking it's going to stay that way unless the economics change. There's more regular drivers now, but I think that just pushes out the teams on a one-race shoestring budgets who can only afford to qualify if they know they'll be making the field. If NASCAR took the Indy week off (moved the 600 to some other weekend), and enough of the ex-IRL guys came over (with their sponsors) and qualified strong enough to put the IRL regulars in trouble enough to change the whole formula, then you have a really active bump day. But unless IRL gets up to a lot more regulars (which it's not), it's probably going to remain how it's been.
Not that how it was was bad. 6 drivers for 3 spots is a lot better than recent years where it's been more like 2 drivers for one spot or six hours of IRL people pretending Tony Stewart is going to try to qualify at the last moment.
I had it on (and the hoops AND the hockey) but wasn't paying a lot of attention, but taped and later burned through the last hour. It always seems like when I watch Bump Day, it's either a lot of "it's raining, nobody's going to get the chance" or it's kinda like today was. The fact that this was the first post-merger Indy 500 had completely escaped me until it was mentioned (almost in passing) during the commentary. NASCAR will never give up the Coca-Cola 600 so what we *really* need are more Robby Gordons, but we didn't even get the bona fide Robby Gordon this year.
I was happy Lazier made it but had no feelings for any of the other folks involved - well, I take that back, I would rather have seen Foyt IV in the show than not in the show. I can't care whether, say, Roger Yasukawa was in or out; he's not going to matter when it's all said and done. That applies to most of these guys. Marty Roth should try really hard to not take away 32nd or 33rd from Sarah Fisher and Milka Duno.
Everybody root for Symantec-sponsored Tomas Scheckter!
Originally posted by thecubsfan If NASCAR took the Indy week off (moved the 600 to some other weekend), and enough of the ex-IRL guys came over (with their sponsors) and qualified strong enough to put the IRL regulars in trouble enough to change the whole formula, then you have a really active bump day. But unless IRL gets up to a lot more regulars (which it's not), it's probably going to remain how it's been.
NASCAR is never going to beg off on Memorial Day weekend, but if the folks at Indy could look beyond tradition for a minute and, either move back to a Sunday late morning start, or even a Monday late morning/early afternoon start, they'd get a lot of guys who would be willing to give the double another shot. At this point, they're really not competing with NASCAR, that idea was killed nearly dead when the series split originally happened, so why not work with NASCAR a little bit and get a little more star power back in the race. If Indy had a more favorible start time, I'd be willing to bet you'd get at least 5, maybe 10 guys who would give the double serious thought.
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