Desperate idiots always take desperate measures. The Indy Car season began with a great crowd, lots of sunshine, a full field of stars and remarkable, professional coverage on television, radio and the Internet. A malaise in broadcast coverage that had been getting progressively worse while being mangled by ESPN was eliminated with an extraordinary effort by Versus.
Unfortu
nately, the usual cast of cart-centric/Indy Car obsessed idiots lodged in 1995,
some with quaint little websites, apply inappropriate measurement criteria used years ago to proclaim the initial Versus race a failure. Oddly, no one connected with either Indy Car, Versus, partners, or anyone with even minimally firing synapses possess the same chicken little hysteria. The panic of imbeciles is simply not shared by those rooted in reality. In short, the people again portending doom for Indy Car racing are as crazy as megaphone wielding Georgetown Road preachers who impede my ingress to the 500 while shouting that the world is ending and I am going to hell.
I have a couple of suggestions for naysayers:
1. Grow up. It’s 2009 and Indy Racing has finally developed a comprehensive marketing plan that disseminates brand messaging intelligently across multiple platforms that is focused on building new fans.
2. If you are obsessed with measurement, compare apples to apples. Use measurement techniques relevant to 2009.
3. Be honest with yourselves. If you watch every millisecond of action, have Google alerts set to flash you whenever anything happens with Indy Car, and can’t stop discussing it, you are a fan. Admit it and enjoy it.
4. Stop being so vulgar. Most of your actions are a blight to the sport and few of you deserve the honor of being a fan.
Indy Car will not be going out of business. Fewer than 300,000 households on Versus is roughly what the NHL enjoys, and that league has enjoyed a lot of recent growth.
Defender of IndyCar 
Defender, you’re the man. This is basically the exact entry I was going to write when I get home from work today. Hell, I think I’m generally a pessimist, but I think people are freaking out WAY too much to Marksie’s report. The numbers are basically exactly what I expected.
Yeah, I totally agree that certain of the blogging community are going a little far. The way I see it, to hell with TV ratings! I would rather the IRL become a league that’s built on race attendance (60,000 at St. Pete is pretty damn good, if that’s true), with TV as a way of watching when you can’t drive 2,000 miles to watch a race. If you check the NHL, they have ultra-mediocre ratings, but they also have really, REALLY good crowds — especially for the teams that are doing well. Plus, they can draw 45,000 to Wrigley Field for their big event, so there’s no reason Idy won’t make it’s typical 300,000.
What we SHOULD be worrying about is the apparent fact that teams that want to race can’t get Dallaras. What’s Gian Paolo doing over there anyway? BUILD US SOME CARS!
The Series, the VS network, and sponsors had to know that the numbers would be down. Based on the reaction outside of the Crapwagoneers and those shaking in their shoes about GM and Chrysler, in essence those in the actual game, everyone seems to be pleased.
Furthermore, the hotwheels, if they make it into the stores, should put IRL sponsor’s paint in front of more faces than ever.
The reaction is typical of those who wish for something to fail.
You have to be the biggest hypocrite around. So no comparison’s are allowed to be made to last year’s numbers? Funny, you and all the other bootlickers from trackforum have a heyday pointing out decline’s in Nascar numbers when a race goes from network to cable from one year to the next. Just face it, your favorite series is a piece of crap that can’t get anything better than Versus for a TV partner. No matter how much BS you spew about Tony turning down an offer from NBC and turning away ESPN/ABC for more than 5 races, we all know they are on Versus because that is the best they could get.
Editor’s note: Whenever I refer to cart-centric idiots, this guy is one of the poster children.