Quick, name five IndyCar drivers not including Danica Patrick. You can’t without looking it up? Join the group.
Now, name 10 NASCAR drivers? A little easier?
Paul Tracy, 2003 ChampCar Series champion, said NASCAR is boring in an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.
“I can’t watch a NASCAR race on TV without taking a three-hour nap in the middle of it,” Tracy told Martin Rogers of Yahoo. “I have been to races. It is too long and too loud. I don’t really like it. NASCAR is having some trouble with its ratings because it just goes on for such a long time. The exciting part is just the last 25 or 30 laps. In [IndyCar], it is a race from the start to the finish.
“It is a different scene and a different culture. I like IndyCar a lot more and I think it is a better sport. I like that you can get a 500-mile race but that it is over in 2 hours, 45 minutes.”
Tracy didn’t stop there.
“They like to portray it as fan-friendly but it is virtually impossible to get a garage pass and the access for the everyday, regular fan is not there.
“For us it is different, fans can see a car and a driver and shake a driver’s hand; the paddock is open. The fans can be three feet from the car and mingle with their favorite driver and that is what makes Indy cool. You can’t do that in NASCAR,” he said.
Now, name 10 NASCAR drivers? A little easier?
Paul Tracy, 2003 ChampCar Series champion, said NASCAR is boring in an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.
“I can’t watch a NASCAR race on TV without taking a three-hour nap in the middle of it,” Tracy told Martin Rogers of Yahoo. “I have been to races. It is too long and too loud. I don’t really like it. NASCAR is having some trouble with its ratings because it just goes on for such a long time. The exciting part is just the last 25 or 30 laps. In [IndyCar], it is a race from the start to the finish.
“It is a different scene and a different culture. I like IndyCar a lot more and I think it is a better sport. I like that you can get a 500-mile race but that it is over in 2 hours, 45 minutes.”
Tracy didn’t stop there.
“They like to portray it as fan-friendly but it is virtually impossible to get a garage pass and the access for the everyday, regular fan is not there.
“For us it is different, fans can see a car and a driver and shake a driver’s hand; the paddock is open. The fans can be three feet from the car and mingle with their favorite driver and that is what makes Indy cool. You can’t do that in NASCAR,” he said.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area is partially viewable to fans of NASCAR
I’ll agree. It is hard for fans to walk around the garage area, but places like Las Vegas and Daytona are very fan friendly in the garage area. NASCAR fans can see what their favorite teams are up almost year-round by touring their facilities or museums.
But if NASCAR allowed the hundreds of thousands of fans that come to a place like Indianapolis to walk around and talk to drivers, there were never be time for practice or qualifying, let alone a race.
If anyone was allowed to walk around the NASCAR car garage, nothing would ever get done
And NASCAR fans (like myself) are very loyal to the sport, and to certain drivers. Tracy thinks this makes NASCAR contrived.
“NASCAR knows how to pump things up for its fanbase,” Tracy said. “Drivers [in IndyCar] get in arguments and it gets handled more quietly and internally. In NASCAR, they play it up and make a huge deal out of it and have these rivalries that come up which are perhaps not as big and what they would like you to think.”
Maybe that’s why NASCAR is so popular, and in fact, is the nation’s second most popular sport behind the NFL. Where’s IndyCar on that list? Does it even make the top ten?
Paul Tracy should probably think before he talks. Because he just made himself look awfully silly. See if any NASCAR fans ever root for him again.
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