1) there was no mention of Detroit, or the rest of the schedule, at the indy 500. Plenty of yellow time and a 4 hour rain delay to advertise, but there was nothing. 2. 6 month off period, one race, then another month off. 3. If they don’t have Peacock they can’t even access the entire season. 4. Where are the Ovals bring back Pocono and Michigan. Triple crown.

This sport needs to advertise themselves as a racing series instead of just the “Indy 500” event and we need better scheduling to engage the fans and make sure they tune in for more! This sport has NO IDENTITY outside of the 500! (Also the Detroit GP sucks, we have Michigan)

Sting Ray Robb can only lead so many races David.... this is the boost we needed

I have always been frustrated with the lack of promotion of the other races. The Indy 500 is THE racing event in the US. Most of the other races are treated like a third tier monster truck event showing up at the county fairgrounds.

They need more high speed speedway races. If they still ran Pocono, Michigan, Texas, etc. I feel like that would generate more interest.

i remember the big 3 back in the 70s..Pocono-Indy-Ontario!

The first mistake is having Detroit right after the 500. Going from 220 mph, wheel-to-wheel racing to tooling around streets designed for buses and taxicabs is the opposite of compelling. Then they put the race on the USA network. Not everybody has cable, so you lose a lot of casual fans right there. As an "old-timer", I wish they would go back to running at Milwaukee the week after the 500, the way they used to, then a Saturday night race at Texas. Put Detroit back on Father's Day weekend, where it was in the '90s. Then later in the season, return to Michigan Speedway in late July or early August for a 500-mile race. I know times are different than they were back then, but CART and NASCAR would both race at Michigan in the month of August, about two weeks apart, and the stands would be full for both races. The 500 was almost a "perfect storm" situation, with the long rain delay, pushing the race almost into prime time, and then the race that people tuned into was one for the ages. NASCAR had a perfect storm with the 1979 Daytona 500, which did as much as anything to propel it from what it had been, into what it became. IndyCar should be doing everything they can to build off of this year's 500.

It's the Kentucky Derby of open wheel racing. Casual fans only care about it once a year. You can't replicate the lore and tradition of 100+ years. It also helps that the IMS provides a thrilling and high-risk brand of racing.

Lift that ban forever some of us have kids , lives. I have been a Speedway IN resident for 52 years and alway tried to go but some residents cant go one reason or another. Lift the TV ban!!

Dave, you pretty much answered your own question. It's not one thing either. But here is something else. Years ago, Tony Kanaan made a statement on the difference between Brazilian sports fans and American sports fans. He said in Brazil, we have 2 sports. Football and racing. In America, you have so much going on the sports fan has a lot to choose from. Their attention spans are short and trends change rapidly.

Back on the day the next race after Indy was the next weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. It was heavily promoted as to see the same stars of the 500 in the Chicago market. It was routinely sold out. Same product racing on another oval builds momentum for the casual fan. Next race should be on a oval to grab the new/casual fans that watched the 500.

You are spot on with the overuse of Grand Prix. It makes them sound like knock off F1. More Ovals more balance between all 4 disciplines that make IndyCar great

Amazing idea with the slate of 500 mile races on superspeedway ovals! Season opener at homestead, and going to Michigan/kentucky/texas/chicagoland at different points through the season. That idea combined with having 5 street courses, 5 road courses, 5 short ovals, and 5 superspeedways would be a great recipe.

I remember when the Milwaukee Mile followed the 500. It was an exciting track and continued on with the idea of oval racing. Street races lack the side-by-side that makes racing true racing.

INDYCAR needs to get rid of all the breaks in the schedule

It sucks how there was no promotion for Detroit. I'm from Detroit and have been going for the past 4 years. It's sad

The interest is still high for a lot of us; in my opinion, our family still goes to ALL the OVALS. This year they lost Texas, but gained the Milwaukee mile. They lost “15 Ovals” in the past ten or twelve years… THAT is what is wrong with the Indy Car Series, in my opinion.

Need to re-establish the Triple-Crown and a High Stakes award for achieving it.

We need to get more of the casuals (or just Indy 500 fans) to be hard-core IndyCar fans. I have an idea more superspeedway ovals please. Also better promotion and marketing for all races would help. The 500 is awesome but IndyCar has so much more to offer.

Excellent point about the economy crash in 2008 damaged Indy500. The 2010s didn’t go the way we thought. Then 2020 happened. I wish IndyCar was more successful

My view about modern racing: It has become sponsor dominated--as with NASCAR. Drivers are expected to represent their sponsor by not being offensive, i.e. vanilla. Back then, the names of the drivers and even the owners were household personalities: Andretti, Foyt, Al and Bobby Unser, Rutherford, Andy Granitelli, etc. Even the same sponsors year in and year out became part of racing. How many people even care any more who sponsors a car? Back then, the drivers and owners had distinctive personalities which were part of the racing. My point, people might follow the drivers more than the racing: How did Foyt do this weekend? How many people could even name five drivers from the 500?

BRING. BACK. ALLLL. THE. SUPER SPEEDWAYS!!! Michigan, Texas, Pocono. My eyes just welled up thinking about it! 🥹 I miss Michigan soooo much!! 😩

i just remember Nigel Mansell, my boyhood racing idol :)

INDYCAR NEEDS MORE OVALS!

It took me awhile to warm up to road courses , but now I love the whole series .

You need: - Good marketing - A video game - „Great storytelling“ - More OEM - more races with standing: Bring back Texas, Michigan and Pocono (500‘s), Cleveland Roger does a great job and has to play catchup because of the years of underinvesting from Tony George

This is so true. I’m a member Purdues band and an avid racing fan. Many of my fellow bandmates wanted to just leave after the rain delay and not even watch the race or care about the race. I couldn’t understand why someone would attend the race and not watch. This analogy of the party that a race happens at makes so much sense.

Why?? Because they don't have hardly any oval track racing at all in the series. And if they ever have an oval track race they hardly ever promote it at all so fans will come out to whatever track it's at to watch it.

I think when you have a marquee race you have to accept, to some extent, that you'll always get way more people tuning in for that race. In Australia there's lots of people who barely even care about car racing who will tune in for the Bathurst 1000, and won't watch any other races (even before most other races moved to pay TV only). Lots of people watch Le Mans and won't watch any other WEC race. Even in other sports, a lot of people will watch a grand final/superbowl type event without having watched 1 minute the rest of the year. I don't think it's necessarily a "problem", people can only care about so many things in their lives and it's good that at least you can get people to tune in for that marquee event. That all being said, I absolutely agree with you that more superspeedway races are necessary. As a foreigner who never used to watch oval racing at all, it was superspeedways that got me in to indycar because of how unique and exciting that type of racing is. Pocono and Fontana were some of my favourite tracks to watch and it's a shame they went away.

Put it on free to air Worldwide! The amount of uproar when Sky said they were showing the race for free on KZfaq in Britain but then back tracked on it when there was the rain delay shows that there is an interest. Being on free to air would attract more sponsors due to a higher audience and the series would get more money through that than any "TV deal". A TV deal is not a deal for the fans! There are at least 10 different nationalities competing in the sport at any one time so putting it on free to air in those countries would gain an audience. Especially Mexico and Argentina. There is an appetite for motorsport there. In Mexico there are posters of Sergio Perez that cover the full height of ten story office blocks. Yet barely anyone knows Pato O'Ward. Even in his home city! I wouldn't have another 500 mile race before the Indy 500 because it woukd ruin the mystery of who might be able to win it. I would make sure there were at least 2 of them after that. Including one as the season finale. Indycar needs to develop a chassis or tyres that will work on the Nascar ovals so that an oval circuit doesn't have to choose between being a Nascar or an Indycar only circuit.

The people in the infield are the partiers but everyone in the stands is there for the race.

I go to St. Petersburg every year. Part of Indycar's problem is that it has completely become a B2B venture. It was a Friday. I was in the T1 stands. I listened to a sponsor rep explain to their guests in attendance that "These are the same cars, drivers and teams that run the Indy 500. We are they." I'd say about 2/3's of his group didn't understand what he meant. They didn't understand the concept of a racing series having a full season. They didn't know why anyone involved in the Indy 500 would bother showing up in St. Petersburg. One of them even asked, "Why isn't it an oval then?" These weren't idiots. They were guests who were given the VIP treatment by a company. They just had no interest in the series or the on track. They were there for the event, and the event in St Petersburg is solely about the on track. They were looking for a party and a race broke out.

David, it's a bloody shame that you missed out on Indycar in the 80s to mid 90s, prior to the war. Racing as it should be, so much fan and media interest...it was beginning to rival f1 in terms of global popularity. And yes, you're perfectly correct...as an American living in Europe the motor racing landscape is completely different. No need for the big gimmick, the big party. The racing speaks for itself....race after race.

The MX-5 Miata cup that travels with IMSA is total proof that spec racing can be way more exciting than F1 in every way. Multiple races a season usually end with like 3 wide dashes to the finish and the top 5 always battle each other swapping spots like it’s MotoGP

15:01. This is the most important point to me. There is no other racing as exciting as openwheelers on a superspeedway.

I’ve been telling people for a long time oval racing (especially super speedway racing) is what makes INDYCAR special. They should be capitalizing on that more in their marketing, branding and especially their scheduling.

It falls off because you dont have high speed ovals like you used to. Froget fan attendance its way more fun to see high banked ovals than short ovals and road courses

Pocono had a lot of the same qualities as the IMS for the cars and the race, but it couldn't draw a crowd either.

The problem is Indycar is only promoted on 1 network. Races use to be on multiple networks which meant that those networks would cross promote their upcoming races which in turn promoted the sport. Wide nets catch many fish, small nets catch few fish.

Simple - The extreme lack of Ovals and consistent dates of races.

Many excellent points. The reason the race is on USA network is NBC has to cover the French Open and Golf. Also back in the day ABC had to share coverage with ESPN. Finally if we increase this exponentially, many more people watch the Super Bowl than other NFL games. I still wish we had more ovals .

Texas is trying to get them back. Hopefully they can work out a new date that works for everyone. So sad if our home race doesn’t come back. Bring back the night race. That’d be something different than other races, and old school fans will be happy.

Got to go to my first 500 this year. Got a perfect view of the winning pass in turn 3. I definitely want to go again In terms of the rating drop-off, Indycar appears to have very little promotion outside of the 500. Indycar needs more marketing which will bring in more fans. Another thing that will help would be a console game, which I hope Iracing can do now that Motorsport games has lost the license.

It’s crazy the race after Indy isn’t on network tv. How is that not a stipulation of the tv deal?

The other problem is..... people don't fly halfway around the planet to see the Sonsio Grand Prix or the Detroit Grand Prix...... you need a whole event like the 500.... only thing close is Long Beach or the newcomer... Iowa with all the events

Why Does IndyCar Interest Fall Off After the Indy 500? Because IndyCar itself only cares about the Indy 500.

In My Opinion: Indycar has regressed back to the 1970s, where the series basically only exists to serve The Indianapolis 500 and the rest of the calendar doesn't get any promotion at all or limited promotion at best for events like St. Petersburg, Long Beach and the Iowa Double-Header. Combine the fact that what the fans saw at Indy racing-wise isn't going to be replicated anywhere else this year, plus the next race a week later is some sketchy street track in downtown Detroit that basically only exists because some General Motors executives wanted a race outside of their offices and... Yeah... I wish I had a genuine answer as a fix to this, but honestly? It's incredibly difficult to try and market racing to more and more fans of non-motorsport activities, as there's more of them out there now than actual motorsport enthusiasts. The Indy 500 is a race that's going to go on regardless if there's a series, but the party aspect and non-racing stuff being marketed so heavily is going to hurt the sport of Indycar racing long-term.

I think David your view is from an American prespective and you may need to look outside the box. I attended my first Indy 500 on Sunday with a tour group of about 50 kiwis. I am actually still in Indianapolis as we are staying on to watch New Zealand midget driver Michael Pickens compete in midget week and take in a few WOO races aswell. I also have attend Le Man's and the Bathurst 1000. My first impression of the Indy 500 was what I call the American culture of entertainment first. We came across many people who weren't educated on general motorsports and were clearly their for the party and entertainment factor. Up on the mountain at the Bathurst 1000 is very comparable to some who attend the indy 500, but at least up on the mountain at Bathurst mixed in with the alcoholic beverages, all the fans are motorsport knowledgeable and follow a driver or either Ford or Holden. The focus at the indy 500 needs to be in the drivers and motorsports more so Indycar. If you look outside of the US, Indycar has gained a larger following in New Zealand due to the 3 kiwis competing and Australia given Scott McLaughlins success in supercars and of course Will Power. In New Zealand Indycar races including practice, qualifying and the race are on live TV via Sky TV New Zealand. At indy there should have been a focus on the non American drivers including the country of origin. I thought it would have been cool to have had a Kiwi village set up onsite with Kiwi food being available, a pub and some rugby goal posts and a ball. Give American motorsport fans a taste of the Kiwi culture..Scott McLaughlin would be the first one their wearing an All Black rugby jersey walking around in shorts and jandels. It would have been awesome to have gone to an Agustin Canapino, Argentinean village and mix with some Argentinian fans... You could do the same for all the drivers who race under a different countries flag. Even at the Chill Bowl, Michael Pickens gets to walk around the track carrying the New Zealand flag at driver introductions. There are opportunities to make small changes at the indy 500 to make the overall experience better...

I’ve always thought David about Indycar coming here to the UK. At the British Grand Prix we get 400.000 people but for arguably the 2nd biggest motorsport event in the UK the BTCC you are getting tops 15k, if Indy came to brands hatch and trust me we want it, you would get 80k hardcore racing fans😊

The IRL "Indy Racing League", "Indy Cars". You have a racing sanctioning body that is focused and built around one track, one event, "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing". No small wonder why interest drops off substantially afterward. You've essentially built your entire league around one race. Can you imagine NASCAR calling itself the "Daytona Racing League", ."Daytona Cars" etc? I don't know how you fix it without taking some of the shine off of the indy race, which frankly, I absolutely love for all the reasons you point out. I'll bwager there are casual fans that do not realize there is an indy car season!

I may misunderstand what you mean by party, but I’m going to push back on the idea that 70% of the people at the Indy 500 are there for the party. Are most people there with friends, throwing back some cold ones, enjoying themselves at the race… Sure. But they are keeping up with the race. In the section that I was in - section A - I would say 90% of the people around me stayed in their seats the entire race. Plus for many families and friends there’s a decades long tradition of going to the Indianapolis 500. But as you said, it is a unique event. I agree with a person who said that it is like the Kentucky Derby. I watch the Kentucky Derby and don’t watch any other horse race the entire year. Many people are like that about the Indy 500..

Still the only non gimmick 500 mile race in American motorsports. This was a real finish.

As someone who has been in the stands for 35 Indy 500s and was raised there, I can say that yes, the feeling around town was more all-encompassing in the 1970s and 1980s than today - half the TV and radio commercials involved racing, all gas stations had Welcome Race Fans banners, one local news channel spent the last 15 minutes of an hour newscast at IMS - but there were still plenty of fans at the race who didn’t follow it (especially in the infield) or were Indy 500-only fans. I think that percentage actually has dropped with the reduction of the infield crowd. Most of the people in our part of the track had on auto racing themed merch and followed the race. I have relatives, including my mother, who will listen to the race, follow everything all month, but won’t or might watch other IndyCar races. Why? Because it’s the Indianapolis Damn 500. It is The Super Bowl of auto racing. Just as you have people who’ll watch on Super Sunday but not Game 9 in November, people will watch this race but not Michigan (when they ran there) or Road America. Going to bet there was significant dropoff between the Indy 500 and Milwaukee back in the day.

1 key attribute to the draw for the 500 that I have heard is the build up and fanfare for the pre-race festivities. The Purdue band, driver introductions, the delivery of the American flag, singing Back Home Again in Indiana, and more mean a LOT for the larger central Indiana area. It’s an identity that hundreds of thousands of people claim which cannot be replicated at Mid-Ohio, Toronto, or Gateway.

My 2 cents: I live within 3 hours of 3 tracks that host races. I cannot recall the last time I saw a race advertised other than Indy.

Interesting, I'm a very new Indycar fan (2021) living outside of the US, I'm getting the idea they're trying to be more like F1 but doing it in a bit wrong way that they don't get the interest of the F1 fan and lose a bit of their identity. When I got into racing (2019) I always thought the idea of oval racing was dumb and boring, now I think the oval races are the best.

I'm a big race fan. Grew up with IRL and CART and I don't care about Detroit. I don't care about majority of today's Indycar schedule. If we had more ovals then it would be a different story. It would be great to have Michigan 500 as US 500 again and put it around 4th of July!

Bring back the U.S. 500 at Michigan and run it 4th of July weekend.

Ik some people won’t agree with me but my wish list for the IRL is this 1. Bring back the Ovals, especially the triple crown 500 mile races 2. Bring back the exciting stories of stock block engines vs race engines & the different chassis makers (allow like 3-4 brands such as Dallara, Lola, Panoz, & McLaren to list a few) 3. Find a new network outside of ABC/NBC. They need to try Fox, ESPN, or TNT/TBS 4. Stop the Street courses or some of them & instead promote the dedicated road course circuits 5. F1 & IndyCar should do a race together on the same weekend @ the same circuit like how the Nascar Trucks & IndyCars do (or did) at Texas to help bring fans to the IndyCars

I was at the Indy 500 in the late 80s and 90s; it was always a PARTY where the race happened to happen. The fans were not like Nascar fans. They were fallen down drunk, all the time. The golf course was a public outdoor pee course. And that was true in the golden era. The golden era was Michael Andretti vs Al Unser Jr.

As a Hoosier who has been to The Brickyard 400 and several instances of 'The greatest spectacle in traffic jams' Lifting the broadcast ban definitely had me tuning in. If I'm going to the race, I'm going to the race. I've never based my decision on whether it was on TV or not... This is a relic of closed circuit TV, Ali-vs-Frazier era. Watching the rest of David's video, I guess I kind of missed the point, but I don't like being race-blocked.

IC is literally nothing without the 500.

I think your point is valid. I think in terms of packaging, there is more that can happen. In the 1990s, there was the magic of the commentary of Uncle Bobby and Sam Posey. In terms of "The Party Thing" Indycar needs Walkins Glenn. Indycar also needs Milwaukee to be treated more than just another race. There is more, but what needs to happen here is slow managed growth. I wish this could happen tomorrow, but no.

I have great seats in Turn 3 and watch the Snake Pit event. I do not know if this occurs every year, but the Snake Pit concluded well before the race ended (maybe lap 150). The crowd dispersed and likely enjoyed the race during its final laps. I think the Snake Pit event is a big, big win. More profit is what drives IMS' steady improvements. It is a microcosm within a macrocosm.

The old triple crown days, if Pocono wasn’t so dangerous I’d love to see Michigan and Pocono with 500 mile events.

Triple Crown and Texas 500k and a 400 mile race. Oval racing would be Great !.

Indycar blows my mind with how bad they do at marketing themselves. It’s so bad it almost feels purposeful. Market yourself, add 3 more races to the schedule, and get rid off all the in-season breaks.

We need like in the 90s, have the next race be a short oval to keep up the oval racing intrigue.

I attended my 33rd Indy500. I can say from my group of 15 that we met up with for the 500 you have a great point. Of the 15, 4 at most follow the series. My son and I went to Long Beach. Five people attended the GP. 3 attended the 500 because of the tradition that left with 70 laps to go, and we had 4 first timers. Im guessing 3 will watch Detroit this weekend.

It's the old USAC issue of the Indy 500 and the 7 dwarfs. And the CART/IRL issue of Long Beach race day attendance: 98,000 TV: 69,000. Nobody is watching. And my solution has always been simple: TV should reflect the fanbase. EX: Most people walk around in jeans. Not Hugo Boss. Great content, keep going, DL.

I'll dive in here with some comments and yes this might get a bit long winded. I've been following motorsports since the 1960s and was directly involved from 1977 through 2003 and watched Champ Car/Indy Car racing as it climbed and then plummeted. First off, there do need to be more 500 mile races on the schedule and a 500 mile race HAS TO BE on a "Super Speedway" -- which means a track of 2 miles or more! How many of these are left? Fontana has been trashed, but what other tracks are still available? Is St Louis still standing? Michigan, Homestead, what others? Getting back to a "Triple Crown" series within the overall series. These cars shouldn't be racing on anything less than 1.5 mile tracks, they're just to darned fast for a one mile track. Get back to multiple chassis! Have a set of specifications and put them out there for everyone. I well remember the days when there were three or four chassis at the track. Also multiple engine manufacturers. Here is your displacement maximum, here is your turbo boost limit -- series owned pop-off valves can easily control the usable boost. Go so far as to GIVE a series owned pop-off valve to ANY manufacturer that is interested in building an engine -- they aren't going to alter the valve, because they'd only hurt those using their engine to do so. The engine leases are here to stay, face it, after Pat Patrick passed the Illmore engine off to Alfa Romeo, no engine manufacturer is going to let their product off of a VERY SHORT leash -- it's unfortunate, but true! Television coverage? Get as many of the races as possible back on over-the-air broadcasting. Many people have cut the cable/satellite umbilical, the cost is getting too high. And try to get as many races as possible on ONE network, so they sell the entire season to one network, which makes it worth their while to promote the series! Speaking of "the season", push the schedule up to 16 to 20 races. They had this many races and it was successful enough that F-1 was threatened by it! Tony George wanted HIS race to be the center of everything and look where that took the series. At the same time, re-arrange the type of racing. Three or four (max) street races, and split the rest evenly between ovals and permanent road courses. Having said that, it's an unfortunate truth that the number of race fans across the country has dropped, there are just too many other diversions for our free time. I'm saying this as one that spent 28 years involved in motor sports on the inside, as an official with the S.C.C.A. (20 years) and C.A.R.T./Champ Car (18 years), so I have an obvious bias towards road racing. But, street courses are generally too tight for good racing (look at Monaco this year for an example); A good oval race, provides some high speed wheel to wheel racing; a permanent road course provides for some serious "hero" style late dive passing (look at Laguna Seca, Road America and Mid-Ohio). Shoot for a MAXIMUM of three weeks between any two races. Slipping the Indy Grand Prix a week ahead of Indy qualifying is a great lead in to the 500! Put on a local media blitz in the market area for each race two months and then again three weeks prior in each market area. These are just some ideas. The fact is, Indy Car/Champ Car racing was REALLY big before, it should be possible to get there again. Yes Indy is a crown jewel of the series, but it shouldn't be at the cost of the rest of the series! perhaps also include the "Triple Crown" 500 mile series and the Road Racing series (w/o the street races) as two other series within the series and bring back the manufacturer's and engine championships as well.

I wish indycars would come back to australia .indycar on the gold coast in the old days we had indycar nascar and v8 supercars in the same race weekend .its was a great race weekend

Different manufacturers with different engine styles would be ideal. V8 Chevy vs v6 Ford vs hybrid 4 cylinder Honda with all cars having a max HP of 700. NASCAR also needs this

Maybe move Texas or Milwaukee back to the weekend after the 500. Indycar also needs a few super-speedways not just Indy.

Great points David. As a Canadian I head to Toronto for the race every year. When I attended my first (then Molson Indy) was to see in person the cars and drivers of the Indy 500. I appreciate it has always been marketed on 'Indy'. It wasn't the Toronto Grand Prix ... it was the Molson Indy, now Honda Indy Toronto. And yes, more 500s please. If not Indy, Michigan, Pocono then Indy, Homestead and Nashville SS or Michigan or Texas or wherever. But lean into and market the 'Indy' more.

I went for the 'happening' aspect in 2017, and now im a huge motorsports fan

I just got back from my first Indy 500, which was absolutely incredible. I've also been to the last two Detroit Grand Prix. The casual fan doesn't care about the Indy 500, nor do they need to. Promote other races as a fun experience for everyone - especially for those who don't follow motorsport. I think more people would enjoy motorsport if they felt welcomed.

We’re an Indy family, and we brought about 7 teens who never been to a race before this year. Well everyone of these kids are already asking about next year. There is something in the air, at the 500. It’s really a beautiful thing

Most intriguing thing for me is the fear aspect of Indy 500. The scariest most on edge race to watch ever period.

Indycar is unique compared to its closest competitions in that its biggest prize is not the series championship. The Daytona 500 for NASCAR and Monaco for F1 are marquee events for their respective series but I can't imagine that their drivers would say winning those races is a bigger deal than winning the championship. If there was a way to place more emphasis on the season-long championship without diminishing the importance of the Indy 500, that'd get more people to tune into the other 16 races.

Why did they not advertise upcoming races, talk about the calendar, the championship at all during the broadcast? And there was so much social media content leading up to and after the 500, but radio silence for every other race.

Not too hard to figure out. In the 5 1/2 hour pre-race show was there: -A graphic showing the entire Indycar 2024 schedule? No. -A highlights package showing the action from the first 5 races of the season ( and, yes, show the crashes for those who only watch for those) and showing the race winner on the podium with their name on the screen to increase name and face recognition? No. -A graphic showing the point standings after the first four events? No. -An interview with the points leader talking about how the SEASON is going for them and what their confidence level of keeping up their winning ways for the SEASON? No. -Then an interview with driver in second place in points asking what it will take for the rest of the SEASON to catch the points leader? No. -Any ads during the commercial breaks for the next race in Detroit? No. -Any graphics for the next race in Detroit during the race? Only in the last 30 seconds of the broadcast. -Any live read by Diffey during the race saying, "Hey fans, if you like what you see, good news, there's another race next Sunday!" No. It's well and good to show live points during the race and the points standings after the race, but it doesn't do any good IF YOU DON'T SET THE TABLE BEFORE THE RACE AND EXPLAIN TO THE CASUAL VIEWER WHAT IT MEANS! Is it written in the TV contact that the SERIES can't be talked about at all during the Indy 500 coverage? (Dare I say, ABC did a better job of promoting the series and the race following the 500 than NBC does.) In your interview with Pato two years ago, he mentions people asking what he does for a living and he tells them - Indycar driver. And they reply with, "that's only one race, right?" If you don't talk about the SERIES when you have the largest TV audience of the year, HOW WILL THEY KNOW IT'S A SERIES AND NOT JUST ONE RACE AND THAT THERE IS SOMETHING TO COME BACK TO THE NEXT WEEK AND WEEKS AFTER THAT? Oh, and just watch - at Detroit, there will be a graphic showing the points standings going into the race within the first 5 minutes of the start of the broadcast. Something that couldn't be done in a rain delayed 5 1/2 pre-race show this year or the normal a 90 minute Indy 500 pre-race shows in the past few years. Update: In the FP1 session for Detroit on Peacock, we got the points standings AND the rest of the 2024 schedule within the first 10 minutes of the coverage. Update 2: So they decide to show a brief season highlights package from the first few races just before the Detroit race on USA network - but could not be bothered to do that before the 500 with the largest TV audience of the season. Unbelievable.

I've thought about this subject recently. It'd be nice to see IndyCar have a resurgence after an unreleased video game, off iRacing then returning back, Honda maybe leaving, charters + locked in Indy 500 spots, TV ratings decline (other than Indy 500), and a cheating push to pass scandal. Hopefully the new TV deal is good for fans and the series. Michigan > Belle Isle > Downtown Detroit. Belle Isle was overhated, underrated, and underappreciated.

I agree with the suggestions you made at the end. A different chassis and power plant would just be more interesting. Being able to hear and see the differences between manufacturers would be great. Have Oreca come and make a chassis and Dallara make their new chassis for Chevy. The ties are already their in IMSA.

The lack interest of Indycar after the 500 is because.. (inhale) EVERYONE INCLUDING THE TEAMS, THE DRIVERS, MEDIA AND DAVID LAND TELLS EVERYONE THAT THE INDY 500 IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN INDYCAR! No other serious series have a particular race as the biggest thing you can win, the drivers championship and the manufactures championship IS the most important thing! You will never hear Max Verstappen say that winning Monaco or Monza as more important than winning the F1 drivers championship.

Man, hearing you discuss Le Mans makes me remember my early yrs of 500 attendance (1991-1995) where is was exactly as you described Le Mans. I truly hate that the 500 is a party that has a race these days...... This thing used to be so great, sadly it's really lost everything it used to be, for me anyway. A great finish isn't enough to make up for that deficit.

I really do not understand why the IndyCar head honchos cannot understand how actually promoting its races and drivers throughout the season helps ratings, not just the 500

i don’t think i heard anything about the rest of the series throughout the race on sunday, not even mentions of results at barber or championship positions, let alone what’s coming up next.

Lets assume youre correct. If indycar wants to duplicate the 500 then they have to stop with the constant schedule and venue changes. Hard to establish history if venues are in and out every year. Also watching the 500, i dont recall seeing 1 commercial for detroit or 100 days to indy. Indycar cant even market itself properly

For my part, I am a fan of ovals. I don’t even watch street or road courses. I am only 4 miles from Kansas Speedway. When the Indy Racing League dropped all the ISC tracks ( Chicagoland, Kansas, California, Kentucky ), it broke my heart because I am not a NASCAR fan, especially the trucks (!) and that’s what is raced at Kansas now. That being said, Iowa is too short a track. I really miss Michigan…I watched a tremendous CART race there in the 90’s. I HATE that Indycar has become CART redux…more road races than ovals. CART went belly up then their drivers began to come over to the IRL. Oh, well, I can watch sprints and midgets on ovals. It’s just that I watch these cars for the speed and the skill of the drivers on ovals, and when they are on road or street courses, they go so slowly and can’t pass very much. Also…remember when they had the 3 race

Nice job articulating what we are all feeling. Hope Detroit puts on a banger. I just love this series. And want more of it!!

I agree with your suggestions, but just think; they can change car specs, locations, race duration, etc., but what I'm saying is that none of that matters if the viewing public never hears about the races. And I'm talking about my local experience; the L.A. market! Whoever is in charge of race promotion needs a stern talking to! Thank you for your attention to this, David; it's been infuriating me for years!

Back in the CART era, Indy drew about an 8 rating while the other races drew about a 2.5. They need at least one more 500 mile race. People complain about the IRL era, but some of those races were edge of your seat excitement. We now have the aeroscreen so it will be safer. Nothing wrong with this year's schedule if you were to add one or two more 500 mile races.

At the end you talked about Indycar getting closer to where they want to be. I have been wondering for awhile now, if Indycar really knows where they want to be.

I've been following IndyCar for fifty years. Nobody cares about IndyCar racing outside of the 500. Nobody can grasp the schedule and nobody knows where the races air. The Indy GP ran on a Saturday? WTF? It's only going to get worse when Honda leaves the sport.

I'm from Indianapolis and have been an IndyCar fan since the late '90s, during CART/IRL. Elementary school-aged me didn't know why there were two IndyCar Series back then, nor why only one raced at Indy. Along with NASCAR and dirt oval racing, I watched as much as I can of it on TV or in person since the turn of the century. It's my favorite type of car to drive in sim racing besides dirt oval. I've always thought of IndyCar as one of the most underrated auto racing series these days.

For me it's the constant commercials in race coverage. I can stomach it once a year for the 500, but outside of that there's only so many times I can go through the cycle of cut to commercial, followed by a Leigh Diffey vocal commercial read as soon as we return before I want to set fire to my TV. "While you were away" are the worst words in sport.

Someone (something) needs to be on top. The tradition of the Indy 500 makes it special and remarkable. Disappointing I will admit as I love all Indy car racing. But, there can be only one number one.

I mean we see a dropoff after the Daytona 500 but it's less than the Indy 500's dropoff because NASCAR actually promotes its other races, Indycar only promotes the 500

I think they need to change the name of the fast 12 and fast 6 to "Pole Dancing" that would help