Danica, Juan Pablo and Hornish (Oh My!)
A few disparate items and the mosaic they form:
1) Greg Biffle won’t be the only driver to lose a sponsor if Ameriquest fails - another subsidiary of the company sponsors Danica Patrick in the Indy Racing League. I don’t know how the economics of the IRL work but I’d hazard a guess that they’re dominated by that event that precedes the Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, by which time Danica’s primary sponsor may well have gone the way of all flesh.
2) Props to Juan Pablo Montoya for his first Nextel Cup top-5 finish in Atlanta last weekend. Evidence that success in NASCAR is attainable for F1 drivers, and that notwithstanding the affinity of some infield denizens for the Stars and Bars, foreign drivers are welcome. Relax, Juan Pablo, they’re just Skynyrd fans.
3) Defending Indy 500 champ Sam Hornish is toying with participating in the “other” Indianapolis race - NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.
What does it all mean? NASCAR’s higher profile and, more to the point, higher purses, are drawing talent away from other top-tier racing formats. Indy car racing never really recovered from the CART-IRL split that, at least temporarily, took the most famous drivers out of the Indy 500. The less said about the attempt to bring F1 racing the the US, the better. The long and short of it is that while alternate racing leagues may have had a fighting chance to displace NASCAR during the 1990s, they opted for self-immolation and now may be doomed to cede talent, popularity and money to stock car racing. It is easy to imagine the IRL (and to a lesser extent, F1) reduced to the status of developmental programs, if indeed they remain economically viable at all.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Well, perhaps if Isiah Thomas ever becomes available, he could do for those “lesser” leagues what he did for the CBA as its commissoner some years ago. You know… when he took over what had once been a reasonably successful operation, and drove it into extinction - before deciding to do the same in the NBA, one team at a time (Indiana, Toronto, and now the Knicks).
March 24th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Indeed. He’s the sporting world’s answer to Ted McGinley.