The 2008 Indycar series is over. What will you remember about this year and on a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate the season overall?

The end of the split. Now wait until 2011 for us to change anything for the better.

EarlofSpeed - 08 September 2008 07:32 AM

I think the season would grade out to a 6.75 out of 10. I saw alot of good things and things in the pipeline but it will take time. Hopefully, when 2011 rolls around the groundwork would have been laid and they will be ready to really jump up.

Your thoughts on the bad and the ugly?

Buellboy - 08 September 2008 06:53 AM

Ignore the folks who complain about "three-wide" racing. They are a minority whose opinions on the sport are governed by there hatred of IRL founder Tony George and/or there hatred for any oval racing not sanctioned by the former CART organization.

Maybe it has nothing to do with Tony George, is it possible that some people just don't like the product?

The good: Dixon and HCN were lights out. Most of the races were a battle for who was going to finish third.
Honda and Firestone produced excellent reliable engines and tires, and were able to supply the expanded field
Tony Cotman coming over to race control. I think he helped motivate Barnhart to make some difficult (but correct) calls.
Dario Franchitti returning in 2009. Even though he got jobbed losing his NASCAR ride. Plus Target re-upping their sponsorship for several more years.
Alex Tagliani getting a ride with Conquest for the last three races (and hopefully all of 2009).
Some good progress by the rookies like EJ Viso, Hideki Mutoh and even Mario Morias. Even though they're raw, they showed they belong in this series.
Fields of 28 cars were nice to see. Although I'm concerned about next year.
Two wins for NHL.
Multiple engine manufacturers interested in the next gen engine package, and the possible return of turbos. Having an open forum to discuss the configuration was a great move.
Adding more diversification to the schedule with more road and street courses.
Direct TV coming onboard as a series sponsor.
Track attendance seemed to be up. Not as much bare alluminum or red hats.
No serious injuries throughout the season.
Video feeds of practice and qualifying on Indycar.com
Briscoe overcoming some early season snafu's and getting some victories.
Penske rebounding from their hauler fire to win Sonoma.

The bad: Teams still having a difficult time finding sponsorship, and the ride buyers that brings to the series.
The announcing crews. By the end of the season you should be able to recognize who all the drivers are.
ESPN's lack of interest in promoting the series.
The new TV package - nuff said.
TV ratings.
Junquiera constantly throwing his team under the bus.
Dan Wheldon's teeth.
Danica's temper tantrums.
Calling ChampCar teams "Transition teams"
Refering to drivers like Wilson and Servia as "rookies"
Still no win for Vitor.
The lack of progress of Marco and Graham.
No ride for Paul Tracy, even though he's good enough for you to use him for attendance at Edmonton.
Surfer's as an exhibition race.
Matos in Indy Lights and not the IRL.
Fuel milage races.
The silly season shinanigans of Kanaan, Wheldon, Franchitti and Miera
The 2009 schedule.

The ugly: The way the mergification was handled.
The Dallara.
The incredible amount of suspension failures sending cars into the walls.
The disaster that is AGR.
Roth and Duno - the moving chicanes.
The huge advantage in equipment and aero that the big three have on ovals.
The crap equipment CC teams wound up with.
Gerry Forsythe and PT.
Craig Gore and Derreck Walker.
Gearbox failures that seemed to plague NHL and PKV on road courses.
Pack racing and cars not able to make a pass.

One more thing to the "Ugly" column.

SPEEDTV's inability to make this freakin' board work properly

indydude - 08 September 2008 07:12 AM

The good:

off the top of my head I can't think of any flying cars this year.
three wide for 3 laps
Amazing championship run by Scott Dixon
Former Champ Car teams were pretty competitive at Chicagoland
Unification and Dallara, Firestone, Honda, and Xtrac being able to handle it
Both NHL cars winning in what could be Paul Newman's last year

the bad:

three wide for 3 laps
no consistant challengers to the top 3
Danica's win really didn't have the effect I thought it would

the ugly:

three wide for 3 laps
the apparent return of pack racing at Chicagoland
the restart and following laps when Mario Moraes led the Indy 500
Marty's top ten qualifying efforts (makes him think he can drive)
Milka leading

Indy... I couldn't believe that you did 'connect' this one:
"Marty's top ten qualifying efforts (makes him think he can drive)
Milka leading (makes her think SHE can drive!) hehe

PandaTrueno - 07 September 2008 10:18 PM

The 2008 Indycar series is over. What will you remember about this year and on a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate the season overall?

2008 scored a 7 on the scale from 1 to 10.

The 2 things I'll remember about 2008:

1. End of the split - its about time.

2. Following (1) above, I learned just how much of the internet fanbase is a bunch of hypocritical and opinionated whiners. I fear no matter what Indycar does in the next few years, it will take fans years and years to get over thier hurt, anger, and pessimism. While I often think to myself that Tony George brought this all onto himself in his ham-fisted failed ability to work with the pre-exsisting success of CART, I now fear that fans themselves are the stumbling block to recovery. They're so used to infighting and throwing stones for the past 12 years that they seriously don't know how to stop.

Word of advise - let it all go guys. Just learn to enjoy the sport once again.

Good:

- Unification
- 3 different American winning in one season (long time this has happened since the split in either series)
- End of year progress by former Champ Car teams
- Combo of Power and Servia
- 300,000 at Indy
- Graham Rahal's 1st win
- TV deal that actually pays Indycar
- New and hopefully improve drivers in '09 (Doornbos and Dario...Tracy? Davidson? Conway? Lloyd?)
- Won some F1/NASCAR fans over to Indycar because unification

Bad:

- Tracy wasn't there for the last races
- Lack of funds for Letterman/Rahal to support second seat
- Less then great crowds at times
- Less then great TV ratings at times
- Lack of sponsorships for team and series

Ugly:

- Graham Rahal crashing by himself in the beginning, middle, and at the final race of the season
- Marco's havoc in the mid-seaon
- Duno, Roth, and the other less then okay drivers
- Danica's temper and rants - annoying after a while
- The engine and chassis
- Super speedways are super boring with this chassis/engine combo
- No passing or even challenging on road courses
- Australian race with no points? WTHeck?

The good ?

There ARE more cars, so when crashes happen, the field isn't so small so soon.
They are at least TALKING about turbo engines, when they were once consider a horrible thing, in the eye's of the IRL.

The bad ?

Most of it has already been covered in other posts. The part about those lists , in other peoples posts, is I don't think the series sees them as bad, and will do little to fix them.

Perhaps the "ugly" part is that it doesn't seem there is enough sponsor interest / money for any more teams than last year. While lots of people got happy about it, and postulated on the impending growth and popularity and participation, it doesn't seem any of that happened. The plan ? Not much. Hang on until 2011. Hope Versus makes the sport popular, when nothing will really change.

Good

Unification at last, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson, EJ Viso, Ryan Briscoe, more roadcourses/street circuits, more teams, more drivers, Sarah Fisher doing it her way, more competition.

Bad

The drama queen Danica, Meira getting the shaft, 1.5 mile cookie cutter tracks, Junky throwing his team under the bus more than once, Sears Point, Motegi/Long Beach split weekend

Ugly

Blocking, Marty Roth, AGR teammates not playing nice with each other, the Dallara chassis, this crap forum software

9-08-08, 7:42 pm