Tommy_Crash - 07 November 2009 01:20 PM

I'm not the most ardent Danica supporter but I expect that she will do fine, be in top flight equipment (which she has seldom had in her IRL career) and be well supported.

Contrary to NASCAR's "party line" - it's not terribly difficult to drive a stock car, it's just difficult to do so with a top team. C'mon how many years have drivers like David Stremme, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears (one win between them) had jobs?

WHAT??

springfield_mile - 07 November 2009 09:28 PM

Floridatone - 07 November 2009 09:03 PM

springfield_mile - 07 November 2009 07:01 PM

bythebay - 07 November 2009 03:47 PM

Tommy_Crash - 07 November 2009 01:20 PM

I'm not the most ardent Danica supporter but I expect that she will do fine, be in top flight equipment (which she has seldom had in her IRL career) and be well supported.

Contrary to NASCAR's "party line" - it's not terribly difficult to drive a stock car, it's just difficult to do so with a top team. C'mon how many years have drivers like David Stremme, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears (one win between them) had jobs?

Danica's equipment in the IRL with AGR has been" less than top flight"??????

Depends on what color glasses you see it through, as to how the equipment is judged.

The IRL has four cars and then its a fight to see who runs 5th, what a joke, sad to see OWR racing falling so far.

It's been falling for decades. No one want's to admit that fact.

I'll be the first to admit it, but I'm a little different than some here...I want it to succeed.

springfield_mile - 08 November 2009 12:56 PM

Floridatone - 08 November 2009 11:14 AM

springfield_mile - 08 November 2009 09:49 AM

Floridatone - 08 November 2009 07:23 AM

springfield_mile - 08 November 2009 06:48 AM

PLN_ Fan - 07 November 2009 10:07 PM

How did if fall, in the 80s and mid 90s when it was bigger than it ever was under USAC ?

I think the colored glasses remark cuts both ways.

Colored glasses do not blur the facts. All the while that NASCAR was growing, AOWR was shrinking.

Seeing eye dog, get one! if you think AOWR isn't fading you are past the colored glasses need and into I must be blind area. It's a one race show!

I don't need a seeing eye dog. I have seen this decline, hell I have lived through this decline. We have discussed the facts (clear facts at that) to the point of it like beating a dead horse. Those who want to look at things objectively will see the facts and see what really happended and those who don't will believe and post under false pretenses.

Sorry Mile wasn't meaning you, I have read your post find them much on point!

No problem Floridatone. Thanks for the compliment.

MontyBriscoe - 08 November 2009 08:39 PM

LOL at Earl. CART was doing okay, uh huh. Didn't get to many (any?) CART races back then? CART races rivaled F1, in the early nineties (particularly in '93 when Mansell came over as the defending World Champion. Bernie was worried). NASCAR was gaining but didn't surpass openwheel until '96, when Tony George started his toy series.

These are the earliest ratings I can find. Maybe someone else can find ratings from before 1996.

1996

CART Michigan - 1.8
CART Mid-Ohio - 1.8
CART Road America - 2.2

NASCAR Indianapolis - 4.3
NASCAR Watkins Glen - 4.5
NASCAR Michigan - 4.1

I have a hard time believing that CART had higher ratings in 1995 than NASCAR did.

http://www.autoracing1.com/Images/2004Misc/racer1997_10_42.jpg

Overev - 08 November 2009 09:05 PM

auntysquat - 07 November 2009 10:06 AM

trigun7469 - 06 November 2009 03:30 PM

Danica has been using sex appeal card for sometime ...

.... There is also the detail of becoming pregnant, that could be another blow in her racing career coffin.

In the IRL, the sex appeal card apparently did not result in a pregnancy. Are you suggesting that the part-time move to NASCAR will change that? Is her husband impotent? Are the men of NASCAR more virile than the boys she's been hanging around with?

Maybe she's without child because she's got balls. Big enough to give it a shot over there right in the face of all the naysayers. She has my support and best wishes for that reason alone.

I'm wondering how that sexy image will pan out over there. Laying across the fender of a stock car looking all that juicy wouldn't set to well with the female fans I'm thinking. I'd say those women could get a little testy with their men salivatng over a smoking hot Danica. JMO

Good point NASCAR has a large female fan base, not sure how Danica on the fender is going to go, it isn't like Go-Daddy is female friendly, unless they show some skin(not that I mind)

Sringfield,

You have a math issue.

Just because Nascar was growing, doesn't mean the top tier O/W was dropping. I can get a raise in pay, but that doesn't mean YOU got a pay cut.

HPD,

Nice. You picked the split year. That will show how well CART was doing from 1980-1995. By 1996, Nascar was already going strong.

HighPlainsDrifter - 08 November 2009 09:23 PM

MontyBriscoe - 08 November 2009 08:39 PM

LOL at Earl. CART was doing okay, uh huh. Didn't get to many (any?) CART races back then? CART races rivaled F1, in the early nineties (particularly in '93 when Mansell came over as the defending World Champion. Bernie was worried). NASCAR was gaining but didn't surpass openwheel until '96, when Tony George started his toy series.

These are the earliest ratings I can find. Maybe someone else can find ratings from before 1996.

1996

CART Michigan - 1.8
CART Mid-Ohio - 1.8
CART Road America - 2.2

NASCAR Indianapolis - 4.3
NASCAR Watkins Glen - 4.5
NASCAR Michigan - 4.1

I have a hard time believing that CART had higher ratings in 1995 than NASCAR did.

http://www.autoracing1.com/Images/2004Misc/racer1997_10_42.jpg

Heavyweight vs. heavyweight. Indy 500 vs Daytona 500, 1995:

'95 CART-supported Indy 500, 8.4 rating, Daytona 500 7.8 rating. It's not that difficult to fathom.

http://www.autoracing1.com/Archives/HotNews/2002/0408_0412.htm

BTW, I have a hard time believing the IRL ratings in '96 were much better than CART's ratings that season.

I didn't pick the split year. It's all I've been able to find. If you can find ratings for 1980-1995 I'd love to see them, as I am curious to see what they are.

My point was, given that in 1996 NASCAR had double the ratings of CART, it would suggest that NASCAR had surpassed CART several years before the split. This would be in contrast to the argument many have made that CART was ahead of NASCAR until the split.

Now, as for how well the 1996 ratings represent 1980-1995. You're suggesting that they aren't an accurate representation? I'm sure there was some decline as a result of the split, but I would also think that at that point 3 IRL races and not running at Indy would not have much of an affect on the ratings of a series that was supposedly rivaling F1.

MontyBriscoe - 08 November 2009 10:52 PM

Heavyweight vs. heavyweight. Indy 500 vs Daytona 500, 1995:

'95 CART-supported Indy 500, 8.4 rating, Daytona 500 7.8 rating. It's not that difficult to fathom.

http://www.autoracing1.com/Archives/HotNews/2002/0408_0412.htm

BTW, I have a hard time believing the IRL ratings in '96 were much better than CART's ratings that season.

Ok, so the biggest race in the world (which was already the biggest and drawing ratings in the high teens before CART), beat out NASCAR's biggest race. The rest of the NASCAR season however, had higher ratings.

I'm not arguing that the IRL's ratings were higher. Although if you look at my link, the 1996 IRL race at New Hampshire was on par with what CART was getting.

Now don't get me wrong. I very much love the CART era. I need 3 more races to have every CART race from 1990-2001, and I have half of the races from the 80's as well. I just think that many have a very emotional attachment and a romanticized view of that era.

Now, unless you can find the average CART ratings for '95, how do you know NASCAR's ratings eclipsed CART's for that season?

Now, I did read somewhere where NASCAR's average ratings for 33 races, in '95, was a 3.3. So, why would it be difficult to believe that CART's ratings were close to or on par with NASCAR's, that season? If attendance, at CART events in '95, were any indication, their average ratings should have been quite good, much better than those of the split-era ratings.