IMO, that did peak more interest in both races. I'd like to see them be able to do this again some day.
Do you miss drivers running the double?
- Thread starter dpkimmel2001
- Start date
It did for me, now it is just the where's Danica show. Oh wait Just like NASCAR and JR, nevermind.
I wish people could run the double. I loved it. I always wanted to see what would happen if a Coke 600 driver won the race, and that is the only reason why I think they moved the start times to prevent it.
There are a couple things that happened with the start time, I don't believe a black helicopter was part of the equation.
For many years, we Hoosiers did not observe Daylight Saving Time, except for those misguided folks in Northwest Indiana who believe they are a part of Chicago, and some in the Southwest part of the state who believe they are a part of Kentucky.
This meant that in the winter time, we were on "New York" time and in the summer we were on "Chicago" time as most of the rest of the country would spring forward and fall back....with the exception of Arizona, and possibly Hawaii.
A couple years ago, our current Governor (not "my man" Mitch) brought the time issue before the state legislature, proposing to bring Indiana into the 21st Century and begin observing DST. Then came the argument over whether to go East time or Central time. It ended up that all of Indiana (save for those aforementioned folks) is now on Eastern (New York) time all year round.
This move effectively sliced an hour of "clock time" from between the races.
Secondly, in an effort for TeeVee and West Coast ratings, the race was moved an hour or so later in the day.
The combination of these two actions now makes it virtually impossible to get from Indy to Charlotte and do the double.
<dismount soapbox>
They could always move the race to any start time they wanted to accomidate, but if you dont believe Tony George thought of the "what if" if a Nascar guy won the 500 your mistaken. It would be an absolute disaster for that race if you had a Tony Stewart or a Robby Gordon (2 guys who are fully capable of winning the race in the right ride) winning the race, and then having to run from victory lane for the Coke 600. Plus what does that say for your series when a one off guy can come run your race and beat your regulars.
Dex, you know what they say about opinions. You have yours and I have mine. Enjoy Memorial Day in Canada.
I love Indiana. Before I moved to Joplin, I seriously thought about moving to Evansville...:right:
It would be nice if they would move the races further apart so drivers could run the double. It would spark more interest for both races. Remember Robbie had people that actually traveled to both races with him? That was cool...
Oh well. I don't think it will ever happen again. The broadcasters control too much of what's done in racing...:worried:
It would be nice if they would move the races further apart so drivers could run the double. It would spark more interest for both races. Remember Robbie had people that actually traveled to both races with him? That was cool...
Oh well. I don't think it will ever happen again. The broadcasters control too much of what's done in racing...:worried:
I agree with that. I think that the IRL is the loser in the current configuration of start times. The only thing that I can guess is that the later start time of the 500 award them more viewers on the west coast. Maybe the number of viewers that they gain by doing that outweighs the gain that they would have had from NASCAR viewers by someone running the double? I think that by eliminating many of the NASCAR viewers they also eliminate potential IRL fans.
