The IndyCar Conundrum

No motorsport event has the history and tradition of the 112-year-old Indianapolis 500. The 24 Hours of LeMans? Pfft. Only 100 years old. The Monaco Grand Prix? A baby, at only 95. Daytona 500? At 64, it can’t even collect Social Security. The only race that comes close is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which started in 1916 but doesn’t capture anywhere near the media coverage or public attendance of the 500.

On the surface, IndyCar racing looks healthy, even vibrant. There is an abundance of teams with an abundance of cars, and more drivers from all around the world who want to get into the series than there are seats for them to sit in.

The racing is top-notch, maybe the best of any series. When the green flag drops, there are about 15 drivers who have a legitimate chance of winning the race. You never really know who’s going to win, which is what makes it so exciting.

Compare that to Formula One where we pretty much know who’s going to win the race before it even gets started. In fact, we pretty much know who’s going to win the championship before the season starts.

And yet, Formula One is leaving IndyCar in the dust. Money is gushing into the series, while television viewership and spectator attendance are setting records. Six OEMs are involved in supplying engines to various teams, and remember, there are only 10 teams in the series. General Motors wants to become the seventh OEM if Formula One allows Andretti Autosport to join the club.

Meanwhile, Honda just warned IndyCar that it will no longer support the series as an engine supplier unless something is done to cut costs. The only other engine supplier is GM, and if GM does go into F1 it’s going to spend a fortune, which leaves its Indy commitment in question.

IndyCar has been trying to attract another engine manufacturer into the series for a number of years but with no success. That may not put the future of the series in jeopardy, but it’s very discouraging.

Here’s the problem: IndyCar is an American series that only races in North America, including one race in Canada. And the big sponsorship money wants global exposure, which is why F1 is so successful. Formula One competes in 22 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Sponsors love that international flair.

NASCAR is another U.S.-only series, but stock car racing dwarfs IndyCar in terms of driver recognition, race attendance, television audience and fan engagement. I won’t even try to explain NASCAR’s success.

One of IndyCar’s problems is its television coverage. The series has never been able to put a really good TV package together. Instead, it’s a mish-mash of broadcasting and streaming that jumps from one network to another. It’s hard to keep track. Practice and qualifying are streamed (if you want to pay extra for the streaming service), while the races are broadcast, mostly on cable. And none are well-promoted. Unless you’re a fan who follows IndyCar assiduously, you’ll easily miss most of the races.    

And the TV coverage is maddening. The racing is frequently interrupted by commercials, even at the most exciting or important junctures of the race. It’s a total buzzkill. Worse, they’ll take a commercial break and while the ads run, they’ll show you the racing in a postage-stamp-sized window where it’s often hard to see what’s happening.

After the commercial break, the announcers will tell you that you didn’t miss any of the action. But you know that they know that you know they’re lying.

Can you imagine football, basketball, soccer, hockey or whatever other sport breaking away for commercials in the middle of the action?  Can you even imagine them shrinking the screen down and doing their best to distract you from the action with the same ads that you’ve seen over and over and over again? The public uproar would be deafening.

Of course, IndyCar knows all about these problems. It has tried to sign up more races, including outside of North America. It has bargained to get a better television package. It has no doubt made plenty of presentations to deep-pocket sponsors. And it has visited a number of OEMs to try and get them to join the series as an engine supplier. In other words, IndyCar has not been sitting on its hands. But so far, it’s falling short.

McElroy SQUARE_21

So, what should that something be? Well, I’m not going to tell IndyCar how to run its business. The only advice I’ll offer is to remember the old Fisher Body motto: “When the strong arm fails, think your way to victory.”

John McElroy (pictured, above left) is the president of Blue Sky Productions, which produces “Autoline Daily” and “Autoline After Hours” on www.Autoline.tv and the Autoline Network on YouTube. The podcast “The Industry” is available on most podcast platforms.